Even before going to ITT I've always been interested in electronics, especially radio. Back in Jr. High and throughout High School I was heavily in shortwave radio. I still love that hobby, but because of lack of time to stay up all night trying to pick up radio stations from around the world, I don't do much of it anymore.
I built my first effects pedal back in 1996 with the help of my friend and his dad. It was a Kay Tremolo unit. I used it quite a bit in the beginning, but it's sound wasn't quite what I was looking for. I ended up buying an Ibanez Sound Tank Tremolo for about $35.
With my recent enrollment at ITT Technical Institute, my fascination with building my own distortion boxes grew. So, I got on the internet and looked for schematics.
Here are some great sites to find schematics for guitar effects:
GEO - Guitar Effects Oriented Web Site
There are other great web sites these pages link to.
Also, here's a site where you can hear how some of these pedals sound like:
So, anyway, after being able to successfully build a tremolo pedal I
figured, I'll go all out and build the Foxx
Tone Machine (here's another schematic for the Foxx
Tone Machine ). Well, as it turns out, my first attempt with
this thing ended up a failure. And since I'm still not a tech I couldn't
trouble shoot the problem I ended up spending a total of $50 to finally
make a working (though not completely perfect) vintage distortion box.
(People pay hundreds of dollars for the actual one!)
PLEASE NOTE: You may not find 2N3565 transistors (however, there
are PN3565 but they do not work). You can use 2N5088 or 2N5089 instead.
Also for the tone control section, one of the schematics calls for a 0.5uF
cap. It should be 0.05uF or 0.047uF. Anyway, now that I'm starting
to understand more about the circuits, I think that the original tone circuit
sucks. It would boost the highs and cut the lows. When you
tried to cut the highs the overall volume went down. So, I decided
to just have a well rounded tone. On mine, I replaced the 3300pF
(.03uF on the other schematic) to a 1uF electrolytic cap with the negative
side connected to the diodes. I actually don't know for sure if this
is the correct orientation, but I kept my circuit plugged in for an hour
and it hasn't blown up.
This has got to be one of the best effects units I can have.
(Sound sample at Tone Frenzy
)
After building that I decided to build the famous Tychobrahe Octavia pedal (here another schematic for the Tychobrahe Octavia )
The Tychobrahe Octavia I built ended up sounding really nasty, but I like it because it's just pure noise! It's octave effect doesn't seem very apparent compared to the Foxx Tone Machine. (Update: if you plan to build a Tycho, be sure to house it an a big box. The transformer will influence the signal on any wire near it.) Anyway, here are some other effects you may want to try:
Electro-Harmonix Big Muff I have recently built this pedal for Chappy and was quite happy with it. YES! Do the capacitor mods! The transistors are all 2N5088 and the diodes are 1N914 and 1N34A, back to back.
EH Big Muff (super buzz mod) This is my own modification that I discovered after playing around with the circuit on a proto-board. This mod will increase (and I don't mean just a little bit, I mean INCREASE) your volume and gain. If you're looking for a "Smashing Pumpkins Siamese Dream" tone....this is it!! - that really thick, but smoothe, distortion sound. If you want more bass out of it put a 1uF cap on the output instead, I put a .47uF output cap on mine. I've also found that 2N3904 transistors work just as well and are probably cheaper.
Roger
Mayer Octavia (the one Jimi Hendrix used) This is the corrected and
personally modified schematic. This is my final modification that
I am happy with...(the 6.8k and 15k resistors). This pedal sounds
great at LOUD amp settings. It's a really thick distortion that sounds
like it's going to bust your speakers. This is one of my favorite
distortions. A really unique sound!
(Sound sample at Tone Frenzy
)
DOD
Overdrive 250 (POST SCRIPT file...this one only costs less than $15
to make. They sell this for almost $40 at Guitar Centers) This
is the first op-amp circuit that I helped Chappy put together.
(Sound sample at Tone Frenzy
)
Son
of Screamer from the Digital
Music Zone I just built this one, too, for my cousin's husband's cousin.
It's a very mellow, tube like, overdrive (it's suppose to be an Ibanez
Tube-Screamer TS-9 or 808 sound clone. I think it does a good job).
(Sound sample at Digital Music
Zone and at Aron Nelson's Stomp box
Page )
Fuzz Face Yes! This is the Fuzz Face that Jimi Hendrix made famous. Since the AC128 transistors are rather rare to find these days, you can use NTE-158 instead. Also, for my circuit, I connected the output coupling capacitor between the 8.2k resistor and the collector of the transistor to the right. But be forewarned: this modification will yield extreme output volumes. Be sure to have your volume control set to minimum before feeding it through your amp. Also, take note of the reversed battery polarity!
A great place to get electronic parts:
Mouser Electronics There are no minimum orders, and you can find practically all the transistors (industry numbers...not the expensive NTE substitutes!) and caps that you need for much less than a local electronics shop.
If you're not familiar with electronic parts, do not attempt to build these by yourself. Ask someone who knows. I'm always happy to answer any basic electronics questions you may have.
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