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Lately I've been building Red Llamas with the CD4069 chip - because I was given a bunch of 4069s by a friend. It probably sounds exactly the same as a 4049 but at least the 4069 is two pins smaller! The two-knob version seems to sound better to me and it really does sound good with the 4069...

I've been amazed at just how good the Kalundra sounds, and how versatile it can be. I have made a few simple mods to mine which make it even more usable (for me) as I am no shredder or user of high gain. All I have done is get rid of the Width pot and R6, change R4 to 10K and change the Gain...

A while back a friend found a heap of obscure ICs and knowing that I dabble in amps and pedals he brought them around to see if I could use them. Amongst them was a tube of 4069UBDC 14 pin ICs. I drew up a layout for a version of the Red Llama to try with this chip then promptly forgot about it...

I am looking at the schematic for the White Washer Distortion and C3 and C4 are two 1µF caps in parallel to VRF. Surely I could just use a single 2µ2? Is Mr Black using up his bulk shipment of 1µ caps?

I actually built the electronic parts of these almost a year ago. I built the cabs and then they sat there most of the year as I psyched myself up for the tolexing. And now they are done. Both are 1x12 combos with Celestion G12H speakers. I have posted pics of the interiors before so here are...

Reading @MichaelW 's post about his TS-808 build reminded me about my own experiments with that circuit. As someone who uses very few pedals in a chain and dislikes most buffers I wanted to try building a TS-808 without the transistor stages. Then I thought that I might as well add a Bass pot...

Having built a Kadundra Distortion I was quite impressed with the overall sound, but found it way too gainy for a Gretsch player like me! I wondered if it could become virtually an overdrive. I also wanted some control over that ferocious low end. R5 and C4 are, I suspect, a big part of the...

I can't believe it's an original design. I've been experimenting with the circuit and getting some decent results. Anyone see where it's come from? I can't put my finger on it.

I'm thinking of building a Hen's Tooth Distortion which calls for a JRC5534. As it's a single op-amp chip I thought maybe I could use a TL071 or CA3130. But looking at the schematic it looks like the compensation cap goes between pins 1 and 5. So do I need to buy a JRC5534 which I will probably...

Being based on the Rat pedal the Honey Bee uses a CA3130 single op-amp chip and a 2N5457 JFET. To over-simplify it's a two gain stage pedal. Could we make it with a dual op-amp chip like the TL072 etc? Obviously it won't sound exactly the same but how close could we get? And is there a dual...

Just built a Zorkmid but it sounds a bit weird. Do we have a schematic or at least a pic of the PCB with values written on it so that I can check my work?

Looking at the schematic it looks like the second chip does barely anything - is it there just to bump up the level a bit? If I was to build it with just the one IC would it be a bit quiet?

If so I think it's next on my list of things to build.

I can't imagine it would be easy. I have a Boss DM2-W which I really like except that whenever I plug it in it really affects my signal. I can hear that the guitar sound I have gone to such lengths to make as good sounding as it can be has lost punch as soon as the DM2-W gets involved. I like...

I'm looking inside a pedal I like and it has this tiny component I assume is a cap. As far as I can tell the markings are MRL and 650 - it might be MAL. But I think MRL is more likely. Is this a 65pF cap?

I just built a Prismatic Distortion and I don't have an LM741 - can I use a UA741 which I do have? Thing is, I have tried the UA741 and am getting no signal through. If I turn the volume up I am getting some hiss but no guitar.

First of all I promised I would post some pics of a JTM45 I just finished once I received the replacement OT from Mercury Magnetics. I had received a DOA OT from them which is kind of unusual. But now it's done, short of building a cabinet to put it in. It will be as small as 1x12 combo with a...

As I've mentioned here before I've built a few Broadcast pedals without the transformer and struggle to hear any meaningful difference. Now I see that the Greer Royal Velvet (British Royalty OD) is using the exact same transformer at the very end of the circuit. Apparently they have found a way...

I'm thinking of building one of these for a friend who is a massive QOTSA fan. So I had a look at the PPCB schematic and saw something I hadn't seen before (well that's not difficult for me!) - pin 6 of IC2 goes to a 47K resistor which goes to a 1M5 to pin 7. Why wouldn't they just use one...

I bought a few Mystery Meat PCBs a while ago because I suspected that I might want to modify it. As it happens I was right! The first one I built dead stock, just to hear what was going on. I am wary of replacing parts on PCBs because it can go badly very fast. So when I found that the stock...