Made Of Tone

Handmade guitar effects.

[madeoftone]

No 33 - Fuzz

Another BMP fuzz; Green russian with no mods.

Handmade enclosure with hammertone paint. The switch cap and face plate was etched with NaOH - see tutorials.

[madeoftone]

No 32 - Tremolo + Reverb

A tremolo and a reverb (belton brick). 

To fulfill the wishes of the customer, no extra mods or knobs for this one. Actually, to set the reverb length you need to open the enclosure.

PCB.

The enclosure was handmade. If you want to try it yourself this document could be a help. And this spreadsheet for calculations. 

[madeoftone]

No 30 - Overdrive

An overdrive in a handmade enclosure. If you want to try it yourself this document could be a help. And this spreadsheet for calculations. 

[madeoftone]

No 29 - Phaser

Phase 90 with vibe switch. 

I tried all suggestions for a rate indicating led, but none of them worked. They did not work at all, had way too small intensity amplitude or turned the led on and off rather than made it pulsate. So I designed my own using two darlingtons (PCB). I’m not claiming it is the best way to do it, but it works.

The box was reverse etched, which together with the hammer paint was a nightmare. I won’t be doing that again (famous last?), but if you do, I have one advise: don’t try to sand the unetched areas (the text in this case) - use a knife to scrape off the paint.

[madeoftone]

No 31 - Fuzz

A fuzz with switches for tone scope and clipping mode.  

The enclosure was handmade. If you want to try it yourself this document could be a help. And this spreadsheet for calculations.

[madeoftone]

No 28 - Fuzz

A tone bender based on MP20B transistors.

I made the enclosure by cutting an aluminum sheet with a jig saw and bending it with a home made bending brake. Finished with hammer paint and a reversed etched plaque.  

Gut.

[madeoftone]

No 27 - Distortion

A Korg DST-1, which I am fairly sure is identical to Yamaha DI-1.

I have added a diode selector to switch from between silicons, germaniums and LEDs.

The enclosure was etched, normal and reversed, and polished.

Gut shot.

PCB.

[madeoftone]

No 26 - Fuzz

A tonebender on steroids. Russian transistors (GT108G) with such a high gain I had to add a separate gain knob - a 10 K pot between the emitter of the first transistor and ground. If turned all the way up, this effect gets really nasty (in a good way for some sounds).

My first 1590A box as well as my first reversed etch. Quite happy with how all the thin lines came out. 

It was painted with engine enamel. I can really recommend it. After 15 min in the oven it gets rock hard.

Gut shot.

PCB.

[madeoftone]

No 24 - Overdrive

Tubescreamer with the following mods:

Clipping switch: Symmetrical, asymmetrical and hard clipping.

Range: 0.47 µF capcaitor in parallell with the 47 nF capacitor from pin 2 to ground. A 10K pot in series with the 0.47 µF capacitor lets you widen the range of the overdrive.

The labels was done with diy dry-transfers, with a slightly new technique.

Gut shot.

[madeoftone]

No 25 - Delay

Another Echo Base delay.

I used the same mods as for No 17, but with a pot for shape and a footswitch for modulation on/off. The circuit is pretty massive, but luckily you can buy a two-layer PCB from musicpcb.com.

The enclosure was etched with NaOH and PnP blue as the mask. The back was however labelled with UV curing ink: 

[madeoftone]

No 23 - Distortion

For a Metal loving friend and named after his favorite analytical method.

Very nasty distortion/fuzz. Unfortunately also very noisy without the noise gate (included in the original design), for which I couldn't find a reliable schematic. To reduce this, I added a small capacitor between the drain and the gate of the FETs in the last two stages (50 and 81 pF, respectively). It colored the sound a bit of course, a sacrifice for less noise.

PCB from Revolution deux.

The box was etched with NaOH and PnP blue as the mask.

[madeoftone]

No 21 - Compressor

Ross compressor.

I included Hammers recovery/attack mod, though I replaced the switch with a pot. It also contains a blend pot for faux compression ratios.

I designed a PCB for on-board pots to keep everything in place and avoid the cable mess. It was a bit tight squeezing it all into a 125B box - gut shot.

PCB layout

PCB trace mask

The enclosure was etched and then finished with transparent red and several layers of clear coat.

[madeoftone]

No 20 - Chorus



A Little Angel Corus. Made for my niece for her 14th birthday.

I used the birthday edition, which includes:

1. Latch up fix. The PT2399 chip, on which the Little Angel is based, is known to lock up. This small circuit take should take care of the problem. However, I have some chips that keeps locking up no matter what. If you are struggling with this - try to find another batch of PT2399s.

2. Capacitors between pins 9-16 are increased (3- to 10-fold). I used the original 1 and 10 nF initially, but got a nasty distorition and hiss. Increasing the values solved this issue, but the wet signal was also a bit darker.

I also made some small modifications:

1. Decreased R18 (10K from pin 14) to 4.7K to have a bit more wet signal in the mix.

2. Pots decreased to 100K and 50K for depth and speed respectively. This gave, in my opinion, more control and a more useful range.

3. A chorus/vibe switch. Cutting the dry signal gives a vibe-sound, although a bit dark (as mentioned above).

The 1590B enclosure was etched (press’n peel + NaOH) . It got a bit crowded - gut shot.

[madeoftone]

No 19 - Tube overdrive

A LPB-1 Booster and a Valvecaster.

I settled for the LPB after having tried a Java boost. The noise level was high for the latter, a problem I couldn't solve. Apparently I'm not the only one: http://www.diystompboxes.com/smfforum/index.php?topic=33180.0.

With the stock 2N5088 transistor the gain was a bit too high making the boost difficult to control. I finally included a switch to select between 2N5088 and 2N2222A (lower gain).

The valvecaster was made without modifications.

The box was designed by an artist friend, who knows what I like. 

[madeoftone]

No 18 - Overdrive

A clone of a legendary overdrive.

Just one modifcation: a switch to select between silicon or germanium diodes for two clipping sounds.

I like it, no dout, but I keep hearing myself asking; What’s the fuzz all about?

This box was a nightmare to paint as the paint kept wrinkling for some reason. I had a pickguard leftover lying around which made a nice face plate. The knobs were labelled with professional rub-ons and clear coated. It all turned out quite OK in the end.

[madeoftone]

No 17 - Delay

An Echo Base with all mods I could find.

Modifications: - Infinity: When pressing the second foot switch the echoes increases infinitely with a nice distortion. - Tails: If turned on the last echoes rings out even after stomping the bypass foot switch. - Mod: The effect has a delay modulation feature, which makes it possible to vary the delay time and depth even more and to dial in some really weird sounds. The switch turns the modulation off. - Shape: Lets you change the wave form of the low frequecy oscillator (LFO) of the mod part - from triangle to square. - Humbucker/single coils: Two switches are mainly for reducing the risk of distortion when using humbuckers.

The enclosure was built from scrap, painted in transparent red and labeled with custom made rub-ons.

[madeoftone]

No 16 - Delay

Rebote delay.

Some one wanted something special for a birthday gift (one year late).  The birthday boy turned out to be quite famous. Guess who!

Didn't have time to try out any mods except for an inifinity foot switch. Liked the orignal a lot though. Simpler than the echo base - in a good way.

Photo etch and transparent red again. It's addictive!