Fuzzbox, Distortion, Phaser, Chorus, Echo and other Guitar Effects Info

From the work-in-process file comes this photo of a few circuit boards.

They are for an inline voltage doubler that will convert 9v to 18v for powering your effects pedals. The circuits on the two boards are actually identical but I ran out of the miniature capacitors used on the bottom board and had to go with the slightly larger blue ones shown on the board above.

More info when I get them mounted in an enclosure.

Over 1Gb of vacuum tube books for free!
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Last night, I ran across some kits on a Japanese pedal site. The instruction sheets are well done and include schematics. Here are a few of them for you enjoyment:

http://kandr.dyndns.org/product/kits/man-tonebox.pdf
http://kandr.dyndns.org/product/kits/man-q-triper.pdf
http://kandr.dyndns.org/product/kits/man-miniboosterplus.pdf
http://kandr.dyndns.org/product/kits/man-drivebooster.pdf
http://kandr.dyndns.org/product/kits/man-distortion.pdf

Ceramic capacitors have received a bad reputation, some of which is not deserved. There is nothing wrong with using ceramic capacitors in guitar pedals, if you pick the proper type. You will see a variety of different ceramic compositions in the capacitor section of the big parts catalogs, including NPO, COG, X7R and Z5U.


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A piezo pickup as used on guitar can be thought of as a voltage source in series with a small value capacitor, as shown here. The capacitance of a typical piezo pickup is in the range of 500pF to 800pF.


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AMZ goes solar – Part 2!
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Here’s the pedal tutorial of the day… Greg Koch, who is a great guitar player with an oddball sense of humor, gives us a lesson on using a delay (among other things). Enjoy!

MicMix (now defunct) produced a flanger in the late 1970s that had an unusual feature…  the delay could be controlled by the envelope of the input signal.  This made for some unusual effects!

The Dynaflanger is probably most famous from its use by Frank Zappa.

Courtesy of the original designer, here are the schematics:

http://www.ka-electronics.com/images/Dynaflanger_Tile1.JPG

http://www.ka-electronics.com/images/Dynaflanger_Tile2.JPG

http://www.ka-electronics.com/images/Dynaflanger_Tile3.JPG

http://www.ka-electronics.com/images/Dynaflanger_Tile4.JPG 

Be warned, each file is about 4Mb!

He now sells THAT Corp. chips in small quantities for  hobbyists so visit his main page at http://www.ka-electronics.com/

Powdercoating is an alternative to painting a pedal or other project. A dry powder is applied to a metal surface that has an electrostatic charge and the powder adheres to the metal. It is then heated to melt the powdered pigment into a hard durable surface that is like a skin on the metal.

The powdercoated layer is many times thicker than a paint coating and more resistant to chips, cracks or other damage. It is an excellent surface treatment for a stompbox.

Powdercoating requires special equipment to apply and the technique is different from using a paint spray can. Fortunately there is an excellent free manual available online:

Powder Coater’s Manual