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Selected Schematics

This document provides summaries and links to schematics for building guitar effects pedals. It begins with several cautions about attempting pedal builds, such as the potential for mistakes in schematics and costs of building versus buying. The rest of the document lists specific pedal schematics from various designers, noting any known issues. It encourages evaluating schematics carefully and considering the complexity before deciding to build versus buy a particular effect.

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Andrew Roberts
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0% found this document useful (1 vote)
1K views24 pages

Selected Schematics

This document provides summaries and links to schematics for building guitar effects pedals. It begins with several cautions about attempting pedal builds, such as the potential for mistakes in schematics and costs of building versus buying. The rest of the document lists specific pedal schematics from various designers, noting any known issues. It encourages evaluating schematics carefully and considering the complexity before deciding to build versus buy a particular effect.

Uploaded by

Andrew Roberts
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
  • Caveats and Introduction
  • Selected Stompbox Schematics
  • Individual Pedal Reviews
  • Booster and Distortion Modules
  • EQ Circuits and Modulations
  • Additional Effects and Reviews

2/8/2020 Selected Schematics

Caveats
Permission is granted to link to the schematics on this page however I do not extend
permission to place copies of the schematics stored on this site on other sites. In other
words, you can link, but don't download and place them on your server and show them as
yours.
Before you go wild downloading these links and buying parts for the schematics listed below, there are a few
things you should know.

If you don't feel like reading yourself or helping yourself, you shouldn't pursue building your own
boxes. Read all the links you can before asking questions.
Some schematics on the Internet have mistakes. There is no way to know. I got caught by one of
these and it cost me a lot of time before I realized that the schematic was incorrect. You can protect
yourself from this by purchasing a solderless breadboard (also known as prototype board). These types
of boards make it easy to prototype a circuit and see if it works and how it sounds before you commit
to putting it on a perfboard where changes are not as easy to make. Unfortunately you still have to buy
the parts to prototype it even if it's a bad schematic :-(
Building a complete effect (with box, stomp switch) costs money. The components are cheap but the
box, stomp switch, pots, are expensive. If possible, go mail order for these parts. In many cases you
may be paying MORE than if you had purchased the unit.
YOU WILL MAKE MISTAKES. Prepare to take some time to debug your circuit. If you're the type
that's patient and can use this as a learning experience, great! If you don't like this sort of thing, don't
do it. Buy ready-made effects. Read R.G. Keen's Effect FAQ for more caveats.
Your stompbox could sound different from the original, especially if you don't use the
recommended parts or values. This is especially important when using certain types of transistors such
as FETs. Many times, even the brand and type matters, especially for capacitors!
Just purchase some of them, if you look at the schematic and it looks intensive, then perhaps you
should just buy the pedal. This goes for most delay type pedals unless you have a PCB. Hand-wiring is
just not appropriate for complex circuits. There is a coolness factor that is the box and name alone.
Another reason is that some of these manufacturers are really cool guys and care about their pedals.
Many hand-made pedals are simply great and there is a reason why they are so popular. If you value
your time and really can't afford to waste a lot of it, consider the reasonable prices of hand-made
pedals that are popular and selling. After you get past some of your mistakes and buy a bunch of parts,
$175 for a hand-wired pedal doesn't seem bad at all :-)

I encourage you to purchase pedals in production. If it's currently in


production and you can afford it, buy it.

Selected Stompbox Schematics


Note that not all of these schematics are guaranteed to work. Some may be completely wrong. A good
place to ask about effects is Ampage and alt.guitar.effects, a good newsgroup. I have added notes in red to
the schematics believed to have errors. Items confirmed by me or others have an OK! in green. This is not
meant to discourage you from trying the other schematics out, just that I haven't heard anything about them.

In very general terms, I would say that probably every schematic on Jack Orman's (AMZ) page is fine;
Keen's (GEO) page is excellent as well. Most of Justin Philpott's Site is excellent (he has an effects feedback
page), the one's that have verified problems have corrections noted so pay attention to the notes.

The schematics are listed by manufacturer or type or designer with the name of the stompbox and the web
site that it is located at. I encourage you to look through these great websites and learn more from the
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2/8/2020 Selected Schematics

excellent articles on them.

About the files:

Most are .gif or .jpg and can be viewed right away. The files with .pdf at the end need Adobe Acrobat
Reader. The files with .ps are Postscript files and need a Postscript Viewer. The files with .ps.Z are
compressed (I forget the format... tar?) they need to be uncompressed then viewed with the Posctscript
viewer. Stuffit Expander should work on these files.

A/B SwitchBoxes

Dual Preamp and A/B Box (Guitar Related Circuits)

ADA

MP-1 (The unoffical ADA MP-1 Preamp Website)

Ampeg

Scrambler PCB and Parts layout. (Guitars, amps and effects)

Arbiter

Fuzz Face (Guitar Related Circuits) OK! Check out this article on Guitars, Amps and Effects! Also a
modified Fuzz face from the same site. Check out my common asked questions page for where you
can get germanium transistors for this pedal. Here is an article on how to test those germaniums for use
in the Fuzz Face (GEO) Check out Oskar's Fuzz Face Tour.
Read my Fuzz Face notes regarding biasing and the 2N388A transistors.

For more mods to this circuit check out the Brit Face. (Plate to Plate)

Technology of the Fuzz Face - (GEO) Excellent article about the Fuzz Face.
Read the Small Bear Electronics "5F" - FAQ For Fuzz Face Fanatics.
Fuzz Face 99 - Check out this mutant. Updated 1/6/01
Octave-Face (Stellan's Schematics) - Great sounding octave distortion.
Trem Face - finally unveiled.

Aron Nelson - Circuit-Ware - not shareware, but something like it.

Lava Rim 2 - OK! The Lava Rim revisited. I realized the original Lava Rim sounds better than
the Lava Rim+! Here are my changes after a year. I think it sounds great! Sound samples available.

Key points about the Lava Rim 2, uses cheap readily available 2N3904 transistors, sounds good and
can get creamy - slightly compressed tones with the drive and input pot set low as well as nasty
heavier types of distortion. It's also very easy to build and easily adapts to germanium NPN transistors;
the trimpots really allow you to dial in a very good tone.

11/29/99 - The Lava Rim 2 is a versatile circuit! You can mix NPN germanium transistors and silicon transistors for a
unique sound. The trim pots let you use all types of transistors such as the 2N5088 for more distortion and gain. In addition,
the 2nd transistor can use a MOSFET like the 2N7000 or BS170! Just pop in the MOSFET, drain toward V+, source toward
ground and adjust the trim pot until you hear good tone! In addition, remove the diodes to really hear the MOSFET. Thanks to
Jack Orman for the tip on using a MOSFET for the 2nd transistor!
11/28/99 - to reduce some of the brightness of the pedal, you may want to put a capacitor (.001uF -> .01uF in parallel with the
clipping diodes).

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11/6/99 - revision 2 - added bounding pot to diodes for more control over diode distortion.

Hornet - OK! a germanium/silicon transistor hybrid Fuzz Face that screams! High gain, high
sustain, ANGRY, yet can get bluesy when your guitar pot is turned down. Minimalistic design that can
be "tuned" to perfection. Better watch out cause the Hornet will sting The Rocket! Sound sample
available.

The Hornet did not happen without the contributions of the usual netizens that help us so often.
Alfonso Hermida, GFR, Gus Smalley, Jack Orman, R.G. and others. Thank you guys!
From Jack Orman:

Since the supply of 2N388A transistors have been depleted at Parts Express, I thought I'd post a few
alternate devices
that they carry that can be used for F-F construction. Any of the below parts should be suitable and are
less than $1
each. The last one is spec-ed a little weak but would likely be okay. The first one is a good sub for the
2N388A.
Part No. Type Hfe Price
2N1306 NPN 100 $ .95
2N1308 NPN 150 $ .75
2N1309 PNP 150 $ .75
2N1373 PNP 60 $ .95

The NTE101 is another choice:


http://www.nteinc.com/specs/100to199/NTE101.html
11/8/00 Small Bear has a nice PNP version of the Hornet, check it out!

7/11/99 -
Notes: Not much to this circuit; the trimpots allow you to really tune in and adjust the circuit. Please
try the 2N388A transistors as they are dirt cheap (18 cents when bought in lots of 5 or more I think).
The 2N5088s can be readily found through Mouser. The rest is pretty much Radio Shack or your local
store. Convert to PNP transistors by changing the orientation of the lone 47uF electrolytic and
reversing the battery polarity. (The battery AND 47uF cap POSITIVE to ground).

Mods: The input cap is critical; for classic fat fuzz tones use 2.2uF to 10uF to larger! (you may
consider socketing it - I did) The output cap is less critical; I have found that .1uF is fine for me. The
.05uF that I use I have found to be very good because it changes the frequency response of my guitar
the least. I have around the same bass as when the unit is bypassed. The trimpots allow you to really
tune in the sound. Many shades of distortion will come out as you fool around and turn them. C? is a
high end rolloff cap, you can put .001 to .01 to larger values and hear what it does (socket this cap).
You can also put the usual 50K pot at the input BEFORE the input cap as described in the Technology
of the Fuzz Face - (GEO) Excellent article about the Fuzz Face.

You could also make the 1K resistor off of Q2's collector a 47K, then make the 100K trim a 47K and
tap the output off of the junction between the two. This will reduce your output level and make it a lot
tamer.

Insanity Box - OK! What can I say? I think it's one of the best boxes I have built and one of the
best ultra-hi-gain pedals I have heard. Thanks to Jack Orman for his wonderous circuit snippets, Frank
Clarke for his work into CMOS circuits and all the rest that helped out. What is the Insanity Box? Just
the pedal that delivers the high gain and sustain that I was looking for. I've been playing it for a while
and I still love it! Aggressive, distorted and sustained, it's got all the right stuff. Watch the G3 video
when you play through it! With the Insanity Box I start a new concept called Circuit-Ware. A variation
on shareware, I thought it up while playing a riff with the Insanity. Sound sample available.

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11/26/99 - Built another one and it works fine. I believe the previous circuit I built on 11/10/96 had
some type of bad voodoo in it. The schematic works and is fine. I didn't need the bias pot for the 2nd
one.
11/20/99 Revision 6 online. More cleaning up and fixed a mistake.
11/11/99 Revision 5a online. Jack cleaned up a few thing. Thanks!
11/10/99 Revision 5 online. Optional bias pot to stop gating effect of CMOS if you have the gating
problem when notes are decaying. You turn the pot until the gating is gone, measure the values of the
pot from wiper to lugs and then put in fixed resistors. I have to point out that this is an advanced
project. I built another one and it seemed pretty hard to build. So many things to keep track off. In
addition, I had to put in the bias control - I just put one bias pot and connected a 1Meg resistor from
each inverter input to the pot wiper. I ended with a 33K from 9V to the 1M resistors to inverter inputs,
then a 56K resistor to ground.

PCB Layout, Press and peel layout (TIF format) Thanks to John Catto!

11/5/99 Revision 4 online. The trim pot values are now listed. I measured them in circuit , with power
off.
11/3/99 Thanks to Jack Orman for pointing out errors and mods. The revised schematic (revision 2) is
now online.
Here is the pinout of the CD4049 chip. Here's more on the CD4049 from Jack Orman and GFR.

The Rocket, OK!a modification of Gus Smalley's 3 Transistor Fuzz I came up with. Build the 3
Transistor Fuzz and this one too! Screaming, smooth and rich. I call it the Rocket because once you
turn it on, you take off! Here's a picture of the inside of The Rocket. Sample of The Rocket in
RealAudio format. Transistor collector voltages: 8.4, 1.957, 3.199
A PCB of The Rocket is available from GEO!! For a very low cost, you can build this pedal! An
excellent beginner pedal to try! Listen to The Rocket then get yourself a board and go for it!

9/6/99 - I just built The Rocket using GEO's PCB. It was easy to create and gives very professional
results. A couple of mods as I played it through my Bassman and a 12" speaker:
Try substituting .047uF caps for both .01uF caps right after the buffer in the front. You can't miss them,
they are the only .01uF caps on the entire board. In addition, I really mellowed out the pedal by putting
a .2uF cap (two .1uF caps in parallel) instead of the .1uF in the tone control. Remember that if you use
caps larger than .1uF instead of the .01uF caps, you will have to increase the input cap value. Basically
two .01uF caps will give you a midrange heavy tone with some bass cut - nice and slicing. Anything
more will start giving you a smoother rounder tone and increase bass response.

Shaka Braddah - OK! (pronounced Shock - Ah - Brah Dah) Preliminary version. IC based distortion
with FET booster at end. When the drive knob is turned all the way down and level is up, you get a big
boost. Goes from a hint of distortion to flat out heavy gain. The diode combination I chose produces a
smooth nice distortion. I list a number of mods that you can make to the box. Put it on a proto board
and mod it till it does what you want! Thanks to Jack Orman for helping with the design and the FET
booster on the end!
Read the notes...
Shaka Braddah Mods by Doug Hammond. Check out the notes about the mods.

Shaka Express
A hi-gain pedal for the guys that want to rock!. The Shaka Express represents the top of the line Shaka
for hi-gain overdrive/distortion. The mid "bite" control gives your distortion "teeth" and the 3 FET
stages make sure every nuance comes out loud and clear. Step on this pedal and take the lead. PCB and
Layout available from GEO. Listen to a sample of the Shaka Express from sounds.ampage.org. JPEG
available for people that are PDF challenged :-)

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Shaka HV This one is for the guys that like more clean headroom and very little to medium
overdrive. When the drive is turned all the way down, you can a great good clean boost. Runs on 18
volts (2 batteries) and has much less drive than my usual pedals! Easy to build and sounds good. HV =
higher voltage. If you run it on 30 volts, then change the drive pot to a 500K.

The goal of the Shaka Braddah line is to make a pedal that can have tremendous boost into an
amp while preserving the tone of your equipment. The circuit should go from soft clipping all the
way to heavy overdrive. I believe the Shaka Braddah III achieves this goal.

Shaka Braddah III - OK! A new version of the Shaka Braddah (based on a circuit by
Jack Orman) that sounds very good. Creamy and smooth with some bite at lower drive settings.
Smooth and warm at high drive settings with the FET booster smoothing out the diodes. Check it out!
Sound sample available. Blake has another sound sample of his modded SB3.

The Shaka Braddah III was designed for you to be able to set the tone control (around 8-9 o'clock) to a
neutral setting and get a booster/distortion that can make your guitar sound hotter and more vibrant. In
addition, when the drive settings are turned up, it should sound like your amp is being cranked up.

Thanks to John Greene for the idea of using MOSFETs as diodes.

PCB Available for the Shaka Braddah III from GEO

Note that the parts placement .pdf file incorrectly lists a TL074 for the TL072 IC and a 0.047 instead
of .004 capacitor.

Mods to try: 3 or more 1N34a diodes in series on each side of the clipping section. Each diode that
you add will raise the clipping threshold and basically allow the Minibooster circuit to distort more
before the clipping diodes start adding their sound. What this means is that you will hear more of the
FETs before the diodes kick in. In a similar vein, I suppose that you could try 1N914 and 1N4148
diodes for their harsher sound and put then into the circuit. Since I socketed my clipping section, this
will be easy for me to try soon. I have tried different ICs (RC4558 and LF353) and although the LF353
sounded different, I still like the sound of the TL072 fine. Try adding the "softness" or clipping
threshold control noted in my Simple Mods page.

8/20/00 - Revised drawing. Fixed tone control, removed 100K trim etc....

12/9/99 - Please try different op amps in the Shaka 3 circuit. They make a rather large difference and
one that you can fool around with is the TS272CN (part number 511-TS272CN from Mouser). At 72
cents it's a cheap, fun mod. It radically changes the sound of the pedal. The pedal becomes more
midrange, distortion is radically different. More sustain at the expense of fidelity. Very interesting.

12/5/99 - If you like highs like I do, remove the 100K trimmer before the Minibooster and change the
10K trimmer on the source of the Minibooster to a 4.7K - that's enough of a trimmer to reduce gain on
the Minibooster circuit. The 100K trimmer loads down the circuit and reduces highs a bit.
8/21/99 - There was an omission in the original schematic - my original Shaka III's MiniBooster is also
a treble booster. The new schematic reflects this change. With this simple change (1 cap), your Shaka
III will be clearer, brighter and punchier. On R.G.'s board (which all of you should purchase), here is
the capacitor you should change.
7/4/99 - current consumption is ~5 mA, not bad.
5/18/99 - Try different tone circuits with the Shaka III. Splice different types of tone circuits after the
MiniBooster. Try the RAT tone control and others. I think you will find that the Shaka III circuit is
extremely versatile and adapts to different tone controls. The pedal sounds very different when used
with different tone circuits.
5/9/99 - Notice that my Shaka III doesn't have the 22K resistor going to ground in the tone control
section. This probably explains why my pedal doesn't get the scooped mids if this 22K resistor is there.
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4/18/99 - Wired 2 IRF520s as MOSFET diodes with a 1N34a diode attached to the source pin. This
arrangement sounds extremely natural to me. Wire 2 of these and reverse them in polarity when
attaching them to a circuit just like a diode pair.

Diode is 1N34A, MOSFET is IRF510 or IRF520. Make 2 of these and


then use them as diodes in the Shaka III.
4/15/99 - Added a trimpot on the schematic which essentially allows you to control the amount of
"clean boost" when the drive is turned all the way down. This trimpot allows you to make your "clean
boost" really clean or kinda dirty - you know?
4/11/99 - Tried 4 1N34a diodes on each side for a total of 8 diodes! The diode array tested at ~.822.
Very nice... Even more nice dynamics, yet still has a smooth sound. I'm going to try some 1N914 and
1N4148 combinations for asymmetrical and other varieties of distortion. I realized I am able to mount
the diodes onto sockets essentially creating a clipping "module". I can plug these modules in anytime
for different sounds.
Check out Doug Hammond's Shaka Braddah III mods which he calls the Shaka Braddah IV. I did like
the sound of his mods. I find that the Rat circuit seems to produce less highs and this may work for
amps which are bright.

Booster 2.5 OK! The Booster 2.5 is the next generation of the Booster 2 designed by Jack
Orman. I refined the circuit based on the refinements Jack put in his Mini-Tiubes pedal. The result is a
stunning overdrive that has 90% of the wonderful tone of the Mini-Tubes with about 1/3 of the
complexity. A great pedal, I am still enjoying mine. Also check out the Sweet Thing, which is the
Booster 2.5+Doug Hammond's mods. Another excellent variation; this one is on my pedal board.
Coming soon: Boost switch, modified tone control.... possibly more... Sound sample available.
Hot Fuzz - My take on the Colorsound Tone Bender Professional Mark II with the Sweet Thing
tone control. I'm still working on this one, so stay tuned. BTW: the "T" next to the pots mean use a
trimmer. Sound sample available.

Apollo

Treble and Bass Booster

Attenuators

Power Soak Unit for Low Wattage Amps 25 watts max. (The Blue Guitar)
8 ohm Volume Reducer and Line Out Box (The Blue Guitar)
Reactive Load (Plate to Plate)

Bell

Flanger Part 1 and Part 2

Bespeco

Sweeper (Hemmo's Site)

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Blackbox DIY

Dynamic Treble Booster

Bixonic

Expandora? see the hand drawn schematic


Expandora - donated by Patrik Erikson, check out the parts list. I would purchase this pedal.

Boss I would purchase all Boss pedals because most of them are very complicated and they are reasonably priced.

BF-2 Flanger (Justin Philpott's Site)


Blues Driver part1, part 2 - donated by Patrik Erikson. This pedal was used by Larry Carlton.
CE-1 (Justin Philpott's Site)
CE-2 Thanks Chris!
CE-2B Thanks Chris!
Chorus/Vibrato- (Guitar Tube Amps)
DS-1 (Guitarage)
DS-2 - (Guitar Tube Amps)
Flanger- (Guitar Tube Amps)
GE7 EQ (Effectronics)
Hyper Fuzz (Hemmo's Site)
Metal Zone (MT-2) part 1, part 2 - donated by Patrik Erikson. Here's another schematic (zipped) -
different?? Here is an incredible DIY layout. Amazing what you can do as a DIY project. Thanks gty
vbt!!!
OD-1 (Rob Strand's Homepage)
OC2 - donated by Bernard Busser
Slow Gear Attack Delay (Guitar Related Circuits)
Super Overdrive (Plate to Plate)
SD-1 (GM Arts)
TM-3 Speaker Simulator1 and 2 (Stellan's Schematics)
Touch-Wah Wow. Tons of components in this one!

Carlin

Compressor (Stellan's Schematics)


Phasor (Stellan's Schematics)

Colorsound (Sola Sound)

Fuzz (Stellan's Schematics)


Overdriver - OK! I like this pedal! Initially designed to do clean boost. Boy does it BOOST! To
control the gain and make it more like a distortion pedal, put a 10K or 100K volume pot at the end of
the circuit, that way you now have a drive and volume pot arrangement.
Jumbo Tone Bender - OK! Verified 8/9/98. Sounds initially like a transistorized Sonic 9 distortion (or
rather the Sonic 9 is the IC version of this). Has a Big Muff/Sonic 9 single tone pot which goes from
nasty slicing highs to full and round. Lots of gain. An interesting sound, It seems like I can still hear
the original guitar sound in the output like it was mixed in.

WaitAMinute! Look at the Big Muff schematic... Now look at the Jumbo Tone Bender... anything
familiar?

Original Tone Bender -(GEO)


Notes from John Catto:
Today a friend of mine gave me a (not working - broken footswitch/one pot) Sola Sound Tone Bender. This is the three knob
version built by many people on this board, including myself. There have always been some doubts about the schematic and

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now was my opportunity to clear this up once and for all!


The schematics posted by RG are pretty close, the only differences are..
1. ALL pots are 100k not 250k and no 2Mg (it appears the Yardbox is a closer clone than thought)
2. The resister from Q2 to earth is 3.3K not 33k
3. The capacitor that parallels the 3.3k resistor is 10uf on my unit not 22uf
4. On my unit there is a 220k resistor between the centre lug of the tone pot and the volume.
The Transistors are all unmarked metal can, no doubt Germanium. The can has a narrow ridge around it about a sixth of the
way up.
One more thing, I've always believed that this design is the original design predating the more fuzzface like models with 2
knobs. This one however is dated inside 21 March 1974, so perhaps it is a later design after all or at least was still made that
late. The case is a very slightly shallower version of the colorsound box, with silver paint and orange/black text.
Well there it is. I never thought I'd see one of these in the "flesh"

PCB Layout and more on Guitars, Amps and Effects. OK!


Tone Bender Professional Mark II.
Check out the various Bender variations.
Mark Poley contributed his version with tone control! Check it out!

SupaSustain - supposed to be very good!

Coron

Distortion 10 - MXR knock-off. Thanks to Chris Winsemius.

Craig Anderton

Octave-Doubling Fuzz (Justin Philpott's Site)


Tremolo (Justin Philpott's Site)
Tube Sound Fuzz (Justin Philpott's Site)
Mark Hammer's mods on the Tube Sound Fuzz (GEO)
and now Stellan's mods on Mark Hammer's mods! Read the notes.

Dale VanZile

Suppa Tone Mangler HIGH res version. Mid Filter and more on this modified Suppa Fuzz.

Dallas

Rangemaster - OK!
11-27-98 - Check out R.G. Keen's GEO page for a very nice explanation of the Dallas Rangemaster
and how to build your own!

Dan Armstrong

Blue Clipper (Guitar Related Circuits) This schematic believed to have errors. Dan Armstrong said
that MXR copied this circuit to make their Distortion+. He said they copied it line for line and added a
tone control. Last I knew, the Distortion+ does not have a tone control.

Note: Jack Orman points out "the resistor from the inverting input to the 47uF cap is way too big: it
should be 2k4 or even 240 ohms."

Green Ringer (GEO)The unmarked transistor is marked in my Green Ringer. It's a Motorola
MSD6150.
Green Ringer (Guitar Related Circuits) This schematic believed to have errors Check out Hemmo's
21st Century Green Ringer.
Orange Squeezer (GEO) I have this compressor and it is great. Lee Ritenour, Jeff "Skunk" Baxter and
others used this little "plug-in-the-jack" compressor with an on and off switch. I still use mine now and
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2/8/2020 Selected Schematics

then when I want the "classic sound".

Doug Hammond

Acme Thrust-o-matic Vox Top Boost anyone???


Bobtavia A modified Bob Starr Octavia. Jeff Musser made a cool parts layout.
Boosters Galore! Check out Doug's boosters for kicking your input into hyperdrive!
ElectaBurner Doug designed this to boost the front end of his modified Electar amp. Perhaps
it would work with your amp too! PCB here.
Pentode Driver with tubes.
Shaka Braddah 4 OK!
This contribution from Doug Hammond is an extension of the ShakaBraddah III which refines various
points of the original design. Doug has worked a while on this design and it promises to be very good.
All the good attributes of the Shaka Braddah III have been retained with improvements.Here is the
PCB.

Shaka BBQ OK!


Some like it HOT and this pedal is built for sizzling leads. Another contribution from Doug
Hammond. A Shaka with attitude+! PCB.

Sweet Thing, OK!which is the Booster 2.5+Doug Hammond's mods. Doug added a cool tone
control that adjusts the mids and slightly rolls off the highs. Very nice! BTW: I made R11 100K
instead of 2.2Meg.(original schematic) There is not enough level with a 2.2M resistor in there; the
unbypassed signal can be louder than the pedal. I found 100K to be perfect for me. Sound sample
available. PCB Here
Sweet Thing with tone control mod. Even easier to build and Doug says it sounds
great! Less parts too! PCB here.
33 Volt Sweet Thing More headroom, better feel, check it out!
DOD

DOD Phasor 201 (Justin Philpott's Site)


Compressor 280A (Guitar Related Circuits)
FX53 Classic Tube - Thanks to Regent!
FX69 Grunge - Thanks to Regent!
FX75 Flanger (Guitar Related Circuits)
Overdrive 250 (Guitar Related Circuits) OK! Very close in design to the MXR Distortion+.
Compressor/Limiter 525 (AMZ)
Wah/Filter 545 (AMZ)
Chorus 565 (AMZ)
Analog Delay 585 (AMZ)
Phasor 595 (AMZ)
Compressor 825 (AMZ)

Ed Guidry

Blues Booster - sounds great!


BSIAB (Brown Sound In A Box) Fantastic sounding variation of the Booster 2.5/Sweet Thing!

EMM
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2/8/2020 Selected Schematics

Shaper This looks cool!

EQ Circuits

4bandeq.ps.Z (Guitar Related Circuits)


Signal Brightener (Guitar Related Circuits)
10 Band EQ (Guitar Related Circuits)
Tone Booster (Guitar Related Circuits)
Tone Control Circuits (Guitar Related Circuits)
StudioMaster EQ (Stellan's Schematics)

Electro-Harmonix

The EH Man's site is THE place for EH info. Check out the COOL articles.
Attack Decay

Blum is asking for help on this:


The biggest problems for me are :
- MN 3007, 4047,4066 and 4013 pins
- LM 311 out (I suppose it`s LM 311?) If you have ideas, please post on the forum.

Axis - same as Guild 2 knob Foxey lady!


Badstone Thanks Steve Giles!
Bass Balls (Clone Wars) Check out Marjan Systems and the Fuzzy Balls Envelope Filter.
Big Muff Op-amp version (Justin Philpott's Site)
Big Muff (Transistor) (Guitar Related Circuits) OK! I used 1N914 Silicon and 1N34 Germanium
diodes in parallel with high gain 2N5088 transistors in my Big Muff. This schematic probably missing
100K resistor from base to ground on the 3rd transistor stage. The 3rd stage should be identical the
previous stage I believe. Layout Here (Clone Wars).
Big Buzz Mod for Big Muff (Barfing Tomato's) Mod for more sustain and buzz. Check out the Muffler
from John G.
Big Muff PNP version. (Stellan's Schematics) I haven't seen this version before.
Triangle version Big Muff. A modified R.G. (Geofex) schematic of a Triangle era-Big Muff.

Possible mods and notes: You can try NTE123AP, which is pretty much 2N2222 transistors. Try lower
hFE transistors - like 150-250 instead of the usual 400+. Ed Rembold suggests Q1 base to ground 47K.

Deluxe Octave Multiplexer A and B


Doctor Q - hard to read. I do not recommend this circuit. About 30% of people have gotten it to work
but I think it's problematic and irritating, try the Dr. Quack instead.
Doctor Q (Tom's Synth Cookbook) I do not recommend this circuit. About 30% of people have gotten
it to work but I think it's problematic and irritating. try the Dr. Quack instead.
Deluxe Memory Man (Stellan's Schematics) I used to own this until my friend left it out in the rain. :-(
It was my favorite delay/chorus.

Simple Deluxe Memory Man reissue mods that can be done. OK!

Electric Mistress (Stellan's Schematics)


Electric Mistress-like Flanger (Tom's Synth Cookbook)
Electric Mistress Flanger Thanks Steve Giles! Also check out his bounce mod.
Electric Mistress Model 2 (Hemmo's Site)
Electric Mistress Model 3 (Hemmo's Site)
Graphic EQ Thanks to Brad Fajardo!
Graphic EQ (GEO)
LBP and other Boosters (Guitar Related Circuits) I used to buy these LPB-1 boosters all the time.
They were so useful for driving different things. Make one in about 10 minutes.
Little Big Muff (Guitar Related Circuits)

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2/8/2020 Selected Schematics

Little Big Muff - I remember having one of these. I wonder where it went? Really nice schematic by
Tobias!
Memory Man (Stellan's Schematics)
Economy Memory Man-like delay (Tom's Synth Cookbook)
Muff Fuzz (Guitar Related Circuits)
Pulsar (Clone Wars) The Pulsar has arrived! in PDF format.
Slapback Echo (CJLectronics)
Small Clone (The Great PCB)
Small Stone (Guitar Related Circuits) This schematic believed to have errors, read below. A classic. I
still have mine.

Notes: According to Jack Orman, "Pin 2 is marked as the non-inverting input when it is actually the
inverting input.... it's marked this way consistently on the schematic. You have to feedback from the
output to the inverting input (except for a Schmitt trigger). I verified this in the RCA data sheet for the
CA3094 - pin 2 is inverting and pin 3 is non-inverting"

Small Stone-like Phase Shifter (Tom's Synth Cookbook)


Soul Preacher (Guitar Related Circuits) I never really liked this thing. Mine had a problem where it
would amplify all the noise and then clamp down when I picked a note. While it clamped, it took about
3 to 4 seconds to recover.
Space Drum - I still have one of these somewhere! Prototype1, Prototype2 Thanks Steve Giles!
Zipper (Stellan's Schematics)

Elektor

Compressor and text- (Guitar Tube Amps)


Distortion- (Guitar Tube Amps)
Distortion+Compressor- (Guitar Tube Amps)
Harmonic Enhancer- (Guitar Tube Amps)
Harmonic Enhancer version 2 - (Guitar Tube Amps)
Variable Fuzz - this looks very interesting.

ETI

183 Value Distortion Pedal (Guitarage)


184 FET Distortion (Guitarage) Does this look familiar? :-)
184 Blue Suede Fuzz (Guitarage) Intesting distorter.

Eventide

Andertide Phasor

Fender

Fender Blender (Guitar Related Circuits)


Blender (GEO)-Wild sucker. Some octaving, but mainly "destroy the sound "distortion.

Frank Clarke - Frank has some nice modifications for existing circuits and nice new pedals. A very nice
site!

Blues Breaker mods


Clean Face "Beam me up!"
Fet Muff Plus - A modification to Jack Orman's Fet Muff

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Hot Harmonics - OK! Very nice sounding CD4049-based pedal. With a passive tone control after the
circuit, this thing is great!
MOS Clean Power Booster.
Rangemaster notes
Screamtendo 64 - Frank's souped up version of the Tube Screamer.
Stack-in-the-box high gain mods

Foxx

Foxx Tone Machine (Justin Philpott's Site) OK! Nice smooth distortion. Gets raspy when octave is
switched in. Not a bad octave sound, works over more of the fretboard than the Tycobrahe. However I
think that the Tycobrahe has more ring modulator type sounds and is clearer for octaves on the high
notes. I put the lowest gain 2N5088 transistors I could measure. However I did put in transistor sockets
in this one. I will later put in the transistors specified in the schematic.
Foxx Tone Machine (GEO) OK!

GCS/Gus Smalley The following are circuits that are variants of existing circuits but with hand-picked
substitution values/parts by Gus Smalley. Please try these...

Another Sick Fuzz This looks easy to build!


BJTBoost - Booster circuit using Si transistors.
3 Transistor Fuzz OK! Build this cool variation of a Fuzz Face, it's great! Check out Guilherme's
extension of the 3 transistor fuzz. Schematic and Layout and notes.
GCS Fuzz F. OK!
GCS JH2 Fuzz Mod.
GCS Overdrive OK!
GCS Ritefuzz
GCS MFUZZ - A modified Muff Fuzz. Sample of the MFUZZ in RealAudio format. OK!
Gus recommends an LF353 for the dual op amp. "The circled options are to make it
sound more like a Big Muff high and low end rolloffs". "When
you disconnect the feedback pot and leave just the 1n4148 diodes it goes
into what I call sick mode Think Edges U2 broken fuzz sound on POP tracks 1 and 2.
It also sounds very good in the loop of a lovetone meatball effect". "I use
100k audio pot on the output of effects because of the way the drive of
the IC and the pot interact with the 1st tube in a tube amp it has a
small tone effect".
My notes: I think this is an easy-to-build single IC chip distortion/fuzz. Experiment with the diodes (try LEDs, germanium
diodes et...). Adjust the input and output caps to your liking.

MBB Fuzz based on Bee Baa Fuzztone. Looks like it might be good for bass too.
MOSFET Overdrive - hmmm.... looks cool, I will have to try this one.
NPN Boost - Gus' answer to the myriad boosters out there. Si too!
NPN-Drive - check it out!
Octave Up Sick Box A wild and crazy octave up sick box. Mine worked a little, but I think there might
be some problems with this circuit.
Simple Fuzz - simple and fun.
Simple Octave Up - uses a transformer.

Gretsch

Control Fuzz

Howie's Effects

Howie's Metal Simplex - Howie's metal pedal - a very simple design. Check it out!
Howie's Effects Switcher - looks very useful.

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Hemmo P. Another cool effects designer from our forum! His site is killer!

Blue Flipper - a mod to the Blue Clipper.


FuzzaH
21st Century Green Ringer
Birthday Fuzz
Chunky Device
DOD Overdrive/Preamp 250 - another version?
Ibanez Black Noise
Endless Overdiveness Nameless
Boosters

Iggy's Groove Guitar FX Webpage Lots of stuff here! The schematics have sound samples too!

Auto-Wah
Digital Distortion
Digital Distortion II
Digital Overdrive
Dirty Blues Overdrive I
Easy Phaser
Easy Phaser II
FuzzBox #1
Jazzy Blue Tone
Twin-T Wah
Twin-T Wah2
Opto-Compressor
Reverse Envelope
Metal Overdrive 1

Ibanez/Maxxon

AD100 Analog Delay Nice drawing!


Black Noise - Thanks Hemmo P.!
Fat Cat (Stellan's Schematics)
FZ-5 - (Jeff's Guitar Effects) Pretty much a Big Muff clone.
MS-10 - Metal Charger. Thanks to rph! (Regent?)
MT-10 - Mostortion.
Overdrive II (OD-2) - donated by Patrik Erikson.
PL-5 Power Lead. Guitar Related Schematics.
Sonic Distortion (AMZ) OK! Lots of distortion, from semi-clean to very distorted. Cool tone knob. I
used an RC4558 in place of the TL072 here. This pedal is good for heavier distortion settings. Imagine
RAT and Big Muff thrown together.
Thrashmetal (Competitive Assesment Report) Complete Analysis of this pedal.
Thrashmetal. Guitar Related Schematics.
Super Tube Screamer - Someone was selling these for $1000 each.
Super Tube Screamer (Effectronics)
Tube Screamers (GEO) - Check out The technology of the Tube Screamer. . Also check out the Ibanez
Tube Screamer Hotrod Page. TS-10 to TS-808 conversions and Frank Clarke's Screamtendo 64 mod
for the TS. Check out Dan's Rudescreamer!

Check out Pauley's Opamp Screamer. (Pauley's Effect Palace) Hand drawn layout (gty vbt)
Check out Bill Bergman's nice TS layout (TIFF file).

What is the Tubo Tube Screamer?

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From Dai Hirokawa:

"TS9"(Normal) mode(for comparison): .047uF mylar w/two small signal Si diodes


"+" mode: 0.22uF polarized electrolytic w/four small signal Si diodes--two for the top of the waveform, two for bottom (these
look the same as the ones used for the normal setting)
"Hot" mode: 1uF polarized electrolytic w/pair of LEDs(w/a 470k in parallel w/the LEDs)
"Turbo" mode: 2.2uF polarized electrolytic w/no diodes(seemed odd but it does look open)
-the 4.7k and 51k are unchanged for all modes

TS-5 - Thanks George Ong!


TS-10 (Justin Philpott's Site)
TS9 Creamer (Killer Tone Electronics) - Check out this variation of the Tube Screamer. Interesting.
Tube Screamer Mod details. (Dr. Daktari GuitarPedal Collection)

Interfax

Harmonic Percolator - OK! Thanks to Alfonso Hermida!! Updated 7/10/01

Jack Orman /AMZ

Order Jack's CD for all of his cool projects. Lots of the coolest pedals have been created with
snippets and circuits of Jack Orman's work. Check out his creations!
Check out his forum.

Muff Boost
MOS-Face
Tube Type Distortion. Hmmm Crate type distortion.

Jay Doyle

FET Punch - The FET punch uses readily available parts to create a versatile overdrive.
Shaka Smooth - A smooth addition to the Shaka Line! PDF file.

Joe Davisson Joe is on a roll and is devising new pedals for us to try!

Amber Boost
CCS-Drive
Easy Drive Used to be called the Simple Overdrive. Distortionfreak provides this sample of the Simple
Overdrive version 2.
Inverter Distortion - interesting!
Nexion
Obsidian - Killer overdrive pedal.
Obsidian 2HV
Tweak-O

Joe Gagan - Watch for this guy!

Brontoboost
Dinosaur Fuzz
Easyripper - w/expresssion interface loop
Nitroburner
Skyripper Fuzz - soon to be famous FUZZ! Ridiculous sounds, wild, wacky, THD to da max, maybe
the ultimate fuzz?

John Greene
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Fullclone - (Justin Philpott's Site) TS series style distortion.


Screamer+ - Tube Screamer variation. Known to sound real good. Layout here (Clone Wars)
Fuzz - Axis Fuzz variation with MOSFET and tone control.

John Hollis - Cool Website too!

EasyVibe
Zombie Chorus
Crash Sync I have always wanted this....
OmniDrive - no more pedals after this? :-)
Titan Boost and Titan Octave
Phantom Wah

Jordan

Bosstone OK! I believe this is the correct circuit. Lotsa FUZZ. This circuit is not very touch sensitive.
More of an in your face type of fuzz. This thing has so much output. With my amp turned OFF and the
output all the way up, you can easily play this thing

PCB Layout and more... on Guitars, Amps and Effects.

Bosstone - original schematic This schematic believed to have errors.


Bosstone (Guitar Related Circuits) This schematic believed to have errors.
Bosstone - (GEO)

Kay

Fuzztone Model F-1 Thanks to Rob Urias for this one.

KOD

NG-04 Distortion Plus - (Guitar Tube Amps)

Korg

Octave
Parametric EQ
Phasor
Phasor- (Guitar Tube Amps)
Tone Booster

KrustyKorp

Interlarder - wild fuzz and more.

Maestro

Boomerang (Guitar Related Circuits)


Brass-Master BB-1 (Justin Philpott's Site)
MFZ Fuzz
Ring Modulator (Justin Philpott's Site)
Fuzz (Guitar Related Circuits)
Fuzz-Tone courtesy Brad Fajardo. An alternate implementation uses 2N508s Ge transistors and a 9
volt battery.
Maestro G2 Rhythm N' Sound (Effectronics) Text for the pedal.

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USS-1A Universal Synthesizer System - ZIP FILE Thanks Peter! If anyone can make this with
perfboard, you deserve a medal!

Marshall

Blues Breaker - Thanks to Gus Smalley! OK!


Blues Breaker- (Guitar Tube Amps)
Blues Breaker
Blues Breaker(GM Arts)
Drive Master 1992 (GM Arts)
Guv'nor - (Guitar Tube Amps) Hand drawn layout (gty vbt).
MS-2 AMP
Shred Master (GM Arts) Hand drawn layout (Bill Petris) - Well, you've heard about the Shredmaster -
but how about the DREADMASTER!!!! Dreadmaster part 1 ,Dreadmaster part 2, Dreadmaster Docs
from Bill Petris!
Speaker Simulator from Marshall Amps - OK! Thanks Ed! Very good Marshall type speaker
simulator! Tons of bass and the highs give this cabinet simulator an agressive sound. A nice mod for
this circuit is to replace the first 47K resistor from the inverting in to out on the first op amp with a
250K pot or trimmer. This allows you to set the gain of the entire circuit.

Morley

Power/Wah/Boost
Pro Fuzz (Stellan's Schematics)
Pro Phaser

Mosrite

Fuzz-Rite (Guitar Related Circuits) Hey, they resissued this! Anyone got one? I saw one in the local
store for $150!!! Maybe less than $4 worth of parts on the board.

Mutron

Mutron III (CJLectronics) OK!


Phase 45 (Justin Philpott's Site)

MXR

Bluebox (CJLectronics) OK!


Dynacomp(GEO)
Dynacomp (AMZ) OK! Compressor.

You can order boards for the above. Prices for boards are $10.00 each, including parts placement,and
schematic.All anybody has to do is to send a self addressed, stamped envelope stating quantity to:
Robert Shumway
41 Highmanor Drive
Henrietta, N.Y.14467
Send money order,and Robert will send out in mail the same day he receives orders. Apparently he has
1800 Dyna-Comp boards

Distortion+ - OK! Corrected Schematic. Corrections courtesy of Jack Orman.


Distortion+ (Guitar Related Circuits) This schematic believed to have a error.

Note: The input jack in the schematic is wired incorrectly. The connections to the input jack should be
swapped between the 9V and ground. See the negative terminal of the battery should go to the middle
connectore, not the tip as noted in the schematic. Thanks to Jack Orman for pointing this out.

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6/7/99 - NEW MOD! from Alfonso Hermida. I haven't tried it yet but I will!
Distortion+ (GM Arts)
Distortion II with component layout sheet and parts list as far as I can read from the schematic.
Component sheet updated 8/18/98
Envelope Filter - w/mods! (Mark Hammer, Steve Giles, Ambrose Chapel)
Flanger (Stellan's Schematics)
Headphone Amplifier - Thanks Alfonso!
Hot Tubes (Guitar Related Circuits)
Micro Amp Kinda famous preamp/booster. (CJLectronics) OK!
Phase 45/DOD Phasor 201 (Justin Philpott's Site)
Noise Gate (Robin Tomtlund's Site)
Phase 180 Plus (GEO) - with extras.
Stereo Chorus - (CJLectronics) Thanks CJ!

Nobels Electronics

A ton of schematics on this page. Look at the bottom. If anything, it makes you want to buy some of
these pedals!
Modified Nobels Distortion - from HOWIE

Oberheim

Ring Modulator Trimmer Docs


Phaser PS-1 (Guitar Related Circuits)

Pearl

Chorus - (Guitar Tube Amps)


Compressor - (Guitar Tube Amps)
Flanger- (Guitar Tube Amps)
OD-5 - (Guitar Tube Amps)
Phaser - (Guitar Tube Amps)

Prescription Electronic

The Experience Pedal (Justin Philpott's Site) Check out the PCB, layout and much more at Guitars,
Amps and Effects.

Pro Co

The Rat - OK! (Swap site for Guitar PCBs)


The Rat - Corrected schematic. This schematic corrects errors in the original schematic. Corrections
courtesy of Jack Orman.
The Rat (Guitar Related Circuits) This schematic believed to have errors.
The Rat type B (Guitar Related Circuits) This schematic believed to have errors.
Tonda's Rat Mods - custom mods to the Rat

Ranger

Para-Exciter (Analog Guitar and Bass Music Effect Clones)

R.G. Keen Check out his Guitar Effects FAQ! Oh man!

Auto Mike Muter (GEO) Clever microphone mute'r


A/B/Y Splitter Transformer box.

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A/B/Y Hum Free Box 2


Bypass box with DPDT and LED indicator. (GEO)
FXBus - killer idea!
Juggler
LERA (The Leslie (tm) Effect Rotary Adaptor)(GEO)
Millenium Bypass - OK! Fantastic, easy, great circuit for true bypass and LED. I just built about 4 of
them for the future.
Millenium 2 Bypass
MOS Doubler (GEO)
Phase 180 plus -(GEO) update of the Phase 90 by MXR
Programmable FX Switcher (GEO) - This looks quite clever.
Signal Splitter -(GEO) This looks VERY useful.
Spyder - hum free power.
Volume pedal conversion for wah pedals. (GEO)
Vintage Voltage Adaptor (GEO) Now this looks COOL!

Rod Elliot Tons of interesting projects on his page.

Guitar Tremolo Unit


Guitar Vibrato Unit

Roger Mayer

Axis Fuzz (Justin Philpott's Site) Could have errors.


Axis Fuzz correct - OK! Thanks to Tobias Karlsson!!!! PCB Layout and more on Guitars, Amps and
Effects.
I don't know.... A very fuzzy pedal. I guess it sounds OK. If you like FUZZ, then you might like this, however, I think the Lava
Rim 2 is much better. Anyway, Jimi liked it right?

Classic Fuzz (Justin Philpott's Site)


Octavia (Justin Philpott's Site) PCB layout on Guitars, Amps and Effects.
Octavia (Barfing Tomato's Site) Corrected and modified version.
Voodoo-1 (Justin Philpott's Site)
Voodoo Vibe

Roland

Bee-Baa Fuzz This is the fuzz used by Lee Ritenour in the earlier years; I believe in the Feel The
Night era.

Ross

Compressor

Sam Ash

Fuzz

Schaller

Wah Yoy-Yoy Could have errors. 8/3/01 - (Jens) The 22nF capacitor has to go to the base of the
second BC239C, not the collector!

Seamoon

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Funk Machine

Scott Swartz

Alternate FET-Booster-Type Circuits

Circuit1, Circuit2

Output Stage done with FETs


Octave Screamer (GEO) OK!Tube Screamer meets Octavia. Hmmm. I just happen to have an extra
transfomer lying around. Sound sample from sounds.ampage.org.

Steve Daniels

The Bear Face - Small Bear Electronics LLC - OK! A really great Fuzz Face derivative. One of the
only Fuzz Face clones my picky friend loved. I was lucky enought to try a protoype and it was great!
Build it and buy the parts or a complete pedal from Small Bear. It's worth it!
Tremulous Bear
The Wild Mouse - Small Bear Electronics LLC - OK!Nice tone boost circuit. Nice site!

Steve Giles

HE Auto-Wah PDF document.


Wildcat Sweep - Envelope Follower

TC Electronics

TC Chorus part 1 and 2 (Hemmo's Site)

Tokai

TDL-1 Analog Delay

Tycobrahe

Octavia (Justin Philpott's Site) OK! Cool octave on higher notes. Ring modulation and severe
distortion! Mean distortion pedal! I love this thing through my JD-10. I used Mouser's 42TM022
transformer. Tke note that the Primary of the Transformer is faced towards the output jack. For the
MPS-A18, I used the NTE equivalent. Watch for the reversed power supply.
Octavia (GEO) OK!

Univox

Micro-Fazer - apparently has LFO problem and is hard to read. From Steve Giles!
Unidrive (Hemo's Site)
Super-Fuzz (Justin Philpott's Site)
Super Fuzz (GEO) OK!

Vintage Technology

Orange Sunshine - OK!A silicon transistor fuzz face clone. Probably any high gain silicon transistor
can be used. Not at all subtle.

Voodoo Labs

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Overdrive (Justin Philpott's Site) OK! 70's sounding pedal. Kind of dark but oddly bright on the
extreme drive settings.

Gilles Caron, has a schematic, layout, and PCB files - bottom and top.

Vox

Chorus Pedal model 1905 - 1981 (VOX Downloads)


Compressor Pedal model 1903 - 1981 (VOX Downloads)
Distortion Pedal model 1901 - 1981 (VOX Downloads)
Flange Pedal model 1902 - 1981 (VOX Downloads)
Phase Pedal model 1900 - 1981 (VOX Downloads)
Suppa Tone Bender (Analog Music Effects DIY) Hand drawn PCB layout.
Suppa Tone Bender (Robin Tomtlund's Site)
Tone Bender V829
Wah Pedal model 1904 - 1981 (VOX Downloads)
Wah-Wah Pedal - 1980 (VOX Downloads)
Wah-Wah Pedal - 1993 V847?(VOX Downloads)
V847 Mods. (Guitars, amps and effects)

Wasi Raza

Jam Machine - check out the notes on it.

Wah Wah

Crybaby (Justin Philpott's Site)


Crybaby - Jim Dunlop (Justin Philpott's Site)
Vox V847 Wah (Justin Philpott's Site)

Unicord

Super Fuzz (Guitar Related Circuits)


Super Fuzz (GEO)

You might want to check out "How to build a Superfuzz pedal"

Univibe

Univibe (Guitar Related Circuits)


Univibe (GEO)

Univox

Square Wave - "It's a typical 60's fuzz. Not much sustain, but it sounds cool on chords. It gets that
early Keith Richards, Jeff Beck sound." Courtesy of Brad Fajardo
Square Wave PCB component placement.

ZBIR

Distor1 - (Guitar Tube Amps)


Distort2 - (Guitar Tube Amps)

Zoom

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Expression Pedal hook up.

Misc Distortion/Boosters

A very cool Japanese website with lots of cool projects on it. Thanks to Jack Orman for pointing this
one out. Please check out the web site as there are more projects on there than I have listed here.

Fat Bastard Paul Cochrane - "Try it infront of a sweet thing... Also going with the 100 ohm source let's
you get a little bit of hair when crankin' the gain, but you can still get a huge flat/clean boost when you
set it down"
MiniBooster (Japanese Site), someone else likes this name.
Distortion+ (Japanese Site)
Overdrive (Japanese Site)
Fuzz (Japanese Site)
Crunch Drive (Japanese Site)
Dist Drive (Japanese Site)
Compressor (Japanese Site)
Exciter (Japanese Site)
BassThru (Japanese Site)
Power Supply (Japanese Site)
Companion Fuzz/Wha - Thanks Tobias!
Mini-Booster based Booster
Emulation of Amplifier Overdirve Through the Use of the Nonlinear Output Response of Diodes.
Interesting PDF on diode distortion etc...
Shinei Companion Fuzz

Brian May Treble Boost Circuit - Original. (GEO)


E.C. Midboost circuit with PCB etc... (Zipped File) Thanks Gilles!
Guitar Fuzz Effect (basic distorter) PCB and Layout
High Gain overdrive pedal (Justin Philpott's Site) Looks like it would have tons of distortion.
Fuzzstain (Stellan's Schematics) Check out the the text descriptions and Stellan's other schematics.
Lead Fuzz (Stellan's Schematics) Check out the the text descriptions and Stellan's other schematics.
Sweet Feets Distortion (Stellan's Schematics) Check out the the text descriptions and Stellan's other
schematics.
Fuzzbox (Stellan's Schematics) Read the text about this distortion.
Equalizer Fuzz (Stellan's Schematics) Check out the the text descriptions and Stellan's other
schematics.
Differential Distortion (Stellan's Schematics) OK!
Modified Differential Distortion (Justin Philpott's Site)
Electra Distortion (Justin Philpott's Site) OK! Distortion/Booster circuit. Simple for beginners.
Angry Beard 3 (Guitar Related Circuits)
fuzz001.gif (Guitar Related Circuits)
fuzz002.gif (Guitar Related Circuits) OK! This is more of a booster. Not much distortion in this circuit
as drawn.
Modified fuzz001 (Distortion booster) (Stellan's Schematics)
jshfuzz.gif (Guitar Related Circuits)
olsonns.gif (Guitar Related Circuits)
Generic Overdrive and Distortion schematic. (GM Arts) This pedal is very nice. From a hint of
distortion to all out, this pedal has lots of it. The tone control is understated and rolls off the highs
nicely.
Guitar Fuzz Effect (Electronic Circuits)
Joe's Overdrive (Guitar Effects Projects) - simple one transistor distortion.
Joe's Metal Overdrive (Guitar Effects Projects) - simple one IC distortion. See the build instructions.
3 distortion pedals (Audio Circuits)
The Gazember Fuzz (Amplifiers)
Gazember Preamp (Amplifiers)
Gazember Hot Tubes Fuzz (Amplifiers)
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2/8/2020 Selected Schematics

Gazember Wah Wah (Amplifiers)


Simple Fuzz Box
High Output Fuzz Box
Koviak - Tube Based effect.

Speaker Simulators (misc)

Sim1 - (Guitar Tube Amps)


Sim 2 - (Guitar Tube Amps)
Sim 3- (Guitar Tube Amps)
Sim 4- (Guitar Tube Amps)
1X12 Speaker Simulator by Kurt Godiksen. Check out the notes on this simulator.

Tube Distortions/Preamps

Fender Preamp (Taos Amp)


(Guitar Related Circuits)
Tube Driver (AMZ) OK!
Matchless Hotbox (Justin Philpott's Site)
Matchless Vibrobox (Justin Philpott's Site)

Theremins

termen1r.gif
therschs.gif

Misc

Soul Kiss prelim schematic. - not verified. Updated 9/17/01


Jen Wah/Vol (Guitars, Amps and Effects)
Rubber Fetish - Envelope Follower! (Custom Music Electronics)
Easy Line out from your amp to mixer. (Time Gagan)
Status Bass active circuit pictures. EdwinT contributed these pictures. Look at this! Rob Strand traced
it!
Negative Voltage from 9 Volt Battery
+9 and -9 from one battery (GEO) Very cool!
Higher Voltage from a single battery! (GEO)- Even cooler!
Bypass circuit (Effectronics)
Quick and Dirty Test Oscillator (GEO)- Build this to get a sine wave test tone.
Clean up your volume pedal (Stellan's Schematics)
Cylon Audio Ring Modulator (Tom's Synth Cookbook)
Guitar FET tremolo (Tom's Synth Cookbook) and PCB
Guitar Preamplifier with Vibrato (Greg's Index)- OK! Really good sounding simple TREMOLO circuit
made with a FET. I used 2N3904 and J201 FET for the transistor types. Worked right away. Nice
smooth sound and highly recommended! Check out the full article.
Slapback echo-type reverb (Tom's Synth Cookbook)
Guitar Signal Splitter Box (Plate to Plate)
Wha-Filter (Electronics) No inductor used on this one.
Compressor
Harmonic Sweetener (Guitar Related Circuits) Enhancer type of effect.
Controllable Tremelo Circuit - Apparently the +18 should be -18 volts, the schematic is incorrect.
Mic Preamp
Tube Mic Preamp
Capacitor Discharge Tool - for discharging those big capacitors.
Stomp Switch Wiring - How to wire it.
1,000 guitar site links - I haven't counted them....
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2/8/2020 Selected Schematics

Duncan's Amp Pages - Tons of amp schematics.


Rane product schematics.
Tone Control - (Electronic Circuits)
Presence Circuit - (Guitar Tube Amps)
Quasi-Parametric Filter - (Guitar Tube Amps)
Selective Parametric Filter- (Guitar Tube Amps)
Border Parametric Filter (Guitar Tube Amps)
Notch Filter- (Guitar Tube Amps)
Wah Wah Page - (Guitar Effects Projects) adjustable with trim pots and everything.
True bypass for late model dunlop wah (LYKE productions)
Pictures of the mysterious Klon Centaur, front and inside.

Cool Article Links!


Absolutely Positive PC Boards(Small Bear Electronics LLC)
Advanced Power Protection (GEO) Looks easy!
Basic Testing of Semiconductor Devices (Sci.Electronics.Repair)
Basic Effects Wiring (Guitars, Amps and Effects) Shows basically how effects are wired and more...
Bypass On Board - (Small Bear Electronics LLC) Interesting article on how to make an actuator for
your DPDT
The Capacitor Reference Guide - (E-Music DIY Reference Guide)
Capacitor Notes - (Dusty Files Online)
Dead Bug Prototyping (GEO) Another way to do simple prototyping. The Epoxy part looks
interesting.
Designing JFET Audio Preamplifiers. (Rason Amateur Radio Club)
Digital Phase Shifting (Articles - BTC)
Dirty Tricks File(GEO)
Distortion 101 (GEO)
Distortion 101 (Blackstone Appliances)
Effect Power Switching (JD's DIY Projects for Guitar Players) Also see Adding a Power Jack .
Effects Prototyping Techniques (GEO) VERY nice article on how to prototype circuits.
Envelope Controlled Filters (Articles - BTC)
Read the Small Bear Electronics "5F" - FAQ For Fuzz Face Fanatics.
How to trace out effects(GEO) - yep, this is the way to trace out effects.
In circuit transistor checker - (Electronics Plus)
The Guitar Effects FAQ (GEO) Check this out! Required Reading.
Guitar Amp Evolution (harmony-central.com)
Hot Rod Mods for your guitar (Welcome to the BigRockShow)
IBM Patent Search - Search online for interesting patents.
Impedance - What and why? (GEO)
JFET Amplifier Calculator
Low pass passive filter calculator.
More than you ever wanted to know about phasers (Articles - BTC)
Mu-tron Musictronics. (Articles - BTC)
Overdrive Unit article -(Steve's Home Page) mostly about amp building but some good stuff there.
PowerPointing Schematics and Boards (Small Bear Electronics LLC)
Really Quick and Easy Boxes (GEO) With templates.
Simple, Easy Parametric and Graphic EQ's (GEO) Pre and Post EQ man.
Substitutions for EPFM parts. (GEO)
Stalking the Wild Mouse (GEO)
The Talkbox FAQ - lots of information on Talkboxes, including how to make your own!
The Technology of Bypasses(GEO)
The Technology of the Fuzz Face (GEO)
The Technology of Oil Can Delays (GEO)
The Technology of the Tube Screamer (GEO)
The Technology of Wah Pedals (GEO)
The Secret Life of Pots (GEO)
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2/8/2020 Selected Schematics

The Technology of Phasers and Flangers(GEO)


The Technology of the Univibe (GEO)
True Bypass modification for late model Dunlop Wah-Wahs
Tubes vs. Transistors
The Sound of Capacitors
Voltage Doubler Circuit

Sites with Sound Samples/Settings


Budget Boutique Stompboxes focuses on getting sounds out of your existing boxes.
GTRFX.COM sound samples of several boxes.
Tonefrenzy.com the king of sound samples. TONS of samples.

More Misc.
Guitar Players Manifesto - interesting.
How to get SRV's tone - for those who care.
Rhyming Dictionary
Virtual Guitar Magazine - Fantastic Online Guitar Magazine!

More fun/interesting places

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