Fender Vibrato/Tremolo

I had just read an article on Fender tremolos here. This article brought up the subject of the Fender three tube Vibrato This is a tremolo effect that pans between two signals, one from a High pass and the other…

True Bypass with an LED!

I bought this switch from Smallbear about ten years ago, probably around 2000. It cost $13! Before that time this was a high tech item that was only available in Fulltone products from what I understand. Legend has it that…

Baritone Guitar

I had gotten this itch to get a baritone guitar. Not sure where it came from, maybe I was listening to to much Ennio Morricone? I must have bought it in the early 2000s. I found this on sale for…

Breadboard test rig

I had been meaning to make one these for a long time. Of course, like so many other things I managed to procrastinate on this simple but practical project for years. Well I finally got around to making the thing.…

Mini Maker Faire in Oakland CA

Looks like there’s a mini Maker Faire in the east bay. The big Maker Faire in San Mateo this year, though it had a lot going on was so crowded that I couldn’t really enjoy it. This might be better…

Octave Fuzz Take 2

Here’s an updated version of the octave fuzz. Q1 and Q2 set up a basic NPN Fuzz Face type circuit. While Q3 acts as a phase splitter. Q4 and Q5 act as a frequency doubler each side being fed an…

Pignose

The DIY swap meet was great. I saw this Pignose amp at one of the tables. Normally this wouldn’t really interest me. But, my wife had put this amp on her Amazon wish list. They wanted $40, I didn’t have…

Sustainers

I was at the DIY swap meet last weekend where I was shown a DIY “e-bow”. It consisted of an electric motor, 9V battery and switch. The shaft of the motor had what looked like a propeller made of electrical…

New Stompswitch

You’re probably familiar with the classic blue 3PDT stomp switches that have been around for some years. These are ubiquitous in the stompbox realm. Everyone uses these, from the major manufacturers to the small builders and hobbyists. They work well…

Switching Madness

Mark Hammer on DIYStompboxes gave me the idea to add a momentary switch to a Ring Modulator. After thinking about this for a while I thought it be great to have both a momentary and bypass switches. The momentary switch…