JOE DAVISSON'S SIMPLE CAB SIM VERO LAYOUT

i made up this layout and built this up tonight so that i could work on fuzz designs in my headphones late at night. layout is verified.
schematic can be found HERE.

TONE FACTOR ULTRA LORD VERO LAYOUT

the ultra lord is a high gain fuzz that was created by andrew carrell and licensed to the Tone Factor brand. i haven't had a chance to build it yet, but apparently it sounds awesome. the origin of the circuit is originally based of a circuit called the dirty sanchez which carrell designed in order to have something that was a cool sounding, high gain fuzz, made from easily available radio shack parts. the ultra lord is a tweaked version of the dirty sanchez apparently taking it's sound to it's full potential. the UL looks to me like a bazz fuss running into a darlington pair with a mark hammer modded shin-ei fy-2 style mid scoop control on the end and a sag pot for the voltage. a combo of some nice snippets. here is vero layout that i made- it is unverified, but thoroughly checked. if you make it, let me know!
the schematic can be found HERE.
the thread for the ultra lord at freestompboxes.org can be found HERE.

DIRTY BOOTS GERMANIUM OVERDRIVE

this little circuit is really what got me started in the whole DIY effects design process. i needed something that i could use to dirty up a loud, clean amp just enough to where it would have a touch of grit. it's a great little overdrive that can be used as a germanium booster as well as a fuzz if your pickups are hot enough.

it all started when i decided to breadboard the Trotsky Drive by Beavis Audio, which is basically a GE version of the Electra Distortion with a bias adjustment pot. using a russian GT313A transistor, i was fooling around with it, messing with values and such, when i remembered that the Bazz Fuss uses a diode in the C to B position instead of a resistor like the Trotsky/Electra. so i tried it out, and i got an excellently biased gain stage with just a bit of compression. then i realized that the circuit i was working on was PNP, where the BF is NPN. so the diode configuration is actually reversed. eventually i came to learn, with the help of many generous folks in the DIY community, that the GE diode that i was using was leaky, all of them are leaky, and it is this leakage that is actually acting as a large resistor and biasing the transistor. cool,huh? along with that, i'm sure that the diode is adding it's own little stamp on the situation with a bit of compression an break up.

after messing about with a ton of diodes this way and that, with filtering, in series, etc., i decided that i'm just not that big of a fan of diode clippers. i find them unnatural sounding, and their clipping just sound too "obvious" to me for some reason. so i ditched the clippers, added a small cap from C to B to roll off a bit of highs, and just put a whole nother stage in series with the first.

Lo! the Dirty Boots was born.

eventually i ended up trying a bias pot on the second stage and some different switching options for changing gain and tone, etc., but ended up with a normal emmitter controlled gain stage, a pregain control, and a volume pot. the latest mod was the series resistance between stages and ditching the cap from C to B on the second stage to open it up a bit.

it's really a great sounding little circuit using ge trannies which can be found on the bay for dirt cheap. the basic gain stage can be used for other things as well- it became the basis for The Toecutter.


give it a try sometime, or i'll send my band of mutated hobbit rat people to dig you out of your bomb shelter and eat you for second breakfast.

the thread at FSB about the Dirty Boots can be found HERE.

many thanks go out to Martin Chittum, Marcelo "Mac" Tripodi, and others that helped me understand along the way!



here is a layout using common sized parts. i have another for use with the extra mojo axial caps and such that i will post later.





daniel zink made this great version of the Dirty Boots in a Hammond 1590A box. a little killer!







here's another one from mr. zink- very stylish!

Apocalypse Audio- Thundertone

here's something i churned out the other day. i have been thinking about modeling the Supro Thunderbolt with FETs, but then thought- i just got in these cool new Tesla GE's, why not use those? so that's what it is, the preamp section of the legendary amp used by Page and supposedly Hendrix, done up NPN germanium style. i had to eliminate a few resistors towards the end to bring up the volume and lowered the value of an emitter resistor to up the gain a bit. also, i made the resistor on the input variable so you can adjust the input impedance for guitars with different pickups.

the real gem of this circuit is the tone pot- totally counter-clockwise you get a nice full range tone with plenty of mids. as you go clockwise it goes to a very muffled tone, and as you go even further, it goes to a very thin, cutting tone. there are some very cool sweet spots, and a lot of versatility. i like it better than a regular muff style control, but it does cut plenty of signal- hence the two gain stages after it.

it's a cool sounding circuit. nicely voiced and does a good overdrive type sound. if you don't have the trannys, you could change out the 33K Rc's to trimmers and adjust to taste. the tesla trannies are extremely consistent, so no trimmers needed. the layout below uses some large axial caps and is yet unverified, but hopefully i'll get it done sometime soon.

XXXUPDATEXXX the large parts PCB is being retooled due to infestation of mutant roaches. stay tuned! XXXUPDATEXXX

XXXXUPDATEXXXX i was made aware that there could be DC voltage on the tone pot. you may need another capacitor after it to get rid of crackle that may be present. a .047uF cap off of lug 2 of the pot should remedy this. i'll amend the schem and layout after i do some more experimenting. XXXXUPDATEXXXX

XXXXXXXXXXXXXUPDATEXXXXXXXXXXXXXX I built up the Thundertone with the old mojo parts layout and it works with no tone crackle!I will be revamping it for a tighter layout. XXXXXXXXXXXXXUPDATEXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

take it easy!


here is a new PCB using common size/value parts.

La Revolution Deux

mr. fred briggs, one of the main men over at freestompboxes.org, has a cool blog happening with lots of great layouts. it seems to be mainly centered around "bootweek" pcb layouts, effectively demystifying the mojo and bringing us all squarely down to earth. a truly commendable effort! there are also some of mr. briggs own diy designs, which i've heard have quite a bit of mojo(the good kind) themselves! check it out HERE.

e. euro effect projects

HERE is my compilation of eastern european effect schematics. many of these designs are very interesting, my guess being because they were made in a sort of vacuum. fuzz faces and tonebenders were not around for cloning(actually that's not totally true, you'll find the occasional FFclone even behind the iron curtain), so they had to come up with designs of their own. included are some yugoslavian diy projects(THANKS BORISLAVGAJIC!), some very cool russian jfet designs by victor kempf, and even a couple east german production fuzzes. these are a great look at different ways of achieving interesting effects when copying previous designs wasn't an option, and some are straight up clones. check them out, there is some cool stuff!

The Toecutter- PCB layout

i whipped up this layout in Eagle last night. hopefully i'll get to building it soon and get it verified. The Toecutter's sludge can't be stopped!

XXXXXXXUPDATEXXXXXX
LAYOUT IS VERIFIED.








HERE is a link to the Toecutter thread at FSB.org.