18v Colorsound Power Boost

Well as usual just finished a round of exams, so it's time to start posting the layouts I did when I was taking study breaks. This time I'm going to space them out so there's not a sudden flood.

First up the 18v Colorsound Power Boost. Same topography as the Colorsound Overdriver, but ran at 18V, and to my ears boarders on a fuzz. I made 4 different layouts, 2 identical to the original (early & late version), and 2 that have an added master volume pot. On the original the pot labeled volume is really more of a gain pot then a true volume pot, so I figured that it would be much more usable to be able to max the gain and control the output level. The original came with BC184L transistors, but you should be able to use any NPN Silicon Transistor.

Original Early:

Early Version with a Volume Pot Mod:

Original Late:

Late Version with a Volume Pot Mod:

Colorsound Fuzz Wah/Fuzz Wah Straight/Wow Fuzz

The Colorsound Fuzz-Wah, or to be exact the Colorsound Wow-Fuzz! A new version of a funk-tastic old timer. The original 1970’s two transistor silicon distortion stage delivers the fuzz and the classic inductor based Colorsound wah circuit gives you the wow! Ah, the inductor based circuit you say. Been awhile since Colorsound did that, right? That’s right and who better to achieve time machine like accuracy on such a wah circuit than monsieur Castledine of Castledine Electronics fame. From the reproduction circuit board to the custom wound vintage specification inductor, this is a genuine and bona fide Colorsound wah in everyway. The huge soaring sweep, highs that level mountain tops and low mids that sink ships. Fast reacting prono soundtrack like cool, nothing chukka-wah’s like a Colorsound. Buddying up along side this specially falvoured wah circuit we have the authentic fuzz stage as featured in all the early Colorsound Fuzz-Wah’s. Voltage feedback family ahoy. This transistorized silicon fuzz circuit is biased for a smooth and mellow fuzz tone. Rich with heavy density that gels perfectly into the wah stage once engaged.

Independently switchable stages. In other words one switch to engage each circuit. It may seem a little odd at first having both mounted at the front of pedal but it does work surprisingly well indeed. After a little bonding session with the pedal it becomes quite easy to select the circuit you desire or even engage/disengage both simultaneously. It is most certainly not rocket science but a little introductory time is never a bad thing. 

You want to use DPDT switches to turn each effect on and off, unless you're going to put LEDs in to see what's on and off, and the wah comes first in the circuit.

A quick note: The original transistors have a pinout of BCE top to bottom on the flat side, but since they can be rather pricey these days I decided to make the layout using the more common CBE pinout. So if you decide to hunt down the original transistors be aware that you will need to twist 2 of the pins. Not a big deal, but can be kind of annoying for those of us that are a little on the meticulous side.

Also, the description I posted is for the Sola Sound reproduction made by the captain. He switched the 5k trimmer to a 47k, so you can put a 50k no problem.

Vintage Wah Extravaganza

Well as promised I've taken the and made layouts for 7 of some of the most desirable vintage wahs. You'll notice that they all look damn near identical, and that's because they're all based on the same circuit with some component differences. So instead of doing my usual description for each, I figured I'll let the videos speak for themselves.

Original Thomas Organ CryBaby

 

Vox Grey Wah

Vox v847

Shin Ei Wah

Maestro Boomerang BG-1

  

Maestro Boomerang Wah BG-2

One note about the BG-2 that makes it different from all the others. The switch allows it to go from a wah to a volume pedal.

Colorsound Wah-Wah

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

1-Knob Fuzz Bonanza

Request. This is just to add the requested Black Arts Toneworks Ritual Fuzz to the library, but i just couldn't resist rewriting Dr. Tony Balls' "Universal One-Knob Silicon Fuzz Layout" and adding the Black Arts' version of this classic to it. So here are 5 currently known adaptations of the almighty 1-Knobber. Adventurous minds could swap the values and get theit own flavour in there.. Simple and small. I sense small box fuzzes coming... :P

Edit. Oops.  I made a tiny error on the original layout. Lower electrolytic, the Q2 bypass cap, needs to be minus to ground.. Layout fixed. Should work fine, but the cap will probably die a lot sooner if it is in reverse. Now fixed...

Colorsound Jumbo Tonebender

A few people were after this one and as it's pretty close to Colorsound Bass Fuzz, i decided to tweak the layout for a Jumbo. Notes on Phillip Bryant's schematic note that this circuit is apparently 1:1 with Colorsound 3-knob Tonebender re-issue..

Colorsound Tremolo

This is per the original schematic, not a reissue. I made the transistor pinouts to match your basic transistors and i think that 2N5088s should work just fine in there. Original units have 2SC945s in them, so mind the pinouts and twist the legs if you want to use those.

Medferret's demo clip of his build:

Colorsound Bass Fuzz

Well. It was either the unused row or two resistors with 7.5mm pitch. Still pretty compact. The clipping diodes are placed so that you can pretty easily take them to a switch and play around with schottkys, LEDs....

Colorsound Tonebender Re-Issue

It was surprisingly hard to find a description about this '90s IC powered re-issue. Well. So hard that i didn't find any. Some demo videos are floating around the web....

Colorsound One Knob Fuzz

Request, this one will fit in a 1590A if you're feeling brave. Info about the (re-issued) original:

Non-harsh-oscillating-processing. For a relatively high gain silicon fuzz circuit this thing is smooth, like real smooth, a soft smooth you could say. Make no mistake this blue cyclops will fart-out a chewy smoke laden fuzz cloud you can really get your teeth into but will do so with a degree of etiquette. Bourbon as mouthwash holes punched through corrugated cardboard kinda tones but delivered to your ears with an air of refinement. No mad spazzed out oscillation and no frying eggs soundtracks going on in the background. In other words, it's a smartly designed circuit. Very simple, but thoroughly thought out. As cliched as it will sound it is a very germanium sounding silicon pedal. Not that silicon can't or doesn't sound warm or smooth but, to me at any rate, this degree of refinement adds much greatness to the whole idea of having a circuit so simple in design and function that sounds so well balanced. It'll easily trip on freaked out garage riffage all day long but happily chow down on the heavier 70's vibes.
One knob, many flavours. The Fuzz Box's refinement also makes this a very interactive tool. It stacks well with other noise makers and gels beautifully with a heavily overdriven amplifier, no sag no control loss in the low end. Clean up, you are not going to get clean up from the volume control on your guitar but what you do get is tonal variation. What is there is musical and most definably usable.

ColorSound Overdriver

Hmmm this looks familiar to another layout I've done recently ...
Note that at least one of the transistors is going to be very difficult to obtain now, and/or will be expensive.  The pinouts shown in this layout are based on using more modern transistors as replacements such as the 2N3904 or 2N5088.  Check the pinouts for the transistors you decide to use before soldering.

[Note: Layout updated 20th June 2014]

Colorsound Wah

This seems to be a really nice sounding wah, and without having to hunt for some hard to find and expensive inductor.

ColorSound SupaSustain

This one needs an 18V supply, so use a dedicated supply, two batteries, or you could build up the 9V to 18V converter that I've posted here.  Best results may be obtained if you heat shrink the LED and LDR together or at least wrap a bit of electricians tape round them both.