Perf Board Tutorial

I thought a tutorial on how to build on perfboard would be a good addition to the blog. There are lots of ways to do it, but this video shows how I do perf builds and how the perf layouts are designed to be built. I filmed this ages ago with great intentions, but it took me a year to get it fully edited (video editing is actually my day job and I'd rather build pedals or play with my kids when I get home instead of doing more editing lol). But better late than never! Enjoy.

Spaceman Effects Gemini III Dual Fuzz Generator

This week's Fuzz Friday layout happens to be the 500th layout on the blog! So for #500 it has to be something cool, so here's a really unique fuzz from Spaceman Effects–the Gemini III Dual Fuzz Generator. As the name implies, it has 2 sides: silicon and germanium. The Blend knob pans between the 2, and each side has a 3-way gain switch. I've laid it out for board mounted pots for a 125B with top mounted jacks.

It's a good idea to experiment with the transistors, especially on the germanium side. Here's some good alternatives from digi2t who traced it over on DIYSB:

Q1: Russian MP20B (hFE: 80-85)

Q2: Russian GT404 (hFE: 120-130)

Q3: Russian GT402 (hFE: 100-115)

Q5: BC109B or 2N3700 (hFE: mid 200s)

Q7: 2N5088

Also the 1nF cap near the input apparently really needs to be a polystyrene. YMMV

Carl Martin Crush Zone

Here's an interesting distortion from Carl Martin. It's similar to an Escobedo Punch-in-the-Face between 2 opamp stages. Board mounted pots and will fit nicely in a 1590B. FSB schematic here for reference.

Run Off Groove Ginger

The ROG Ginger is an amp emulator designed to sound like the classic Ampeg SB-12 Portaflex. So it's intended for bass, but sounds good with a guitar as well. Schematic, sound clips, and more info can be found in the ROG article. It's laid out for board mounted pots will fit easily in a 125B with top mounted jacks.

Kustom K200B Harmonic Clipper

Found this over on the Tone Report Weekly and thought I'd make a PCB/perf layout for Fuzz Friday. It's based on the fuzz unit in old Kustom K200B amps and utilized by John Fogerty of CCR. The first 2 transistor stages are from the original units, with a Escobedo Duente boost at the output as a gain recovery stage. A lot of the credit for adapting the original circuit into pedal form goes to a group of cool dudes on DIYSB (pinkjimiphoton, digi2t, and a few other I'm probably forgetting) with the Suzi-Q.

What the Wah?

Hadn't done a wah in a while and thought I'd do project where you can build several old school wah circuits on the same board. Many of the early wahs back in the late 60s were based on the original Thomas Organ CryBaby, and as a result many of them follow the same topology with a few value changes. Here's the schematic:

A lot of the original transistors used have a BCE pinout, so I've made 2 layouts: one for BCE and one for the more common CBE pinouts. Generally speaking your just need transistors in the 300-400 hFE range, however with many circuits, different transistors offer different flavors. So as always, socket and experiment.

What the Wah? Project

EWS Bass Mids Control

Here's another one for the bass players. It's a pretty handy EQ pedal from EWS. Originals come in a 1590a, and sadly I wasn't able to duplicate that here, but it will fit fine in a 1590B with board mounted pots. Originals have the Volume control as an internal trimmer, but I've moved that to a full sized pot for more control (and a newer version of this pedal has all 3 control externally as well, so maybe I'm on to something haha). Here's the schematic for reference.