OPAMP BASICS

mystified by that tube screamer? in a conundrum over the klon? THIS course at Elliot Sound Products has all of the basics about opamps covered. all the common configurations, power applications, filters, and formulae are there for the taking. they have a shitload of other great articles and projects over there too, so be sure to check out the rest of the site.

FREE ELECTRONICS BOOKS

HERE and HERE are great sites with tons of free electronics based e-books. lots of info on tube, solid state, electronics theory, hifi and more...

3PDT DAUGHTER BOARDS

recently i've gotten right sick of trying to jam my nice, thick, 22 gauge, solid core wire into switch contacts.  many times i'd end up marring the insulation, or just not liking the appearance.  a remedy was to design a daughter board to connect all of the wires to the switch.  after a bit of talk with my friends over at FSB, i decided to expand on the idea, and built a few different versions.  V1 is a simple board with connections for each lug on the switch.  V2 has a resistor added for limiting the power to the LED.  version 2.1 adds a pad for connecting DC and the other side of the LED.  finally, V3 adds to this a spot for a power filtering electrolytic capacitor, and polarity protection diode.  in the future i may add more designs, possibly adding R.G. Keen's MOSFET polarity protection scheme, and a voltage divide for use with op amp circuits.  there has also been some talk of making a group buy for printed PCBs.  we'll see if that ever comes to pass in the future.  you can check out all of the layouts and keep abreast of the latest news HERE.

MONTARBO PB-2 FUZZ SECTION

hey if anyone is out there, sorry it's been so long.  been kinda denying the blog love lately, hope to get back into it with some cool stuff to add.


here is a little italian fuzz circuit that i thought looked interesting.  it's from the montarbo pb-2 fuzz/phaser combo pedal. i like the negative feedback diode configuration.  at first it looks a bit like a muff, but there are some differences when you look closer.  you can see that the diode loops are separated by capacitors effectively isolating them from the DC that is used to bias the transistors, where as in the big muff, the diodes have their own dedicated blocking caps, filtering the frequencies to be clipped.  also, there is a 47K resistor to ground on the first tranny's diodes that may introduce some harsher clipping by pulling the diodes closer to earth.  it looks like a fun little way to adjust clipping, and i plan on giving it a shot in the future.  if anything cool comes of it, i'll be sure to let you know on the blog.

cheers!

ELEKTRATONE'S DIRTY BOOTS

FSB forumite elektratone built up this cool rust finished version of the dirty boots a while ago.  i thought it was about time he got some fame on the blog.  it definitely looks like this thing's been through the apocalypse and back!

FREESTOMPBOXES.ORG MONTHLY CIRCUIT ANALYSIS

the first installment of the FSB Monthly Circuit Analysis is up and running!  check out the dirt on the Maestro Fuzz-Tone.  there are circuit analysis, links to clips, patents, experiments, explanations, and tons of other cool stuff regarding the first ever fuzz box made.  hopefully this will turn into a long standing tradition at FSB, as we explore the other creations throughout the pantheon of guitar effects.  check it all out HERE.

COLORSOUND DEALER BOOTH

i just thought i'd post this great pic of the colorsound booth from a convention in the early seventies. it was so cool, i just had to show off those funky displays. enjoy the shag!