making pcbs with a fiber laser
DIY Effects Info
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Making PCBs with a Fiber Laser (video)

I recently picked up a 20W fiber laser machine and immediately set about figuring out how to use it for pedal making purposes. Obviously it’s great for etching powdercoat off of enclosures, but it can also engrave into metal. And I also discovered that it can etch, “drill”, and cut out PCB from copper clad blanks. I’m still working out the final details for speeds, power, and frequency, but I’m getting very close. When it’s all done, I will publish the settings so others can use with their machines.

It’s also possible to do double-sided boards, but the process is a bit more complicated as you need to sort out some kind of very accurate alignment jig setup. So for now, just single-sided boards. Read More

basic metal
Effects ProjectsPedals for Sale
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Basic Metal: A FET-tastic dirt circuit

After much tweaking and some setbacks, I’m pleased to announce that my take on the classic “hard-rock / vintage metal” sound is, at long last, ready for public consumption. This one is 100% “discrete” in the sense that there are no integrated circuit components (operation amplifiers or other ICs). It’s all field-effect transistors doing the amplifying and clipping…there aren’t even any clipping diodes in this circuit. There ARE diodes in the circuit, but they are for polarity and over-voltage protection (not in the audio path). Read More

charge pump
DIY Effects InfoEffects Projects
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Charge Pump from CMOS Inverter gates? Yes!

About 12 years ago (yikes!), I came across a rather interesting concept: it’s possible to use CMOS inverters to step up input voltage much the same way as dedicated charge pump ICs work. I loved this idea because it would be cheaper (much cheaper) to play with higher supply voltages for pedal circuits while keeping with the standard single-supply +9V input voltages that have ruled the pedal world from the beginning. Read More

Dead Easy Dirt
Effects Projects
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Dead Easy Dirt V2 – Reboot of my old design

Back in 2012, I put together the simplest circuit I could think of, which was a couple caps, a resistor or two, some diodes, and an LM386 amplifier IC. I left out everything that was 100% necessary for a functional circuit, including polarity protection, pulldown resistor, and power filtering. Lots of people built that simple circuit, so I thought I would update it a bit to include a few basic improvements that I had omitted from the original. The design owes a lot to the Big Daddy from RunoffGroove. Read More

CMOS Eisley
Pedals for Sale
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Actually, it’s a different tremolo coming first: CMOS Eisley

Just got these boards in today and have begun the first prototype build. It’s an optical tremolo with both the audio path and LFO made from a single CD4049 CMOS hex inverter. Despite having it all function in a single IC, there is no LFO ticking in the audio. Two of the inverters are the audio path (input and output amplifiers), and three more inverters are arranged as a low-frequency oscillator. And the last inverter is unused (I may do another iteration later that uses this last inverter to add a bit of grit/drive). Read More

tap temp optical tremolo
Pedals for Sale
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Coming Soon: Tap Temp Optical Tremolo

I’m pleased to announce the first of a few pedals that will be hand built by me in small batches and sold as cheaply as I can manage. There are cheap Chinese pedals galore these days, but I want to try and get as close to I can to slave-labor prices but made in the USA. Think of it as “shabby chic” or maybe “bespoke” rather than old-school “boutique.”

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wahscillator
Effects Projects
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The Wahscillator – An LFO-driven Filter

I always liked the original ROG Phozer’s base sound, but the LFO wasn’t really that useful at lower speeds. So I took the basic idea, which is the Tim Escobedo’s Idiot Wah + LFO, and kicked it up a notch. Instead of the Phozer’s input JFET buffer, I went with an op amp buffer, and since there’s an extra amp in the package, I also added an output buffer. The LFO is the Shoot The Moon tremolo. For the variable resistor element, just about any of the usual suspects will work: LED/LDR combo, vactrol, or even one of those optical ICs such as the H11F1. And that’s how the Wahscillator came to be. Read More

Rat Clone - The Snitch!
Effects Projects
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The Snitch: a ProCo Rat clone project

There are many Rat clone projects out there, but this one is mine. This is a part-for-part clone of the original Rat circuit. There are no extra pots or switches…just three knobs of ass-kicking tone in a small PCB form factor. It’s laid out for 1N4148 / 1N914 diodes, but you could use pretty much whatever you want to mimic the various Rat version. My suggestions:

  • 1N4148 / 1N914 – Classic Rat
  • LEDs (diffused) – Turbo Rat
  • BAT41 or similar Schottky diode – You Dirty Rat (please don’t waste a real Germanium diode on a YDR build)
  • 1x 1N914 + 1x LED – Overpriced boutique Rat variant with an unnecessarily self-aggrandizing name

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