Ideas, tips and techniques from the lab

The articles notated with (pdf) are available for download in PDF format on the AMZ eBook page.

Simple Kill Switch - A quick and simple project to make a kill switch that will mute the audio when it is activated   New 27 May 2010

Buffered Bypass for TS Clones - Modify your tube screamer clone for buffered bypass switching (pdf)   New 30 Apr 2008

Guitar FX Patents - 50 audio and guitar effects patents, including the wah, Univibe and more   New 18 Mar 2008

Metal Box Painting - buff the box before painting for some unusual 3D shimmer and design   New 12 Feb 2008

Mosfet Body Diodes - find out more about this little understood aspect of mosfet transistors   New 23 Dec 2007

TS-9 Tone Control Mods - expanding the sound of this versatile circuit (pdf)   New 12 Nov 2007

More Saturation Controls - with some alternate diode clipping circuits   New 12 Sept 2007

Leaky Transistor Buffer - What can you do with leaky germanium transistors?   New 8 Sept 2007

Stupidly Wonderful Tone Control 2 - More designs of output tone controls that don't change volume as the knob is adjusted   New 31 Aug 2007

AMZ Jfet Buffer-Splitter - A simple guitar pedal buffer with independent low impedance outputs   New 26 Aug 2007

AMZ Dual Tone Control - Modify the Big Muff type tone control to have separate controls for the bass and treble   New 8 Aug 2007

Adding a groundplane - Tutorial on how to add a ground plane in Cadsoft Eagle. Also includes a complete jfet buffer schematic and project (pdf)   New 12 May 2007

Bypassing the BMP Tone Control - a simple mod for this common tone control circuit   New 22 Mar 2007

Reverse Power Booster - flip that transistor for an interesting gain/clipping stage   New 22 Nov 2006

More Diode Clipping - using Mosfets and Zeners to expand your clipping options   New 1 Nov 2006

AMZ Double Tone - Improve the tone control filtering with simple mods (pdf)   New 1 Jul 2006

Tone Clipping - A simple and effective method to expand audio signal clipping (pdf)   New 1 Jul 2006

LED Noise - Prevent the LED indicator circuit from causing a "pop" in the audio (pdf)   New 8 Apr 2006

Pedal Impedance - Some clarification of this often misunderstood aspect of pedal designs   New 8 Apr 2006

Low Voltage Boosters - Alternatives to the traditional 9v powered circuits   New 7 Feb 2005

Boosters, Gain & Distortion - Get some insight into why simple booster pedals can sound differently, and why some are "cleaner" sounding than others of similar design.   New 15 Jan 2005

AMZ Super Buffer - Drive long cables and multiple pedal chains with this unique buffer circuit   New 1 Jan 2005

The Case Against True Bypass? - True bypass and long cables? What about a buffer? Read on...   New 7 Apr 2004

The Sound of Distortion - Take the test and hear the distortion!   New 11 Jan 2004

PATENTS ON PARADE - We take a quick look at US patents related to audio electronic cicuits

• An audio-to-amplifier interface   New 7 Jan 2004
• Method for simulating behavior of batteries   New 8 Jan 2004
• Impedance matching cable system   New 10 Jan 2004
• 50 FX Patents   New 18 Mar 2008

Is the Rat true bypass? - A complete explanation of the Rat bypass switching system. Adapt it to your effects!   New 17 Dec 2003

Shielding wood or plastic boxes - A quick and easy tip that is much easier than gluing foil inside them!   New 3 Dec 2003

AMZ Online Calculators

• Calculate Bandpass EQ Filter
• Calculate Resistors for LM317 Voltage Regulator
• Convert Decibels to Voltage Gain
• Convert Voltage Gain to decibels
• Add together Sound Levels in dB
• Calculate Limiting Resistor for LEDs
• Convert Musical Notes to Frequencies
• Find the R-C Filter Cutoff
• Convert Capacitor codes to Values

Is it Legal to Clone? What about patents and trademarks? Brand names? Can you clone from a schematic? A brief legal guide to pedal cloning.   New 12 Jun 2003

Compression & Limiting in Distortion Boxes - how does the signal get squashed and squeezed in your favorite pedal? (pdf)   New 17 Jul 2003

AMZ Saturation Control - adjust the depth and response of your clipping circuit with this interesting control variation   New 17 Sep 2002

Pickup Signals - a look at the envelope and output level of a typical guitar pickup   New 20 Aug 2002

Menatone Top Boost in a Can - tweak the internal trimmers to get the best sound from this popular pedal   New 12 Aug 2002

Cheap Boxes - Ideas for inexpensive enclosures from the local hardware and craft stores   New 27 May 2002

YAFF fuzz - Yet another fuzz face, find out how to mod the basic design for lower gain and smoother tone   New 27 May 2002

AMZ Presence Control - An innovative tone control network that adds another dimension to the basic single knob tone control (pdf)   New 4 May 2002

Guitar Pickup Simulation - A simple circuit to shape the frequency response of a signal to imitate the impedance of a guitar pickup output (pdf)   New 8 Apr 2002

TS-9 Fat Mod - Modify your Tube Screamer or clone to have more booty kicking bass response! (pdf)   New 4 Apr 2002

Basic Buffers - A collection of circuit fragments that can be used for impedance matching in FX   New 29 Mar 2002

Warp Controls - How to add some simple circuits that allow clipping to be adjusted between even and odd harmonics   New 22 Mar 2002

Hum & Noise in Effects - And techniques to prevent it.   New 21 Mar 2002

Power Supply Filter - A quick & cheap inductor filter   New 1 Jan 2002

PNP Power! - Use a positive power supply with your pnp fuzzface and eliminate incompatibility problems with the rest of your pedals!   New 7 Mar 2002

Simple Tips and Tricks - A collection of simple tips and tricks that do not rate a complete article.   New 7 Mar 2002

The AMZ Mini-Booster - This classic circuit has been adapted by numerous do-it-yourself effects builders. It excels as a simple booster or smooth distortion component!   Revised 17 Mar 2002