Here's a collection of vero (stripboard) and tagboard guitar and bass effect layouts that we have put together covering many classic and popular effects in growing numbers. Many of these have been posted on freestompboxes.org, so check that site out for great discussions on building your own effect pedals. Enjoy the builds and please also visit us on Facebook and Twitter
Original info:
"The Mag-Echo pedal simulates tube tape echo sounds by using the delay
circuit and a little bit of modulation. Tape echos have long been
regarded as a warm and very guitar friendly form of delay. The Mag-Echo
achieves similar results by using a touch of Lo-Fi delay, a slightly
filtered echo response to keep things warm, and some modulation.
Modulation, or “Wow and Flutter” in the tape world is a slight pitch
shift or wavering that occurs as the tape is pulled across the heads.
The modulation we use is similar to what we use in our Seafoam Chorus, a
slight wavering of pitch on the trails of the repeats. With a simple
set of controls for the delay – Time, Regen, and Level and with the “Wow
and Flutter” controls – Depth and Rate you can create some very vintage
or rather unique tones"
PedalPCB's schematic, info and pcb available here.
Info about the original: We set out to take a classic design with lots of history and make it
obviously something new. We took the op-amp version of old PI and
inverted one of the stages, brought out the midrange, tightened the
bass, and most importantly, added a Germanium transistor output! Yes,
this is a opamp-transistor hybrid. Don’t be miffed by op-amps in your
pie folks, the germanium touch at the end makes everyone smile around
the shop here.
Info about the original: The Keeley Oxblood Overdrive is our response to everyone kloning pedals. We wanted to build a new circuit that let players blend from perfectly
clean to amp-crushing roar. We wanted that impossibly huge and focused
midrange that makes any guitar… Strat, Paul, Tele, sound incredible.
We knew we could do it our way and offer you more tone. So we designed
this pedal over the course of a few days to outdo the klones.
With the Keeley Oxblood Overdrive you roll off the Drive Control down
and get a perfectly clean sound, you can dial in any amount of
distortion and volume to stomp an amp into pure tonal nirvana. The
Keeley Oxblood Overdrive offers you two ways to clip and saturate your
signal with overtones by selecting carefully chosen diodes. Magical and
Mythical, Monstrous and Most Satisfying they are indeed.
alphadog808 was having problems with his Katana Boost build and I noticed one of the cap values was incorrect. I also noticed that I had no motivation to fix it because it was an old pig ugly layout so thought I'd do an updated version and add it as a new thread to keep the versions separated. A bit smaller than my last layout and I've also included trimmers to replace the JFETs drain resistors to make it easy to bias and fine tune to your own liking. Info about the original: As far as guitar clean boosts go, the Katana is KING TONE. It's the pedal to have for the finishing touch on your tone.
Want a mirror image of your tone, only louder? This is it. The Katana is also a fat, harmonically rich boost, just pull out on the volume knob and stretch your imagination with overdriven tone! You can keep it on all the time to push your amp harder, or as an occasional boost to cut through the mix.
Obsessed or Compelled with the Fattest, Fullest Drive? Well, Before other people started using Blue LED's and non-diode clipping stages, there was the TMB and Katana.... Cascading FET stages do the tube-amp-thing like nothing else!
The Katana circuit is Robert Keeley's first guitar effect design for Keeley Electronics. It was originally designed for Legendary Tones for the Time Machine Boost but then became an independent product under the Keeley name after the Compressor came out. Robert's very first effect pedal design (1999) was a digitally controlled Analog Delay complete with built in digital tuner. It worked perfectly and can even be seen at the shop from time to time. Delay times could be input via a keypad to enter the amount of delay in milliseconds or by potentiometers. The Katana is no less stunning in its beautiful simplicity and stunning sound quality.
So close to the Ross Compressor that the 2-knob versions seems to be essentially verbatim, but I thought the 4 knob version was worth adding for the additional Clip and Attack controls. In the original the onboard trimmer isn't used and instead two 1K resistors were used between the bottom lug of the (top left) 220K and IC pins 2 and 3. Rather than adding fixed resistors I thought it made more sense to leave the 2K trimmer and suggest leaving it in the dead centre position for the stock setting, and so allowing the Clip pot to perform that task, which would mean that you will have some additional tweaking capability to set the base input level using the trimmer which you wouldn't get from the Keeley. So maybe this can be the 4½-Knob Compressor! :o)
Info from RK about the original:
The Keeley Compressor is the award winning industry standard for stomp box compression. The 4 Knob adds Input Clipping and Attack controls to the top of the the original Keeley compressor for easy adjustment. Perfect for those that often switch live between single coils and humbuckers. The sound alone will inspire your creativity.
All of our Compressors are hand built in the USA. Unlike any other compressor, the Keeley Compressor was given the Editor’s Pick Award from Guitar Player’s Magazine and recently awarded Reader’s Choice for Stomp Box. It is a true audiophile and studio grade compressor with an exotic rack mount quality in a stomp box form.
After a few people mentioned wanting to use resistors instead of the trimmer and so mean that it's one less "special item" you have to get in, here's a rejigged revision with the 1K resistors. I still think I'll build it with the trimmer because I like the idea of that fine tuning ability, but you can build whichever version you prefer.
The Java Boost is a germanium based Treble Booster designed to give you classic tones from the 60's and 70's. It is not a clean boost.
It must be used with a cranked amp that is overdriven or distorting a bit already. Cranking the amp and pedal will result in more creamy, beautiful, sustaining distortion with the Java Boost.
The Java Boost is most widely used with a tube amp set to a bit of overdrive or clipping which is the key to getting a great sound from this pedal. Setting the java boost in front of a very clean amp with the volume on 1-2 will surely result in a fairly weak guitar tone! Set the amp for some breakup, then click the Java on. There, you'll have a fantastic sound and see why people rave about the Java Boost.
Features
* Modern Dallas Rangemaster Circuit * 3 way Switched Treble-Booster - Locking 3 way switch so your setting is not moved. * Stock Vintage Rangemaster (Center), Mid-boost (Right), and Full Range (Left) * Metal film parts for low noise * The ULTRA RARE MULLARD OC44 !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
The Java Boost is not related to the TS9 or Blues Driver, or any other distortion or overdrive pedal. Boss and Ibanez do not make anything like it!
This product is a Treble Booster by design, not a typical overdrive or distortion pedal. That means, the higher the note played, the more it gets amplified and then, by your amp, distorted. Bass notes get cut in two modes on the Java Boost!
Some people don't have experience with treble boosters. This can make using the Java Boost difficult if you try to use it with a huge power amp that has tons of headroom or doesn't distort easily. The trick to get the Java Boost to outperform any other pedal is to have the right amp settings. The amp should be on the verge of breakup or greater. This is where the wealth of tone will is possible.
Another way to run it is before an overdrive pedal. This is the pedal to get if you want a two pedal overdrive setup. Couple this in front of a TS9 or BD-2 and the results are simply amazing. This will add sparkle and life to your solos like no other pedal can.
So what if your amp is set to super clean?!?! No problem, I've found that I love the Java Boost in front of most other overdrive pedals! Yes, simply use the Java in front of your blues driver, TS, DS, BD, SD, FF type pedal and you get similar results when the standard overdrive pedal is on.
Vero layout for this popular pedal with built in charge pump to provide the required 18V from a 9V supply.
UPDATE (09-02-2012):
The schematic that this layout was created from has been shown to be incorrect. In the scheme the switchable 10u cap was linked to the source of Q2, this in fact needs to link to the source of Q1. Apologies to anyone who has made this up, but it is a quick fix, just unsolder the cable and re-solder it into it's new home as per the updated layout below:
I haven't seen any layouts of this one around so thought it would be good to add to the collection. I have done this with a 3 position switch so in one position you'll have silicon diodes, in the other postion you'll have germanium, and in the centre off position it will remove all clipping diodes from the circuit.
UPDATE (09-02-2012):
Without the chargepump and so requires an 18V supply. The schematic that the earlier layout was created from has been shown to be incorrect. In the scheme the switchable 10u cap was linked to the source of Q2, this in fact needs to link to the source of Q1. Apologies to anyone who has made this up, but it is a quick fix, just unsolder the cable and re-solder it into it's new home as per the updated layout below:
Here is a simple vero chargepump layout if you need a 9 to 18V converter:
