Effects Projects Archives - Page 2 of 2

Several people have asked me to repost my older layouts for the often copied (and frequently sold for big bucks, see below for details) Electra Distortion circuit. This is a surprisingly good-sounding circuit for so few components. No fancy parts needed; just a fun little circuit that swings way above its weight.

The name is a little misleading, though. It’s really not a distortion in the modern sense of the word. At best, it’s a medium overdrive gain-wise.

My old schematic drawing and two different DIY layouts for the Electra Distortion are posted below. One is for perf board and the other is for building the Electra on an eyelet, turret, or strip board.

If you like simplicity and great tone, also check out my “Onsie”, which is a very classic take on the old Bazz Fuss circuit, as well as my “SmallBazz” project, which is a germanium mojo-infused version of the Bazz Fuss.

Electra Distortion Schematic

Electra Distortion DIY Layouts

The first one is for perfboard, while the second is for an eyelet / turret style build.

Cash Cow: The Electra Distortion in the Boutique Pedal World

As mentioned above, the Electra has made its rounds in the boutique pedal world, ranging back to the earlier days when everything was a mystery and before folks like FreeStompBoxes were willing to tear things apart and see what was under the hood. Perhaps the best known, and widest selling, is/was the Church of Tone 50 by Lovepedal. Also knowns as “COT50”, there were no less than a dozen different slight variations of this pedals sold over many years, all being slight mods on the classic Electra original.

Lovepedal also sold other pedals with essentially the same circuit (very minor changes), including: Les Lius, Tchula, Champ, JTM, and others. The mileage squeezed out of this one simple circuit is simply astounding.

Another very successful Electra variant is the Speaker Cranker from Earthquaker Devices.

Disclaimer: some of the links on this page are affiliate links.

Effects Projects

February 23, 2023 effdub

Box of Hall – DIY Reverb

I came up with the Box of Hall reverb circuit way back in 2012. The Belton BTDR-2 bricks had just come out, and I wanted to have the first working circuit out on the DIY scene. A whole LOT of people copied this design and called it their own, but this one is the original (from your old pal culturejam).

To be blunt, this design is largely based on the Belton application note’s example circuit, but I added a high-pass filter tone control and changed up other filter cutoff curves as well. I also added an op amp buffer for the virtual ground (VREF) used to bias the other three op amps in the circuit. A subsequent version also added a wet feedback loop to allow for better control of decay time, as well as wacky ambient swell capabilities. I will post that version sometime in the future. But for now, this is a nice, simple reverb circuit that anyone can build and that will sound great.

There is a fair bit of modulation happening in all circuits using the BTDR-2 brick, and that’s something that’s just a part of the brick. You can’t dial it out (but apparently you can drill it out). But, it sounds pretty cool and adds a nice extra layer of complexity in the background. So if you like modulated reverb, you definitely want to build one of these.

Download the Box of Hall Reverb file pack, which contains schematic and layout images, as well as Eagle CAD files (suitable for editing or ordering PCBs directly).

Here’s a demo of the Box of Hall Reverb done by some other guy:

Effects Projects

February 23, 2023 effdub

SmallBazz – Germanium Bazz Fuss for DIY

I can promise that you haven’t seen this exact circuit configuration in some over-priced boutique pedal. What we have here is my wacko take on the classic Bazz Fuss, a mainstay DIY favorite owing to its low parts count and surprisingly amazing fuzz tone. The original uses a darlington integrated circuit in a transistor-sized package (MPSA13), so I thought I’d spice things up with a discrete darlington arrangement but with germanium transistors instead of silicon. More mojo, amirite? Germanium Bazz Fuss is the coolest.

And to add to the quirkiness of this particular circuit, I decided to go with an oddball transistor: the NPN Germanium 2N1101, which is readily available from Small Bear Electronics. Why this particular part number? Two main reasons: 1) it’s NPN and much easier to deal with in terms of biasing and power supply setup, and 2) I’ve never seen it used in any circuit, and that’s enough for me. Also, it’s cheap and easy to source (at least for now as of 2023). The drawback? It’s not at all a standard package, doesn’t readily fit any existing PCB layouts, and doesn’t exist as a part in any of the common PCB creation applications.

So I created my own part for the 2N1101 in Eagle CAD and set off to create a fun new version of the Bazz Fuss. I added a few extra features: a switch to toggle between two feedback clipping diodes, a gain control, and a bias trimmer to dial in those finicky Germanium transistors. Here’s the schematic:

Once more for the SEO: Germanium Bazz Fuss.