Tonepad boards. Are they any good?

like Yeah!

like Yeah!

Member
Hi.,. I've been looking at all the different pcb sites and i saw some things on this tonepad site that might be interesting to try, but i'm wondering how the boards are because well. it seems like everyone else including ppcb is making boards with all the latest doodads and the boards look fantastic..
Then there's tonepad's boards, which look like etches from the 1980's. Not knocking them, just going on visuals.

Are the newr style boards that much better? or are these tonepad pcbs still viable options?
 
When I first started building, Tonepad and Madbean were pretty much the only options for PCBs. And if you didn't have the money to buy actual PCBs, you used the Tonepad layouts to etch your own with the ferric chloride that you could buy down the street at Radioshack (this was 2014).

I think the only board I actually bought from them was Tremulus Lune because the fabbed PCB was a smaller footprint than the etch design. If Tonepad is still making the boards I have every expectation that they're still good, but I will say the layouts aren't as refined and sexy as the boards you're used to seeing everywhere else. So if they have a circuit you want and can't get anywhere else I would fully expect it to work, but if you can get the same board from PedalPCB or Madbean, I would lean towards either of them instead.
 
I see. i've been looking around at the microamp boards out there because i want to build a pedal with two in it.

I didn't find a microamp board here on ppcb, but i've read elsewhere that i could use a od250 board because the schematic is just different parts in the holes.
Then I learned that tayda has a microamp specific board haha. It's probably the most compact board.
Then there's guitarpcb who sells a distortion+ board, but they also sell a microamp specific board, but it's kind of physically big for what it is.

Then there's tonepad, who is offering a microamp/distortion+/od250 board, but they are also selling a stereo microamp board that uses a 4558. That stereo board is the thing that prompted me to ask..

i guess i could buy the stereo one and two of the other 3 offerings to compare.. i don't have any experience with guitarpcb or tayda stuff either so i wonder how people feel about that stuff too. The tayda ones look promising because they are small, but just getting some extra od250 boards might be the way considering i want to build one of those anyway..

Thanks for the commentary!
 
Tonepad was the tightest layouts back in the dark ages. I bought a few of them when I first got started, but etched pretty much everything they made. I don't miss the etching days but did get relatively good at it and gave me a cheezy excuse to buy a drill press to drill the bazillions of holes.

And the Distortion + is still one of my fave pedals
:cool:
 
Gordo said:
Tonepad was the tightest layouts back in the dark ages.
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Gordo said:
And the Distortion + is still one of my fave pedals
:cool:
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nice!

jwin615 said:
There's also the EL drivestortion.
Quite compact layout, as usual for EL
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i guess i'm on this side quest because i 've read that not all layouts are equal and i'm trying to get the one that's the latest/best example.. It's probably one of those subjective questions. also, thanks for this new lead! so far it feels like a tossup with so many choices hahah
 
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like Yeah! said:
i guess i'm on this side quest because i 've read that not all layouts are equal and i'm trying to get the one that's the latest/best example.. It's probably one of those subjective questions. also, thanks for this new lead! so far it feels like a tossup hahah
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Not sure I understand.
Latest example of a nearly 50 year old circuit? I thought you were looking for compact. There's not much to these layouts, unless you subscribe to the TGP lore type stuff. If so, you do you. 😊
The EL has all the BOMs. Not sure what others do.
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jwin615 said:
Not sure I understand.
Latest example of a nearly 50 year old circuit?
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no.
latest/best example of somebody doing the 50 year old circuit with modern methods.
jwin615 said:
I thought you were looking for compact.
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compact is good, the tayda offering wins as far as that goes. but is it a good layout of the design?
jwin615 said:
There's not much to these layouts, unless you subscribe to the TGP lore type stuff.
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I'm too new to even know what this means. Thank you for the commentary!
edit- i'm probably overthinking it a little, but it's nice to see what the opinions are
 
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For mine I went with the Aion board (Aphelion), which is about the largest you can find, but it had some cool switching options. It's likely overkill for your application, but you could do a cool hybrid. It's got a LOT of build details as Kevin (Aion runner) has really done his homework on the various versions.
 
Gordo said:
For mine I went with the Aion board (Aphelion), which is about the largest you can find, but it had some cool switching options. It's likely overkill for your application, but you could do a cool hybrid. It's got a LOT of build details as Kevin (Aion runner) has really done his homework on the various versions.
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interesting. i was planning on building out an od250 with the yjm spec after i finish this build.. so maybe i'd want to try the aion one for that build. Thank you for the tip!
 
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"The TGP lore type stuff" refers to The Gear Page, where badly informed tubescreamer fans ascribe mojo to anything vaguely resembling a tubescreamer. They also worship the Timmy. Disinformation abounds.
 
HamishR said:
"The TGP lore type stuff" refers to The Gear Page, where badly informed tubescreamer fans ascribe mojo to anything vaguely resembling a tubescreamer. They also worship the Timmy. Disinformation abounds.
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i see., thanks for the lore of the lore! I actually hate tubescreamers. I prefer shoving as much clean volume as i can into the front without blowing it up. i bought an amp with an input tube to abuse for a reason
that said, i'd rather have the (insert circuit in question) with the latest revision and newish methods even if i'm just going to make dirt pedals.. it's 2026.
:) i like the way the guitar tone is when it's born from the guitar.
 
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As do I! What really annoys me about most ODs, especially the TS, is how they compress everything and mute the highs. They makes everything sound smaller and kinda plastic. I was going to say "and that's what people love about tubescreamers" but I'm not sure that's true. I suspect a lot of guys like Tubescreamers because the internet told them to. Especially TGP.
 
HamishR said:
As do I! What really annoys me about most ODs, especially the TS, is how they compress everything and mute the highs. They makes everything sound smaller and kinda plastic. I was going to say "and that's what people love about tubescreamers" but I'm not sure that's true. I suspect a lot of guys like Tubescreamers because the internet told them to. Especially TGP.
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well, to be fair, a mid heavy pedal has its place. like a single coil into a fender amp might benefit from something like that.. I've got an lp and a blackstar s1-104 6l6 and a 2x12 cab though.. so something like a tubesceamer just sounds poop
 
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like Yeah! said:
well, to be fair, a mid heavy pedal has its place. like a single coil into a fender amp might benefit from something like that.. I've got an lp and a blackstar s1-104 6l6 and a 2x12 cab though.. so something like a tubesceamer just sounds poop
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Oh I like mid-heavy ODs! I dislike the muted highs and extreme lack of any low end.
:)
 
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