EARTHQUAKER DEVICES: Spires Green Channel

The Earthquaker Devices Spires green channel is a variation of one of my favourite fuzz circuits - the Rosac Nufuzz.   It's a progression of a fuzzrite from the original designer, but it has a tone control on the output sweeping between a small and large cap to provide a thin to thick fuzz sound.  There's no fuzz control, it's set to full all the time.

I used an old layout from the D*A*M FR-70 to adapt for this, as it's almost the same.   I skipped the 10k resistor on the input for this reason.  Could always squeeze one in if you wanted it.

Schematic located here on Pedal PCB  and if you're wondering about the other channel on Spires (the red one), it's a silicon fuzz face.  It probably has some tweaks, but you get the idea.  

EARTHQUAKER DEVICES SPIRES GREEN CHANNEL - 0.15" VERO LAYOUT

EARTHQUAKER DEVICES SPIRES DEMO

EARTHQUAKER DEVICES: The Depths

I think it's fair to say that you should not attempt this unless you are pretty confident with your builds.   The Earthquaker Devices The Depths, is their take on the Uni-Vibe.   

The schematic can be found here, on PedalPCB in the build doc.

EARTHQUAKER DEVICES THE DEPTHS - VERO LAYOUT

THE DEPTHS VIDEO DEMO

EARTHQUAKER DEVICES: Disaster Transport LFO

Add this board to the Disaster Transport Junior to convert to the Disaster Transport.

Increasing the 470n cap will provide a slower LFO

EARTHQUAKER DEVICES DISASTER TRANSPORT LFO - VERO LAYOUT  

EARTHQUAKER DEVICES: Erupter

So it's another Fuzz Face variant - but no doubt.  good one.   The Earthquaker Devices Erupted is a one-knob Fuzz Face with a single-knob controlling bias.  Quite a few layouts included volume pots; if you prefer to have one, I'm sure you can work out how to do it.

Signal path:   buffer > pickup simulator (transformer) > Fuzz Face with external bias control.  The internal trimmer is to help set the external bias control to a suitable position.

EARTHQUAKER DEVICES ERUPTER - VERO LAYOUT

ERUPTER VIDEO DEMO

EARTHQUAKER DEVICES: Hoof Reaper

I know one could make the three different effects and box them together, but I thought I might do a layout with them all on one board.  

EARTHQUAKER DEVICES HOOF REAPER - VERO LAYOUT

REAPER VIDEO DEMO

EARTHQUAKER DEVICES: Disaster Transport Jr, with mods

This is the standard Disaster Transport Jr, with the tails mod, and another that I just found that adds a kind of chorus effect to the delay, with just an additional resistor.

A Disaster Transport layout seems fitting, as there's been widespread flooding where I live, so kind of appropriate for the weather.

Here's the link to the chorus mod by DeadAstronaut, which includes a sound sample.  

EARTHQUAKER DEVICES DISASTER TRANSPORT JR - VERO LAYOUT WITH MODS

EARTHQUAKER DEVICES: Hizumitas Fuzz Sustainar

The Earthquaker Devices Hizumitas is basically the same as the Elk Sustainar, but with a 3n3 cap instead of a 330pf cap in the tone control (specifically the high pass filter).  There are some other minor differences, but the 3n3 is probably the biggest factor in terms of sound.  

Even though the EQD Hizumitas is based on the Elk Sustainar, the Elk was based on a 1972 #2 Triangle BMP.  Check out the schematic on Kit Rae's site, and note the similarities.  

So with all the hype surrounding this release, this is actually much closer to an EHX Triangle Big Muff from 1972 than it is an Elk Sustainar.   

Update:   After a few weeks away, I finally got around to finishing this and trying it out.  I don’t like it.  Too much bass for me, and I didn’t find that it had much range.   

EARTHQUAKER DEVICES HIZUMITAS FUZZ SUSTAINAR - VERO LAYOUT

Of course, I started building only to discover I have no 82k and 8.2k resistors…  3n3 cap is not soldered on at present, as I want to test some different values.

EQD HIZUMITAS SCHEMATIC

TEARDOWN BY GRAYBENCH

HIZUMITAS VIDEO DEMO

EARTHQUAKER DEVICES: Bows

The Earthquaker Devices Bows is a straight-up germanium Rangemaster with some modern tweaks.  It uses an NPN transistor and has a switch to swap to a larger input capacitor for a full-range boost.

The space above the transistor on this layout allows it to be mounted on its side (bent over 90 degrees), as OC transistors are pretty tall, and if you use the mounting points, you will need to reduce the height of the transistor in the enclosure.  It's generally a good idea to place insulation on the legs of the transistor so they don't short when you bend them.  If not all the legs, at least the base leg in the centre of the three.

EARTHQUAKER DEVICES BOWS - VERO LAYOUT

EARTHQUAKER DEVICES v SUNN O))): Life

Given I've done a few Sunn Model T layouts recently, I thought the next obvious step would be an Earthquaker Devices Life pedal layout.  This is from the PedalPCB Parentheses Fuzz schematic, which has an additional clipping mode on a rotary switch.  I'm sure you can work out how to drop it back to a standard ON-OFF-ON switch if you prefer something simpler, and this will take up much less space than a rotary in an enclosure.  

It is of course a Blue Ringer with a buffered blend > Rat > Mosfet booster (Magnitude).  I did a layout for just the octaver section a while back if you just wanted to build this on its own and drop it in front of your favourite fuzz / distortion.

EARTHQUAKER DEVICES LIFE PEDAL - VERO LAYOUT

EARTHQUAKER DEVICES LIFE - SUGGESTED MODS

I read this in the comments section of the Life Pedal layout over on the very fine Effects Layouts site.  Both mods attributed to Mark Hammer in the comments - so they may be worth some thought.

Direct quotes below;

The basic Green Ringer circuit works better with a little more "push" as the front end. That can be provided by running a resistor/cap combination in parallel with the 2k2 resistor labelled R8. Consider use of a 1k resistor and 10uf electrolytic cap, negative side going to ground.

I'll also add that, since the octaver input stage doubles the frequency of everything, it's not clear why the Rat section really needs the R18/C12 network to goose the gain of content above 1500hz. Users may find less need to be brutal with the Filter control if they either omitted that RC network or perhaps replaced it with 330R and 1uf. That would provide proportionately more gain for content above around 500hz instead of the searing gain for higher-frequency content that a stock Rat provides.

This is a nice easy one - think it might have been my first IC-based guitar pedal builds.  

The Earthquaker Devices Acapulco Gold is quite the beast.  So loud...  the 22k resistor going to volume 3 helps pull the level down a bit.  It could even be a bit bigger or not there at all if you want something monstrous.

It just does one thing, and it does it pretty well.  If you like 386-based distortions, well, this is one 386 firing straight into another 386.   It’s a Doom box, which is perhaps why it has been compared to a Sunn amp.  The circuits are not even vaguely similar, but I can see where the comparison comes from.

There’s a reasonable amount of room on the board, but given it’s such a small circuit, it hardly matters.  It still easily fits in a 1590B enclosure.   I’d even be tempted to add another row to get the two 10u caps a tad further apart (I have built this using this layout, and they fit just fine).   I replaced the 1u electros with box poly caps just because I felt like it on my last build.

EARTHQUAKER DEVICES - ACAPULCO GOLD

EQD ACAPULCO GOLD MODS

It's so loud that some people like to add a 1M pot to control input levels.   Input to pin 3, pin 2 to the regular input on the board, and pin 1 to ground.

EQD ACAPULCO VIDEO DEMO

EARTHQUAKER DEVICES: Disaster Transport Jr

This is my first layout for a PT2399 based delay.  The Earthquaker Devices Disaster Transport Jr.   It's a pretty cool delay, with some very usable sounds - the addition of the tone control certainly helps, especially if you like something a little lo-fi sounding, or just as a method to filter out noise on longer delay times.

This is a large layout compared to some others available - I've built a couple from other layouts, and they're always a bit cramped for my liking.   

EARTHQUAKER DEVICES DISASTER TRANSPORT JR - VERO LAYOUT

THE PT2399 CHIP

Want to know more - there's a really great analysis of the PT2399 chip on Electrosmash.  It's basically designed for karaoke machines.

TAILS MOD

I'll eventually get around to another version for keeping the delay tails when the pedal is bypassed.   The tails version basically runs as follows;

• Input & output jacks wired directly to the board (as marked in & out) - the TL072 is acting as a buffer that is always in the circuit (goodby tru-bypass if that bothers you).

• The foot switch is wired to break the signal going from the buffer to the PT2399 chip - so it stops signal reaching the delay chip, leaving the tails to finish naturally OR continue to self-oscillate if you have the feedback cranked.

MODULATION MOD - DISASTER TRANSPORT

Another mod is to add an LFO on a daughter board, so along with the tone control to filter the top end off the repeats, you can add something resembling tape warble. 

Modulation is the difference between the Disaster Transport Jr, and the regular Disaster Transport. 

The Keely Magnetic Echo is a very similar circuit to this one (like most PT2399 delays), with modulation.  So a good place to start for finding a LFO to add to the Jr.

VIDEO DEMO

EARTHQUAKER DEVICES: Grand Orbiter Phase Machine

The Grand Orbiter Phase Machine is a four-stage OTA phaser, with options for vibrato or phasing (a bit like a Univibe).

Not exactly a small board, but not too much to take on either.  MLC caps might be a good idea for some of the 1uf caps to save space. 

Currently unverified.  I have reviewed the schematic a couple of times, and two errors have been found and corrected, but still...  it's a huge board.  What could go wrong, right?

EARTHQUAKER DEVICES GRAND ORBITER PHASE MACHINE - VERO LAYOUT

EARTHQUAKER DEVICES: Terminal Fuzz

The Earthquaker Devices Terminal Fuzz is based on the Shin-Ei Companion Fuzz, with a few tweaks to improve performance and versatility.  The first section is actually a lot like a silicon Fuzzrite.  Q1 feeds directly into Q2 - they feed into either side of the treble control with quite small capacitors.

The treble pot is followed by a notch filter, found on many fuzz circuits of the day, but the EQD Terminal Fuzz has included a voice control, to adjust the filter.  The notch filter is followed by a gain recovery section, as a notch usually drops a bit of level from the signal chain - a common issue in many old fuzzes with notch filters.

 EARTHQUAKER DEVICES TERMINAL FUZZ - VERO LAYOUT

  

Read the comments below, as there has been a bit of disappointment with this one.    A good suggestion was made by Tom, the 4n7 capacitor should be increased to 47n, which is the same as the Shin-ei.

Well they don't come much simpler than this - the Earthquaker Devices Arrows.  It's a booster - it has one knob - it makes things loud.  

EARTHQUAKER DEVICES ARROWS - POINT TO POINT LAYOUT

EARTHQUAKER DEVICES: Tentacle, with buffer and blend

This is the octave portion of the Sunn Life pedal by Earthquaker Devices, taken from the Pedal PCB schematic.  

It's an EQD Tentacle (Dan Armstrong Green Ringer), with an input buffer and blend control.   I made this as an add-on for other builds - or if you want to build a Life pedal, add this in front of a modded Rat and add a MOSFET boost after it.  

EARTHQUAKER DEVICES TENTACLE - VERO LAYOUT, WITH BUFFER AND BLEND

And here’s a demo of this layout that I found on YouTube - thanks Adam 

EARTHQUAKER DEVICES: Plumes

The Earthquaker Devices Plumes is their take on a Tube Screamer, and it's quite a good one.  It's somewhat simpler than Palisades, which is probably about as far as anyone would want to take a Tube Screamer.  

I'm not one that really likes Tube Screamers a great deal, as I never got the mid-boost and bass cut...  I quite like this one though.  Also, check out the Nobels ODR-S if you like Tube Screamers that don't sound like Tube Screamers (if that makes sense).

EARTHQUAKER DEVICES PLUMES - VERO LAYOUT

This is my second layout for Plumes, the first was a little cramped, so I spaced things out a bit.  Need a bit of room for the 1uf caps.  

Now, if you did want to head towards something more like a Dunes / Palisades, you could quite easily make daughter boards for the voice and bandwidth controls.  It's just diodes and caps on rotary switches.

 

The Schematic is in the build docs on Pedal PCB

And a smaller layout, with all the connections for pots and switches on one side.

ON THE SCOPE / FFT

INPUT SIGNAL:  440hz sine wave, approx 130mv TRMS

 

volume varies to suit.  note: B25K used for tone control, as I didn't have a W20K

 

 

 

Clean boost - no diodes.  There's a lot of level on tap.

 

 

Full gain - no diodes.  Again, just cranked and headed into square wave territory.  note:  even though it looks a bit square on the scope, it's nowhere near fuzz - clean boost with some dirt at the end of the range is the sound.  Meant to hit your amp with some level.

 

 

 

  

Silicon diodes - looking very much like a Tube Screamer now (tone 50%, gain 100%).

 

 

 

LEDs - similar to the silicon diodes, but with a bit more hair and more level (tone 50%, gain 100%).  Like anything diode related and clipping - it's a less compressed sound, more open due to the higher forward voltage of the diodes.

 

 

EARTHQUAKER DEVICES: Tone Reaper

Bit of a mix of a Tone Bender MKIII and a Big Muff Tone stack.   Earthquaker Devices have made quite a few pedals that are Tone Bender / Big Muff inspired - I guess why wouldn't you?

EARTHQUAKER DEVICES TONE REAPER - VERO LAYOUT

The tone control is based on the Big Muff design and can be changed to tase accordingly.

STOCK RESPONSE

The pedal has a bit of a mid hump, which can work, or you can adjust to suit your taste.  

Change 470pf to 10n

This is reasonably flat; best to try it using the online tool, breadboard, then commit to solder if you have that option.

EARTHQUAKER DEVICES: Dirt Transmitter

The Earthquaker Devices Dirt Transmitter is basically a silicon Fuzz Face with a pot to control the input level and a tone stack.  The bias for Q2 is external.  But gotta love a tricked-out fuzz.  

EARTHQUAKER DEVICES DIRT TRANSMITTER - VERO LAYOUT

EARTHQUAKER DEVICES: Crimson Drive

The Earthquaker Devices Crimson Drive uses a JFET to push level into a germanium transistor, pushing it into overdrive territory.  Diode clipping is added after to smooth things out a little / add some extra texture.

ORIGINAL EARTHQUAKER DEVICES CRIMSON DRIVE - VERO LAYOUT

VERSION 2 EARTHQUAKER DEVICES CRIMSON DRIVE - VERO LAYOUT

EARTHQUAKER DEVICES: Black Ash

The Earthquaker Devices Black Ash is their take on a Tone Bender MKII, using low-gain silicon NPN transistors, with a bit of tone shaping added at the end.   

EARTHQUAKER DEVICES BLACK ASH - VERO LAYOUT