Thorpy FX The Dane

As requested on the forum, this is the original version of The Dane based on schematics found on one of the effect PCB sites.  A Drive only version was requested so I've done this on two separate boards for Drive and Boost, each with their own independant supply filtering and Vref components.  If you want to build the whole thing you can either do it on two boards as shown, or it should be easy to adapt to a single board, and you could even potentially make them a bit smaller by removing the duplicated filtering and Vref parts.

Info about the original:

T-Rex Mudhoney V1.1

I recall reading how most of the Mudhoney DIY builds were just not sounding right.. Recently re-traced on FSB by Kasper, from his V1.1 version of the pedal - there may have been a fault with the schematics that previously floated around the web. When i saw this, i thought "the switch shouldn't work like that".. But it seems like it really does, and with this configuration, instead of the Ruetz-style mods on the Rat, one may finally get that Mudhoney (err.. tuned Rat?) tone out from a stripboard. There are the BJT transistor buffers in place to keep the topology close to an idol, but obviously the electronic switching is removed to accomodate true bypass. The oldee PSG demo may look outdated today, but it does not sound bad. And hey! It starts with a Dinosaur Jr riff with the pedal!

I'll leave a note on the orginal take of this layout...

..And there's been slight development. This V2 of the layout incorporates 47R CLR for power supply and a 10K pulldown at the output as on Kasper's later revision of the schem. Making this now verbatim with the original. I doubt it'll sound any different from the slightly smaller layout above. But for the sake of completeness.. Here's a layout again as revision 2.

Devi Ever/Dwarfcraft Devices Super Soda Meiser

This one was recently traced on FSB and as i have a soft spot for Devi & Dwarfcraft circuits alone and together, i had to draw it up.. A bit like original Soda Meiser, or at least some revisions of it, but this time with a Chaos switch and a Drone-knob.

Dylan159's Boot Fuzz

2023. How the heck are we still alive.. No matter. Let's do another layout or two. This time, another nice, loud little circuit from Dylan159's Unrealeased Circuits - From the source:
Boot Fuzz. I found this simple old-school microphone preamp, and noticed the similarity with the Fuzz Face, also claimed to be based around a microphone preamp, but in this case the second stage is an emitter follower bootstrapping the load of the first for big gains. So I thought why not fuzzing it up by increasing the gain? This ends up being similar to an Escobedo circuit, but with a different, more stable biasing. 

LastGasp Art Laboratories Octavella

 It's christmas day! So it's time for another noisy octave thingy in style of LAL!

Smart People Factory Red Threat V2

Happy holidays! We hope you have a good one! ...and there's number of unverified layouts for you to try out this holiday season! Like this one..

Dylan159's Troupple Boost

I'll be posting a few circuits from Dylan159's Unreleased Ciruits. There was the Fuzz Facelift posted earlier and i'll continue with more of these goodies. Next up:

Troupple boost. Gamers might get the reference. This came out from my wish for a simple, clean treble boost that could work from a variety of supply voltages to be even cleaner. The rangemaster's bias varies wildly to the point that barely works at 18v. This one features the same bass cutoff and the same input impedance, resulting in that small resonant peak and treble damping. You can try a 10n cap for a more tube screamer-like response.

Danelectro Fab Overdrive

Someone mentioned that the circuit in an earlier post would have possibly been an inspiration for this one. Not sure if i share the sentiment, since that 80's japanese design and this have basically, or in quite broad terms, just the gain pot method in common with each other.

Anyway. Quite a few people seem to lke this ultra-cheap OD. And what's not to like. There's a nice, loud clipping amp followed by tuned TS-style tone control. Not that complicated, but sure does sound nice.

Vesta Fire / Reagun / Nadine's Overdrive

Second post for today is the Overdrive from Manfred's trace (at FSB). This comes from the same series as it's distortion brother (see the earlier Vesta Fire Distortion post), but the design is slightly more obscure. Still, the inverting input filter path to ground gain pot method on a non-inverting gain stage is used. However, the clipping isn't your bog standard feedback loop diodes. The original diodes in series with 10K resistor are something that hasn't been identified (at least not yet), so i figured this would be a nice board to try on your stash of non-conventional diodes. Maybe some zeners? I'm fairly certain this circuit won't sound bad, no matter what diodes you put in there...

Vesta Fire / Reagun / Nadine's Distortion

Not that long ago, Manfred traced his Reagun Distortion unit and posted the results on FSB. These pedals were sold as Vesta Fire, Nadine's and Reagun brands around early to mid-eighties. All these were made by Shiino Vesta Fire Corporation (SVFC), which became Vestax back in 1987.

Designwise these are not bad at all. This one reminds me of OD250 with BMP style tone stack and a decent inverting amplifier as a recovery stage. Might be worth to try out. Sadly, i couldn't find any demos...

Exar MM-04 Moon Metal

 Next up from Vitalii's traces is Moon Metal from later Exar series. Youtube demo found isn't all that great, but there's very nice EQ section and gain range seems quite good as well. Not a small circuit, but i think this could be quite usable.

DNA Analogic Smoky Fuzz

 Traced on FSB by Asbestosaurus, this circuit looks at a first glance a bit like OD250/Dist+, but no. And the Sense control makes this quite interesting. I built my layout version one, but this is redrawn to make it better.. Anyway, nice to see something cool done to a single opamp drive topology.

Caline CP-29 White Heat

 Boost with grit. Basic, but not exactly like all the others out there.

Biyang Tonefancier BL-8 Blue

 This one is kind of a take on a single opamp overdrive with hard clippers ala OD250/Dist+, but the gain control is placed on the feedback loop like in many standard overdrive designs. Nothing too speacial or different, but a nice addition to overdrive palette nevertheless. Snippet from the spiel:
The BL-8 delivers a creamy yet clear overdrive the sounds like the old tube amps of the 70's. Highly recommended for those who play Blues and Country music.

Exar HR-03 Hammer

 Another one from Vitalii's traces. This one seems quite nice modern metal distortion with reasonable frequency characteristics. Should be enough gain too. The 47K at the top (horizontal one) may be a point to tweak for even more over the top gain. Like so many of these pedals of Polish origin, this one seems to have no demos available either..

Sarno Earth Drive

 Traced by GratefulEight, this overdrive seems like a circuit worth to try out.

From the source: The Earth Drive is the ultimate boost/overdrive pedal, designed to retain your instrument's natural character while providing an organic, full-bodied, yet transparent sound.

Use the Earth Drive as a clean boost to add warmth and smoothing, or turn up the drive knob and get a wide spectrum of overdrive harmonics and singing sustain. The Earth Drive has a huge range of boost control with its volume knob, while the tone knob helps you perfectly dial in the treble response.

Whether you play bass, pedal-steel, electric piano, electric guitar, organ, whatever, the Earth Drive is quite possibly the most useful and versatile drive pedal you've ever heard.

Exar DS-02 Distortion

 VitaliiBobrov is doing an amazing job in tracing Exar pedals. This Polish brand has some decent tones and lots of room for tweaking and trying things out. Once again, try to tweak the values at the inverting input to ground. And try on a different pair of diodes for clippers, etc.

No demos around for this one either...

Lastgasp Art Laboratories Green Monster Septic Fuzz

 Found this circuit from the DEFX files and thought this to be quite interesting. Discontinued circuit with noise for days. From the source:

The GREEN MONSTER septic fuzz (GM2)is an effect
pedal to create a septic distortion.

Characterized by a dirty, broken and rotten sound. Bad handling!

GREEN MONSTER is back with four knobs! There is an easy to use sound which the first GREEN MONSTER (ultra fuzz) was never able to create, but the sound is still putrifying! Genuine septic sound can be found here!

First one is close to the original...

 

 ...and the latter is with DEFX mods - adding a gain switch for stock and other...
 

Joyo Roll Boost

Nice, small and has room for tweaking - i just love to do these modern, super cheap china circuits.. Layout is according to fsb-trace by CheapPedaCollector - who does amazing job with pedals like this one.

 

 

Dylan159's Fuzz Facelift

 It's december already!

From Dylan159's Unreleased circuits on FSB:
I'm not done with fuzz faces it seems. This one's goal is to keep all the classic cranked gain tones while making the ill-treated gain knob more useful. This is accomplished by moving the gain control to the first stage. When maxed, you have a classic, low input impedance, high gain fuzz face, because the emitter is effectively grounded. At low gain, the input impedance rises to something close to 200k or more, hopefully giving an interesting sound without the usual dulling that happens. Last but not least, this one doesn't need trimming! the emitter resistor assures predictable bias even with widely differing beta. You can still make it adjustable if you like to mess with it. Care has been taken to avoid blocking, since we're adding capacitors. With these values, blocking is roughly the same as with the original.

Update: Oops. There was a cut missing from the fuzz 3 + 100µ cap.. 8.12.2022, now fixed... and verified.