We need to talk about sustainers. A sustainer is a device that increases the sustain of your instrument. These come in a few varieties. There are pedal sustainers, handheld sustainers, and in guitar sustainers. All of these can be divided into two types sustainer effects and what I’ll call string drivers. Sustainer effects are effects … Read more
Here is an updated post with a schematic and parts for the Deformis. This started as Tim Escobedo’s Ugly Face. I made a few changes. I swapped the LM386 with a dual op-amp. The 386 was used in the Ugly Face as an amplifier with a gain of 200, a single op-amp can easily replace … Read more
If you’re into to cheap guitar parts you have probably heard of GuitarFetish.com. If not you should check it out. They sell an array of pickups that are cheap and get good reviews. I’v tried a couple of these and they sound good to me. They also offer a feature called Kwikplug. Kwikplug is a … Read more
Here is an updated post for the UBE Screamer v2. The UBE Screamer was invented by the smart guys over at RunOffGroove.com, tireless purveyors of all things stomp box from the early days of the hobby. The UBE Screamer was their entry in the FX-X contest of August 2006 over at DIYStomboxes.com. Check out that … Read more
I’m a big fan of Bandcamp, it has everything I want in a music service, it supports consuming music by the album, and has great support for music creators. The first Friday of every month they give 100% of proceeds to the band! So today is a great day to buy some music! Here are … Read more
I built the PedalPCB terrarium a few months ago. I Finally got around to installing some software and testing it out. I found this post on the PedalPCB forum. Sonic_explorer includes a link to a bin file for a multi-tap delay. I decided this might be a good place to start. I tried a few … Read more
This is my second try to get this right. I designed a PCB for this earlier but the errors were too great to get around. Quick overview, Frobnicator is a tremolo by John Hollis, one of the original DIY crew. He designed a few very original effects that still exist on his site. Frobinactor is … Read more
This is a board I created for Deadastronaut’s Tremshifter. The Tremshifter is a combination tremolo and filter. It has two LFO’s, one for each the tremolo and filter, with a rate and a depth pot for each. The tremolo section has a shape switch for square and triangle. The filter section has a an on … Read more
I have been off the pedal building thing for a little while. I ran out of solder and had to take a break. But I just ordered a new spool!
This is a redesign of the Tremshifter by Dead Astronaut FX. It’s a tremolo and filter in one. There are two LFOs, one driving each the tremolo and the filter, with a rate and depth control for each. I built a couple of the Dead Astronaut boards and they worked well. I didn’t like the … Read more
This is my spin on Tim Escobedo’s Ugly Face. The original is a great DIY project anyone that hasn’t built it should give it a try. Super fun, unique sound, parts are easy to get, and it’s not a difficult built. This version makes a few changes to the original. The original uses an LM386 … Read more
