Ace Tone FM-3 Fuzz Master sans boost

   Ace Tone FM-3 Fuzz Master without the boost option. From kitrae schem

Ace Tone FM-3 Fuzz Master

   Another Japanese Big Muff variant, this one has some substantial modifications. This has a footswitch to select between boost or fuzz, but you can't use both at the same time. The boost mode has it's own volume and tone pots. There are also other differences in biasing, filtering, as well as the location of the volume pot (in this circuit it is moved pre Q4) making this an interesting take on the Big Muff.

Sekova Big Muff Model 2015

   This is a rare Japanese Big Muff clone made by Shin Ei. It is a clone of a triangle Big Muff, however it has some substantial differences to the triangle Muff layout we have here on the site. The 47n caps in the clipping stages here vs the 1uf caps in the clipping stages of Mark's triangle Muff layout alone should give you a substantially different sound.

   I based this layout on Mark's classic Big Muff template, and included the series polarity protection diode (D1). This diode is not in the original pedal, and you can omit it if you want.

Electra 600D

I recently acquired an Solec DO-131 St. Dist. + O. D. (horrendous name) as a defunct unit and fixed it up. I found the sound very pleasing and versatile. Apparently this taiwanese pedal has been sold originally as Electra 600D, then as Omnifex 700D(?) and as Solec name monster among others. As topology goes, i found this rather interesting as well. Dist+/OD250 style gain stage, followed by switchable hard clipping and a Big Muff style tone stack. Loud and versatile dirt design. The tone control and clippers are easily made to suit one's taste. This is why i thought this was worth a post... Couldn't find other demos, but for Omnifex.

5-knob Compressor

Drew this one up some time ago and thought i'd post it up. It's basically Mark's layout for Keeley 4-knob style compressor with slight tweaks and more notably, an addition of mix/blend/ratio knob. As some of you already know, the basic CA3080 compressors like Ross, MXR and derivatives reverse the signal polarity and thus, the simple blend circuit additions won't work with it. So here's the Ross compressor with tons of usable mods on it. I've built a number of these already, so consider it verified.

2017/05/08 - One cap was reversed on the layout. Now fixed, but i had to redraw this completely due to lost source files. Anyway. Here's the "V2".

Bipolar Bear - Dual Overdrive

Here is another great project by David Rolo.
You can find all infos here.

14/02/2016 All layouts re-drawn and updated due to schematic errors.
Big thanks to Michael Oriente for fixing this project!
(Check commects to easily fix previous layouts)

Original Video:

You can use Mark's Dual Offboard Wiring for this project.

... and the separated circuits

MultiCab Simulator

Here is a very nice project by Dschwartz from the DIY Forum.
You can find the original thread here
13/01/2017 Layout updated! Change 4n7 cap connected to Flat 1 to 47n.

Elka Dizzy Tone

   This is a sweet sounding fuzz. The circuit is very similar to the Buzzaround.

Madbean Shortstack Overdrive

Noticed frank had posted this in response to someones questions about the bluesberry mod for the hotcake. When i compared the schematic to the hotcake i noticed a few differences so I thought it would be a nice addition and variation to have on the site. The only addition to the schematic I mad is I added the typical 1M pulldown resistor to prevent any switch popping.

Faustone Fuzz Unit

   Faustone was kind enough to post their schematic on their website for DIY use, and they make great products. Support this cool company if you are able :)

Info from Faustone:

   "The Faustone Fuzz Unit is a replica of the rare Barnes and Mullins (B&M) Champion Fuzz Unit. The original pedals were built by Colorsound in London in the late 70s. Rebranded under many names —B&M, CMI, G.B., Pro’Traffic— electronically the circuit was the British cousin of the Electro Harmonix Big Muff, and —allegedly— it was featured on “A Girl Like You”, the Edwyn Collins hit single.

This Faustone version is based on my April 1977 original which was carefully dissected, studied and re-assembled. The circuit on mine is a tad different from the available Internet schematic, and features Zetex brand transistors instead of the ubiquitous BC184Cs.
The circuit is basically a clone of a Big Muff minus the fourth transistor position. In the Fuzz Unit, two ZTX383C transistors —with a gain of around 600— occupy the two first positions (Q1 and Q2). A lower gain transistor is used for Q3 —ZTX382B, gain of 150— which in my opinion is the key to achieving the characteristic musical flute-like sound of the original pedal."

This layout omits the 220K output resistor for increased output

Prescription Electronics Experience

Here is the well known Prescription Electronics Experience, a Foxx Tone Machine with extra switchable Swell effect.

Octave & Swell Switches Diagram:

Zinky True Grit

Here is an overdrive pedal by Bruce Zinky, the creator of Smokey Amps.
Not great videos available at the moment.

Black Arts Toneworks Black Sheep

Taken from Black Arts website.

In all of it’s throwback glory, the Black Sheep. Dirty, mean spirited and a blast to hang around with. You can’t help but feeling a bit dirty when you plug in.

Essentially it's a modded BeeBaa with an input cap selector like you see on the Black Arts Black Forest. One thing I will say is that if you notice in the demo videos the fuzz knob is never turned up to the max, that's because it will start to feedback on itself like a mother.

Different transistors change tone of the effect. I messed around with different ones, and settled on MPSA18. They tamed a bit of the metallic decay that I heard with the 2N5089.

Switchable Onboard Power +9/+18V

Awhile ago I saw someone asking adding an +18V inverter to a board and the differences it made in some pedals, as well as what they need to do and worry about. Since there are more then a few people who have added an +18V inverter on a switch so they can switch between +9V and +18V, so I thought to myself, why not just whip up a quick layout to show how to do it for those that do not know.

Here's two that use an NE555 Chip

Here's two based on the 7660s/1044, based on the voltage doubler section of the madbean road rage voltage doubler section. schematic

Even though you can just run the +9V from the DC jack to SW1 and run that to the power in on the board, I don't like having multiple wires on a single lug of a switch so I made it so that you grab it form the board instead.

Colorsound Supa ToneBender

From kitrae

THE COLORSOUND SUPA TONEBENDER - By 1973 Sola was using the Colorsound brand on its pedals, now built in wider "jumbo" sized enclosures. The Tone Bender was upgraded and moved into this new enclosure. The Colorsound Supa Tonebender (pronounced Super) featured a new Silicon transistor circuit that had no relationship to the previous Germanium transistor Tone Bender circuit at all. This new circuit was essentially a knockoff of the Electro-Harmonix four-transistor Big Muff circuit, specifically a 1973 era Big Muff, now known as the violet Ram's Head. Sonically these sound very different to a typical Big Muff due to one minor change - the removal of the coupling caps and clipping diodes in the first clipping stage. This made for a very loud, in your face Big Muff sound. I have an early circuit board in my Supa that actually includes through holes in the first clipping stage for the missing cap and diodes, indicating Sola intended to originally make a straight clone of a violet Big Muff, or possibly had plans to do so later, but it does not appear any were made with the complete components. There is also an extra .1µF cap in the tone section and an extra capacitor added to the 9v for power filtering, not found on the original violet BMP circuits.

I'm sure you can use pretty much any common Si transistor in this one, so you don't really need to hunt down BC184's. Verified using 2N5088 transistors