Wampler Ecstasy

Here's another great overdrive from Wampler, with a wide range of tones to choose from. It has a simple 2-band EQ and a DPDT (on-off-on) switch to go between smooth clipping, no clipping, and hard clipping.

Dan Armstrong Green Ringer

Here's another Dan Armstrong effect. It's part ring modulator (when playing chords) and part octave (when playing on the neck pickup, high on the fretboard with the guitar tone control down). For the clearest octave effect, match the diodes as closely as possible for forward voltage. It might also be worth matching the 47nF caps and the 10K and 22K resistors.

Run Off Groove Umble

The Umble is the result of Brian Tremblay's (ROG) adaption the the mythical Dumble amplifier into a FET-based distortion box. I've drawn the layout for on board right angle PCB pots and added a 1N4001 diode for polarity protection. Should fit nicely in a 1590B. Check out the ROG article for more info.

Krank Distortus Maximus

This was a request. It's another 386-based distortion, similar in theory to the DAM Sonic Titan. Transistor-based "preamp" section which is amplified by the 386 "power" section, follwed by a 3-band tone stage on the output.

Dan Armstrong Blue Clipper

Here's a quicky for your Saturday. The Blue Clipper was one of the small effects units by Dan Armstrong that plugged straight into your guitar output jack. It uses one side of a JRC4558 to produce a basic distortion effect.

Marshall ShredMaster

Here's another one from Marshall's great pedal line from the early 90s. When it was released it was considered a high gain distortion, though probably wouldn't be categorized as such today. It was made famous by Thom Yorke and Jonny Greenwood from Radiohead and covers more than just shredder territory.

Jen Fuzz

Jen was an Italian manufacturer in the 60s and 70s that produced their own line of effects in addition to OEM stuff for other brands like Gretsch and Vox. This fuzz effect is essentially a Fuzz Face with an emitter follower up front and clipping diodes on the output. It produces a treble-heavy fuzz with a good bit of volume. Original transistors were BC238B for Q1-2 and a BC239C for Q3. Some schematics floating around call for 2N5088s, but shoot for transistors in the 200hFE range (2N2222, 2N3904, etc). This layout should fit in a 1590A, and if you drill the enclosure right, you could board-mount the pots using long-leg right angle PCB pots (mounted from the component side).