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Crazy range of tone/drive going on there.  I like this one!

Thanks! I'm really pleased with it too! It might find a permanent spot on the pedalboard.

Now I just have to riff on that MOSmuff you got me musing about.

You could probably keep the baising from the original muff and slap some mosfets in instead of BJTs, at least as a starting point. Use the Cremulator tone stack. The extra cascaded stages in a muff are a big part of that saturated sound, the tradeoff being it doesn't really clean up. If you left out the clipping diodes, it might clean up a little more.

[Fuzz]

Cremulator is an all-mosfet Tone Bender. The main advantage to using mosfets is that the biasing required makes the circuit much less sensitive to transistor beta—no need to test dozens of transistors! It also cleans up better than the BJT version and gets just as wild. I added a versatile tone stack to complete the design.



The enclosure is an LMS limited run that I got for Christmas.



The layout was just for shits and giggles, but I do think it sounds cooler with all the components on the 45°.



The Fuzz is a volume with a treble bleed placed after the initial boost stage. I choose this approach because it keeps the control from crackling and it doesn't darken or get muddy as it is turned down the way a more traditional implementation would. The fuzz section looks like a Fuzz Face because it basically is. Unlike a BJT implementation, R5 is needed to get Q2 to bias properly. C5, C6, and C7 are all added to reduce noise and to keep the clipping from getting too fizzy. The Tilt control is a pretty standard BMP tone control. What makes it special is the Mids control. The high pass portion of the Tilt has a set knee frequency of 1.2kHz, but the Mids control allows the low pass portion to be shifted from 390Hz at the lowest to 4.8kHz at the highest. It scoops the mids that make things muddy, it boosts the mids that make things cut, or it leaves them flat.

I'm really pleased with this circuit.  It does the thing I want from a Muff. It does the bloated Fuzz Face or Tone Bender thing. Plus it chugs and grinds in a way that those other pedals can't.

Here's a demo:

As always, I have extra PCBs. If you're interested, DM me!

THAT's the tune you pick to demo it??? 

I don't know any blues licks...

[Texture]

I've been exporing analog octave circuits lately and nothing sounds quite like the Green Ringer to my ears, but it generally needs help to sound its best. Grawlix is a Green Ringer with some quality-of-life features added.



I repurposed an old enclosure as the original occupant had been superseded by a newer design.



The first half of the circuit is the classic Green Ringer topology with modernized and streamlined values. The bias network is a little eccentric, but it gets the necessary voltage at the base of Q2 to maximize the headroom and octave effect. Instead of a fixed gain, Q1 can now be adjusted. This lets you set the level that hits the rectifier section for the most prominent octave. It can also be cranked up to some serious fuzz. The Texture control pans between metallic fuzz and full octave up. The further clockwise, the more prominent the octave will be. This also makes diode matching less critical, as the Texture control can be adjusted until the octave pops. Q3 buffers the output—I tried to ditch this, but the rectifier is very picky about what comes after it!



The octave section is followed by clipping diodes. These have a similar effect to placing an overdirve after a Green Ringer; they act as a crude form of compression to keep down the crazy transients the octave can produce. With the Gain control low, they don't do anything. After about half way, they start to color the signal.

Tone is a tilt EQ with a mid bump around 800Hz. Clockwise, it cuts the thump of strong transients that can be created with the Gain set low. Counterclockwise, it cuts the fizz and treble without getting too dark. In the middle, it gives you a throaty midrange, similar to running a Tube Screamer after your octave.

Last is a make-up gain stage to ensure a good amount of boost is available at all times.



This circuit definitely does the Green Ringer thing, but I think it's also a reasonable substitute for a Moonrock or a Superfuzz. It can fuzz, but it's more open and dynamic than most octave fuzzes.

Here's a demo:

As always, I have extra PCBs. If you're interested, DM me!

Thanks! It's definitely easier to control the gain with my foot.

Sounds like someone is trying to reinvent the mixing console.

This all started with Jessenator giving me the bullying me for building in 125B instead of 1590B. I threatened to put a mosfet boost in a 1590XX just to spite him. That's not where I ended up, but the idea for this circuit did come to me while contemplating mosfets and revenge.



Polyphemus is a one-knob overdrive/distortion with internal voicing options that allow it to be tailored to a variety of rigs and use cases. The idea was, to do all the dialing in up front, then screw the thing shut and just rock! As it's built around a Super Hard On of sorts, it only seemed appropriate to name it after the original one-eyed monster!



The circuit consists of three gain/eq stages. The first stage is a high shelf filter that boosts everything above a set frequency by 20dB. Everything below that frequency stays at unity gain. The second stage is a simple mosfet boost, which is pushed by the first stage into clipping. The final stage is a low shelf, set at a similar frequency to the first. This flattens out the eq again. This makes for a "transparent" overdrive that emphasizes harmonics and retains clarity, since higher frequencies are saturated more and sooner. It also greatly lowers the noise floor!



Switches 1 and 2 set the capacitance/cut-off frequency in the HPF stage. Switches 3 and 4 set the capacitance/cut-off frequency in the LPF stage. HPF and LPF interact to shape the character of the gain, as well as the frequency response. Flat, transparent overdrive, various kinds of mid boost or treble boost, mid scoop, even distortion/fuzz is achievable. Heat sets the range of the Gain control. This is so that the headroom can be adjusted to suit your pickups and maximize the range of the Gain Control. Output is a volume control. With Heat dialed in, there is a moderate change in volume from the lowest to the highest Gain setting (maybe 6dB). I like to set Output so that the lowest Gain setting is about unity with bypass, but you could attenuate or boost to taste.


Here's a demo:

There's a little dedication to Jessenator on the PCB. 😘 I built mine in a 125B, as is my preference, but it'll fit into a 1590B with top mount jacks. Side jacks are possible, but you'd have to push the Gain knob up to accommodate them. And, of course, it's in green, Jessenator's preferred solder mask color.


As always, I have extra PCBs. If you want one, DM me.

Nah. Just slap a BS170 in the stock circuit and see what it does. You might have to change R12 if the bias is way off, but it probably won't be.

What about using a mosfet for Q3?

The AE tremolo produces a sine wave, or very close to one. I'm using that drive a two-stage optical phaser. It's producing vibrato. It doesn't go very slow, but that's not necessary in my use case. If you want a really slow sign wave, you might consider using a micronctoller. Maybe on of Electric Druid's TAPLFO chips?

*It's designed to fit in a 1590B with top mount jacks.

Autocorrect did me dirty.

Lol that file name. So 1590F is it? 

Jokes aside, nice work!

I'll print something kinder on the actual PCB 😘. The board is designed to fit in a 1590A with too mount jacks (of your into that).

Our repartee got me thinking about the SHO and the Speaker Cranker and how much I enjoy the sound and simplicity of operation. This circuit sandwiches the SHO between a pre-emphasis and de-emphasis stage to create an overdrive while retaining clarity. Gain staging and filter cut-offs can be set internally, then it's all rock and roll!

I couldn't bring myself to do SMD, but I was inspired to make a one knob, mosfet overdive!

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I noticed that you changed Q2 from Ge to Si, did you try both?

I didn't test a Germanium transistor; I generally avoid them as they are both more expensive and less reliable than silicon. The mosfet boost at the front softens things in a similar fashion anyway.