I'd never heard of these until this morning - and I could not believe the second-hand prices of the original... especially considering the new price of a hand-made pedal from the builder.
It's kind of a Timmy x boutique Tubescreamer type thing - can find the schematic here. Dual tin can opamp is required - hope this is the layout you were looking for.
The Colorsound Overdriver / Power Boost family went through a few different versions over the years. This layout is for the classic 1971 9V Overdriver version – essentially the 9V successor to the earlier 18V Power Boost, with the same basic three–transistor topology but set up for a standard single-supply pedalboard. It makes a huge, dynamic boost that can run from almost clean to a thick, fuzzy overdrive, with a very effective bass and treble control.
I went with the 1971 9V spec simply because 9V is more convenient, and I had one of the larger Gapco enclosures that suited the longer 0.15" vero format. This layout also includes a post-gain volume control (master volume). Original units did not have this, but given how loud the circuit is, most people prefer to keep the master. If you really want to be vintage-correct you can omit it and wire the output straight from the gain pot.
There is a lot of excellent historical information on the Power Boost / Overdriver on Kit Rae’s site, including a clear explanation of the differences between the 18V Power Boost and the 9V Overdriver, and notes on various reissues.
Layout notes: this is a 0.15" stripboard layout sized for a larger vintage-style enclosure. Check transistor pinouts before soldering – the original BC109 devices can be swapped for common modern NPN types if you re-orient the legs correctly. The added volume control is a true output master; if you omit it, take the output directly from the gain pot lug as marked.
Here’s a short demo of this layout in use, showing the range from clean boost through to full overdrive.
I did a layout for the Hudson Sidecar a couple of years ago, and I retraced my steps recently and found a few things that needed to be updated. The Sidecar is a progression of the 999 Overdrive, which is Hudson's version of a 'green box' overdrive, made for people like me that don't like the green box.
There's also another variation out there called the Motorcycle, which sounds like the same circuit that's been retuned for a bit more low drive, with the addition of an output transformer, not unlike the Broadcast. My guess is the 470n / 1k off the inverted input stage has been adjusted, maybe a tweak to the bass side of the active eq???.
Plenty of great pics on FSB Schematic on PedalPCB
The layout below should be pretty close to a version of the original from 2017. 0.15" vero, so a tin can IC is a must.
Aion FX just dropped a few circuit traces today (about eight in total) and this one from Catalinbread caught my eye. It's a standard soft-clipping overdrive up front, not unlike a Tube Screamer, followed by a three-stage active equaliser, which is something I happen to like on a pedal.
As it happens, the EQ section is quite similar to the Pete Cornish CC-1 which it pre-dates by a fair number of years. I also quite like the CC-1.
Link to tracing journal, including schematic.
Another from the recent Aion FX Pete Cornish traces - this time it's a variation of the CC-1 Crunch, the CG-1. Same layout, just a few value changes here and there. It will sound a little different to the CC-1, but not substantially.
I quite like the CC-1, especially with an added mod to dial in the diode clipping. Combine this with the active EQ and you have an extremely versatile overdrive.
This layout has a simplified power supply to reduce board size.
The Fuzztone is an early design of Dan Coggins before Lovetone or Dinosaural appeared.
The first publication in ETI (Electronics Today International magazine) actually had an error on the schematic - it wasn't critical, as it just changed the frequency response a little, and it lost some level along the way in the filter section. Remember that ETI supplied a PCB for the project, so it would have sounded right.
You can find the corrected schematic and a few words from Dan here.
A recent request. This is a monster of a pre-amp from Jonny Reckless. Best to read the details on DIY stomp boxes, as there's a lot to this.
I've not built this, and there's a bit going on with it. I'd suggest checking it against the schematic before starting. I've looked over it a few times, but I probably won't be building this one any time soon to confirm it.
Link to thread on DIY Stompboxes
I saw a Gray Bench Electronics tear-down of the Fairfield Barbershop V1 pop-up in my YouTube feed today and thought I'd go back and look at the layout I did a couple of years ago. Turns out I never posted it - I had only posted my take on the Millennium edition. So here it is, albeit slightly smaller than the layout I did in 2020.
Like all things J201 related - make sure yours are legit or prepare for disappointment. You may also need to bias them differently for the best results.
If the sag pot isn't working as expected, you probably have dodgy JFETS.
Gain sweep with SAG at 1k
Gain @ 50% Sag sweep - I reduced the gain as it's easier to see the result of the sag. This is a simulation, and JFETS are notoriously inconsistent, so I would not expect to see an exact representation of this on a scope.
The Klon Centaur - no introduction required really. Arguably the most mythical of all overdrives? Likely the most expensive of all overdrives...
This layout took a lot longer than I thought it would. In the end, I also realised that I could have shaved a row off, but hey... maybe I'll come back to it another time.
I used the schematic from Aion FX, minus the pulldown resistor on the input, as this layout does not have the input buffer switch, so it's not really needed (be sure to use a switching scheme with grounded circuit input). There's room on the board if you want to add it, just remember to increase the value of the other 1 meg resistor to 2meg.
The layout works, read past the first comment, and you will see the importance of buying ICs from reputable suppliers.
Just realised that I never posted a regular vero layout for one of my favourite guitar effects - the Matsumin Valve Caster.
It doesn't require power filtering, so you could easily drop the 100ohm resistor and 100u cap. The Valve Caster was one of my first builds, and it doesn't have any power filtering and is super quiet.
Yet to build this myself, I quite like the idea behind this - I am partial to anything with bass / mid/high controls for guitar and a germanium transistor. Bonus points for also including a discrete op-amp, which I've been playing with lately.
Before I looked at the schematic for this, I was playing around with modding a Boss Blues Driver to make the tone stack a real tone stack with external pots and removing the last stage, just leaving the two discrete op-amps. This is a refined version of where I was heading, so I think I'll park that project for now.
The boost stage uses a LND150 MOSFET which is common on several Spaceman Effects designs. It could just as easily have been a JFET-based boost - this is a clean boost to make up for the gain loss at the EQ stage. A little bit of high-end is also filtered off at this stage, but nothing substantial. You may not even hear it.
It's a fairly standard bass / mid/high tone stack with some tweaked values. This could be modded to typical values for Marshall or Fender, but there's a decent chance Spaceman went this way for a reason - it looks pretty balanced to me.
It's a Boss-style discreet non-inverting op amp using two JFETS and a PNP transistor (as found in the Blues driver). There are a couple of resistor value changes, and the PNP transistor is, of course, germanium instead of silicon - hence the germanium preamp name. The GE transistor will add some extra flavour, but maybe not much more.
According to the Dead End FX build docs, a 1T308B transistor is used - it makes sense to use Soviets for a pedal with a large production run. If you don't have a 308 - try something around 70-80 hfe and low leakage (most Soviet-era transistors have low leakage) Japanese transistors might also be a good choice.
Potential mod: As this is just another type of op-amp - diodes can be added across the output of the op-amp and inverting input for some soft clipping. It works on LTspice, so it should work in practice. I'm definitely going to try this.
A nice simple one - the DOD 250, which is a Distortion + variant. Or is it the other way around? Either way, it's a classic.
I've had some success with the Joe Davisson diode compression discrete opamp on some other circuits (namely the Cornish SS-2), so I thought I might try a Blues Breaker - it works... sounds good.
Apart from the lack of IC, there are a couple of other minor mods to a stock Blues Breaker, mainly a larger input cap (Morning Glory) and some larger resistors on the inverted input of the first opamp (King of Tone). I'd also recommend a C250k pot for gain, if you want more dirt (which is what I'm using).
I've increased the bass response on mine - all you have to do is change the 10n cap on the bottom row to something bigger, and you'll get some low-end back. I like 220n, as it seems to keep all of the bass that I started with, but some might find this too much. Could be cool to have this on a switch.
For anyone with a keen set of eyes, you might notice the RC networks on the inverting input of the first stage going to ground instead of vbias - it was convenient to do on the layout, and it makes zero difference to the sound.
And here's it looking a mess, but 100% working, attached to the breadboard - I made a couple of errors initially, so this is not exactly the same layout as above, as I fixed it on the fly. Note to self: don't attempt creating layouts followed by soldering them when really tired.
440hz sine wave input
Scope taken on the output, with the volume turned down a bit. Starts with gain on 100%, sweeps tone control up and down a couple of times, and then reduces gain.
The output of the first boost stage, gain 100% (note the input signal sits at -25)
The output of the clipping stage (gain 100%), before any filtering from tone controls and caps to vbias - it has a lot of harmonics / high-frequency content, and it's bordering on being a square wave.
So given the Lightspeed and Southland are basically the same circuit, I thought I might add a switch to swap between the two.
The switch does three things;
Greer Amps have taken the Lightspeed overdrive and have made a few mods to give us the Southland Harmonic Overdrive.
Could try germanium diodes instead of the BATs, but it will probably sound about the same.
This is a simple one from Greer Amps - the Tomahawk Deluxe Drive. It has some distinct similarities to a Rat or Distortion +, in that there's opamp clipping, driving hard clipping diodes, and a tone control.
Schematic from PedalPCB. I added a buffer on vref, as half the opamp wasn't being used, so why not.
This is the Peach Guitars version of the Hudson Broadcast, as traced by V1nce69 and posted on the Guitar FX layout forum. Others also did work on tracing in this thread, so sorry if I left anyone out. Lots of great gut shots and a bunch of measured voltages there too.
The layout is basically a redraw of the original, which used 0.15" vero - but without the charge pump daughter board (I'm not a big fan of using charge pumps, as most pedal power supplies have high voltage outputs these days).
You can't use these layouts on standard vero, or if you do, you'll have a hell of a time getting it all to fit.
Note: The gain switch can be either ON-ON or ON-OFF-ON. Stock is ON-OFF-ON
