Any suggestions on an overdrive circuit with flexible part values? (caps)

[davidnlsw]

As I spoke of in a previous thread, I've decided to build a pedal using only parts that my (recently deceased) grandpa gave me. He left me a ton of resistors of all values, lots of different diodes, some different ICs, and various film caps.

I don't know the values of some of the caps, so I'm wondering if there's an overdrive circuit you'd recommend that handles a lot of experimentation with cap values and subbing out ICs. I'm looking for something I can build on stripboard, and socket caps and ICs until I find something that works for me.

Any suggestions?

Thanks!

-David

[Leevibe]

This article called Cook Your Own Distortion has been really helpful to me in getting a grasp of opamp based OD circuits. You can breadboard based on what you learn here for a long time. Even a good old Tubescreamer has plenty of mods that involve caps, resistors and diodes.

I can't wait to see what you come up with!

[davidnlsw]

This article called Cook Your Own Distortion has been really helpful to me in getting a grasp of opamp based OD circuits. You can breadboard based on what you learn here for a long time. Even a good old Tubescreamer has plenty of mods that involve caps, resistors and diodes.

I can't wait to see what you come up with!

That looks like a fantastic article! I'll dig into it in the morning. With this project I'm really hoping to learn a lot more about what components do and how different circuits work.

Anyone else want to throw an idea into the ring?

[midwayfair]

Everything's variable if you have a goal in mind or can identify what doesn't matter.

Don't have the right size tone cap? Recalculate the cutoffs with a calculator and see if it matters.

Don't have the right size input cap? A lot of times you can use a bigger value with no change in sound. Don't have the right output cap? Change the size of the volume pot.

And so forth.

Even better, break out the breadboard and see what you can make happen.

[davidnlsw]

Even better, break out the breadboard and see what you can make happen.

That's a good idea. I should breadboard this stuff first.