r/diypedals

If you've been into DIY guitar pedals for a while then you've probably used Jack Orman's calculators at Muzique.com. His "gyrator calculator" saved me a ton of time when I was starting out, and even these days I'll still pull it up when I need a quick answer without opening LTSpice.

Some of you might know me from Wampler Pedals and others might know I started doing online courses around DIY stuff a while back. I've been creating a variety of tools for our members, and since so many great people like Jack, RG Keen, Mark Hammer and an million others helped me along the way, I wanted to give back a bit and pay some respect to the tools that helped me, just with a more modern "take" on them, and hopefully help some folks as well. :)

This first one is a gyrator calculator. I wanna make sure it works across all the different browsers, phones, etc. If you don't mind and if it's interesting to you, run through it and let me know if you hit any problems or errors. I'd appreciate it. There's no cost or anything like that. It's free/no sign in needed, etc - Bookmark it if you'd like.
Here's the URL:
https://www.guitarpedalcourse.com/pages/gyrator-calculator

If you do see any problems, please let me know if you're on a computer or mobile and what browser you're using. Thanks!

Just the classic HP with the 2N404A/2N3565 transistor pair, demo in comments

(sorry, no Albini)

Hey guys,

So.. I'm pretty new to building pedals and I know a little soldering. I found this schematic (linear power boost). If I get all the parts, enclosure and a stripboard, I should be able to build this, right? But where do I put the input and output jacks? And what about the 9V input? Is there something in the schematic I'm missing?

This is part of the schematic from pedalpcb's pacifier (dod punkifier) circuit.

I feel like r4 and r9 being 22M means they essentially do nothing in this circuit and could be omitted entirely and you'd never know.

R4 is connected to 4.5 volts.

Wouldn't the collector/collector to base resistor always be providing more current than those enormous resistors?

I am trying to understand what they are doing and it just seems like nothing no matter how i look at it.

Updated in the comments

Hey reddit! I've been trying to make my own pcb for a while and I think I'm really close! But I'm not sure where to place my gnd jack into. Can anyone help and also point out if I have any missing stuff? Thanks!

I’ve seen products like this that claim to un-buffer a guitar signal to allow impedance sensitive pedals to be places anywhere in the chain without consequence.

How do these circuits work and could anyone point me in the direction of a DIY solution?

https://www.ds-custom.net/products.html?store-page=DS-Custom-FFB-M-Unbuffer-for-Fuzz-Pedals-p650314868&fbclid=IwdGRleAS3UEFwZG9mA2ZkaWQWUJ9X8qdRXzBddiuROPEyELCd5D4Iv2V4dG4DYWVtATAAYWRpZAGrNVTRv03Hc3J0YwZhcHBfaWQKNjYyODU2ODM3OQABHt55qkw5tTXsVhjmMB3LiawQuFPmzuFYC7iy25-nJ3wHed5XSkCMEWCaKQ0I\_aem\_m2laB7c93t2hr0vSyYwvOg&utm\_medium=paid&utm\_source=fb&utm\_id=120244859812350535&utm\_content=120246983841140535&utm\_term=120244859812410535&utm\_campaign=120244859812350535

Hey,
I turned the VR-5, VR-4 and VR-8 trimmers and now I only have dry signal.

Does any of you has the same pedal? I would like to reset the originals from a photo or something to make it work again.
Cheers

So this one went off the rails a little bit…

I started out with plans to do an op amp fuzz turret build. Once I started working on how I’d attach the IC it sort of dawned on me that I didn’t need the turrets at all and off I went!

It’s a little sloppy since I didn’t really plan it out, but it sounds great and is a great test build for a nice and neat one down the line.

This might be the worst soldering job you have ever seen but it’s the best I could do with this being the first pcb I have ever built. None of the soldering points touch each other and the bypass works fine so there shouldn’t be a problem with the input output. The LED works fine it’s just the rest. I did nick the cream coloured rectangle thing with the iron so if anyone knows where i can get a replacement in London it would be greatly appreciated! thanks

This is a PCB Mania Fuzz War IV that I put into a surplus military radio control box. I still need to label I’m the controls but I think you can figure out what each thing does from the demo!

My official release (kinda lwk) of my first pedal for my brand Refresh Audio FX. I’m still in love with this circuit as I have use this in so many of my songs. It’s a modded red llama going into an active Big Muff Pi style tone control with scoop control. The active part is a two transistor stage makeup gain for the tonestack. It’s my favorite happy accident experimental idea and i always wanted to use cmos chips to make an amp in a box sound. had to dedicate it to the place i made and built it.

My learning chassis:

Currently an LPB1 layout with an emitter bypass and 3-way visible LEDs. I have more plans for it (and others) but have enjoyed it immensely.. next phase is an MPSA13 cascaded into the original 2n5088. Im going to add a clip-lift and try to get a little more definition between the clipping levels.

I parted out a BC Rich Outlaw years ago and have had these revolver knobs sitting in a parts drawer ever since. A couple or Dirty Harry flicks were on the other day and it finally hit me what to do with those knobs 😁

Just picked up a box of components from marketplace to work on some new pedals and was surprised to find this at the bottom of the box. The date on the battery is 1998 and there’s only one jack on it and no control knobs so I’m totally lost. Any ideas?? Thanks!!

This is a Moonn Electronics PWM fuzz. The demo only shows a little of what you can do with the pedal. You can get into the weeds with the controls.

For the artwork, it’s acid etched and then painted in. The Volume and Blend section is reversed and I had to sand off the top leather to reveal the metal below.

Ok, this is the second board I have assembled and I'm having the exact same problem. Plays for a bit then fizzle out. Exact same issue as the previous one. Has anyone gotten this edition of board going? This is the American verison from Heavymetalfx. I was pretty disappointed to encounter the exact same problem.

Say hello to Elktopus 🦌🐙. This is an Elkborn by @hammondtoneworks combined with the Ursula from @moonnelectronics. The Elkborn is a modified Hizumitas and the Ursula is clone of the Tentacle by @earthquakerdev. This was a lot of fun to put together and was good for learning some new troubleshooting skills. This thing REEEEEAAAPPS (rips)

My latest Supa Proto has an external fuzz control (originals just had a fixed resistor setting the gain), some extra power filtering (big blue cap on the underside), and a coupling cap after the last transistor stage. The result is a beefy MKI Bender with a high-pass filter and a ridiculous amount of sustain that seems to morph texture as the notes endure. Truly inspiring to play!

NPN 2n2430 germanium transistors, PR02 resistors, Philips and Vishay caps, all wrapped up in a Gørva Design S90 enclosure.