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
So I may as well include this one too. Manufacturers info:
Manufactured for only a few short years in the early '70s, the fOXX Tone Machine was stomped mightily by artists ranging from ZZ Top to Adrian Belew, Parliament-Funkadelic to Peter Frampton. Its legacy has lived on as a new generation of artists (Nine Inch Nails, Beck) has discovered the fat-backed, fuzzed-out sound that screams (in a very fuzzy way, naturally) fOXX Tone Machine!
Guitar Player Magazine (Sept. '96): "The Moose does an impressive imitation of the Foxx Tone Machine, a perennial favorite...The octave effect is extraordinary, one of the clearest and most consistent we've heard...The non-octave fuzz tone is huge and grunting with a lively resonant hum..." We use the same transistors as the original Tone Machine, but as a bonus we did a few modifications that make the Piercing Moose even better than its illustrious forefather. For example, we eradicated the pesky AM radio frequencies that the original would pick up and we added a foot switch to allow for greater control over the units two types of fuzz. Units have octave foot switch, level, tone and fuzz controls. (Thanks to DiscoFreq's effectsdatabase for the information).
I thought I'd include the Bearfoot version of the Honey Bee, because I've heard quite a few people say they prefer it to the original. Unfortunately you can't just change a few values using my BJF Honey Bee layout because there is an added resistor that needed cramming in. Still you can just build both and the MP Sweet Honey as well and then you've got the set! :o)
Info from the maker:
The Honey Bee sounds and reacts like small vintage combos with nicely worn tubes and speakers.
The Volume control controls the overall volume without changing the distortion.
The Drive control varies the distortion complexity and saturation.
The middle control adjusts the 'nature' of the EQ - begin with this control at straight up 'noon' ~ to the right there is a subtle adjust ment to the upper frequencies with the most treble at full clockwise.
... turning this control counterclockwise from noon adds in lows and changes the distortion saturation interactively with the Drive knob ~ and at full counterclockwise the Honey Bee is fully bloated and saturated like a small combo pushed to its limits.
Contrary to what you can see in the layout or what you may assume because of the BJF Honey Bee, the Bearfoot Honey uses red LEDs. I'd strongly suggest socketing these LEDs though, the red ones will give more distortion and compression which will suit some people, but others may prefer the response given by the greens like in the original BJF pedal.
BJF design high headroom overdrive with adjustable low/mid EQ balance
Premium quality classic blues/rock pedal that works very well with complex overdriven amp sound. This pedals is now offered as lower priced pcb-model or hand wired pedal.
Both share the same specs and tone.
It's a low compression, high headroom overdrive with high output, and it has a Body knob for adjusting low-mid content and treble.
The LGW was made to be a stackable overdrive that could go anywhere in the pedal chain and the compression normally associated with this type of circuit is reduced same as several distortion mechanisms.
This pedal will work very well with amps and other pedals that have a lot of complexity or compression, a situation that not all pedals work well.
LGW makes a great building block to sound yet it works standalone and especially with humbuckers where normally this type of circuit would not work satisfactory, much due to bass loss and sometimes separated sounds (where transients feed through and a cloud of distortion follows beneath.
Body control gives access to medium midhump at center position and allows treble boost at cw rotation and low mid/treble boost a ccw position and so unit also can provide distortion albeit a smooth type. LGW can be used as an overdrive to already distorting amplifiers or pedals downstream, as well as function as a filter when feed with fuzz pedals that may be rough on some amplifiers and can also be used as light overdrive for just breaking up sounds.
As designer Bjorn Juhl put it:
"Whereas Little Green Wonder is a TS-style pedal, but one for those who don't generally like TS-style pedals.
Big difference between these two pedals would be headroom, distortion style and distortion depth and treble response, output level, function of tone knob, color, symbol.... they do share a common layout of mechanical components."
"The Compulator was born after I solved an engineering problem of biasing an optical unit with only a single 9V battery. I had always loved the sound of optical compressors and designed and manufactured tube units in the pro audio market for a number of years. I wanted to make a pedal, but it took years to come up with a method to do it the right way. The result is the Compulator, winner of Guitar Player Editor's Pick Award and the only compressor that does not suck away your tone." - James
The sound of classic studio optical compression of the 60's and 70's at your feet! The first compressor pedal not to suck the life out of your tone.
Operation is fairly straightforward. There are two inputs on the front side of the unit: a 1/4" input jack on the right and a 1/4" output jack on the left with a battery-ground switch on the input jack.
There are two controls on the unit: compress and volume, plus a foot switch to bypass the effect, and an LED to indicate effect operation. On the side there is a trim pot to set the overall gain of the unit.
Compress affects the amount of gain reduction (compression) of the input signal. Turning this clock wise will give you up to 30dB of gain reduction (depending on input gain). Please note that the Compulators max gain is 26dB (see Trim Pot) so in some circumstances if your instrument is very hot you could achieve less than unity gain if you turn up the compress knob too much.
Volume increases and decreases the output volume of the Compulator. Use this for level matching between the effected and unaffected signal.
Trim pot sets the gain of the compressor's pre-amplifier. If distortion occurs turn this down until the signal is clean. The unit is set at the factory at 20dB of gain which is perfect for most instruments. If you have weaker pickups or want to push the envelope turn it up to its max gain 26dB.
Update: There was a missing cut between the top of the 619R and the 10K, so if you've been having trouble with this layout then give that a try. Layout updated below.
