Most modern guitar pedals have one thing in common: an indicator LED. This LED allows you to know whether the effect is engaged or bypassed. In this article, we go over everything you need to know about the indicator LED circuit for guitar effects pedals. The Diode: A Review LED stands for Light Emitting Diode. […]
Circuit 8 of 48: The LED Circuit Read More »
The Behringer UV300 Rate Mod If you landed here, you’re probably looking for instructions on how to modify your Behringer UV300 with the popular Rate Mod. It’s often expressed that the minimum Rate setting is too fast for many applications. This mod reduces the range of the Rate control so you can access slower vibrato
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In this post, we dissect what makes the BOSS VB-2 LFO circuit so unique. It doesn’t “fit in” with other oscillator circuits like relaxation oscillators, phase-shift oscillators, and Wein-Bridges. Read on for an in-depth look at modeling the VB-2’s LFO circuit, examining it’s behavior, and how we can modify it to suit our needs. The
The BOSS VB-2 LFO Circuit Read More »
To get more sturdiness and reliability out of a Behringer pedal, you may opt to rehouse it into a more robust enclosure. The following is a guide for rehousing a Behringer pedal, using the UV300 Ultra Vibrato as an example. Why Rehouse a Behringer Pedal? Access “Inaccessible” Tones Many Behringer pedals are based on circuits
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Is your BOSS DS-1 not working? Before you decide to scrap it or sell it for parts, consider this troubleshooting guide. We’ll look at common problems with the BOSS DS-1 distortion pedal, as well as common solutions to those problems. Hopefully stepping through this process will get you closer to a working BOSS DS-1! Getting
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Born in 1978, the BOSS DS-1 is by far the most well-known BOSS pedal. Used by the likes of Kurt Cobain, Steve Vai, Mike Stern, and Joe Satriani, it serves as BOSS’s longest running active stompbox. With over 40 years on the market many changes to the circuit have taken place: from slight component changes
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Switches: the most engaging electromechanical component! Available in all sorts of shapes, sizes, and configurations – switches give us the ability to interact with the electronic world. In this post, we’ll be covering a very particular type of switch technology that will help us design expression pedal controls and enable battery power switch-over. Introducing: the
Circuit 7 of 48: The Switched Jack Read More »
Guitar pedal power supply circuits come with all sorts of concerns, including: We saw how to deal with reverse polarity in Circuit 5: The Diode Protectors. The other two concerns involve common sources of noise in guitar effects design, and they can be addressed with a proper power supply filter. [Last Updated: January 7, 2024]
Circuit 6 of 48: The Power Supply Filter Read More »
When designing or modifying your own effects, you’ll need to mount parts like switches, potentiometers, LED bezels, power jacks, input jacks, and output jacks. This requires you, the builder, to properly size, fit, and mount the component into the enclosure. In the following sections I go over my personal process for drilling guitar pedal enclosures.
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In this post, you will learn the background of the external switch mod for the EHX Freeze pedal. Specifically we will focus on one of the most prominent users of the mod, Gilad Hekselman, and what led to the decision to go with a remote switch. Mimmotronics has decided to release the details of the
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