Stripboard layout for a Catalinbread Naga Viper guitar effect pedal.

Catalinbread Naga Viper On Stripboard

December 17, 2024

The Naga Viper by Catalinbread is a treble booster pedal modelled on the somewhat legendary Dallas Rangemaster treble booster popularised by so many guitarists (especially out of England) in the 1960’s and ’70’s. These were the days before overdrive and distortion pedals; sure they had fuzz pedals (here’s a history of fuzz pedals if you’re […]





Example of a piece of stripboard populated with various components to make a guitar pedal.

How To Make A Distortion Pedal

December 12, 2024

I’ll cut to the chase very quickly: you’re probably here because you want to learn how to make guitar pedals at home, so you searched for something along the lines of “how to make a distortion pedal,” and found this website. Welcome! The good/easy part of answering that question is, sure, read on and I’ll give […]





Completed guitar pedal of a Harmonic Jerculator pedal clone called the Jerk Chicken.

2024: A Year In DIY Guitar Pedals

December 10, 2024

We still have a few more weeks left in the year, and in that time I’ll probably make another guitar pedal, but I also haven’t been writing a lot here. I feel like I should post but I don’t have the the patience to write something more technical, so an end of year wrap up […]





Stripboard layout for a Marshall Bluesbreaker guitar pedal.

Marshall Bluesbreaker On Stripboard

December 4, 2024

Here’s how to build a Marshall Bluesbreaker on stripboard. Sure, this thing isn’t anywhere as popular as something like an Ibanez Tube Screamer or a Boss OD-1, but it’s a guitar pedal that’s been increasing in popularity in recent years. The Marshall Bluesbreaker is designed to sound like the old Marhsall amps Eric Clapton used […]





Stripboard layout for a Colorsound One Knob fuzz guitar pedal.

Colorsound One Knob Fuzz On Stripboard

November 14, 2024

This One Knob Fuzz by Colorsound is a great DIY pedal project is you’re looking for an easy or beginner guitar pedal build. As the name would suggest, there’s only one knob (for volume) and, being a fuzz pedal, there aren’t that many components to work with. Like so many single knob pedals, like this […]





Stripboard layout for a Lumpy's Tone Shop Lemon Drop overdrive pedal.

Lumpy’s Tone Shop Lemon Drop On Stripboard

November 7, 2024

Here’s a fun pedal build project: Lumpy’s Tone Shop Lemon Drop. This pedal actually comes in a variety of names though. I wasn’t familiar with Lumpy’s Tone Shop, but found the stripboard layout on Tagboard Effects. In looking into this pedal, it looks like Lumpy’s Tone Shop is now going by the name Electric Majik, […]





Stripboard layout for an Ibanez Tube Screamer guitar pedal.

Ibanez Tube Screamer (TS808) On Stripboard

October 28, 2024

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RBg-8j0x-a0 The Ibanez Tube Screamer is one of the most famous and sought after overdrive pedals around. The original TS808 and Boss’ OD-1 are classics that everyone wants to recreate. Well, here it is, the wiring schematic and stripboard layout for the TS808 model Ibanez Tube Screamer, or pretty close. I have an article on […]





Stripboard layout for a Catalinbread Karma Suture guitar pedal.

Catalinbread Karma Suture On Stripboard

October 15, 2024

Here’s a fun and great sounding DIY guitar pedal build: the Karma Suture by Catalinbread. It looks like like this pedal is no longer in production, so if you want one, you’ll have to build it. To be specific from the get go: this is the silicon version of the pedal; I went with the silicon […]





The circuit of a Lovepedal Purple Plexi showing the location of decoupling capacitors.

What Are Decoupling Capacitors?

October 2, 2024

While not as prominent in guitar pedals as coupling capacitors, decoupling capacitors are used in electronics and guitar pedals to help direct currents as needed. This is usually to smooth out DC electrical signals or prevent noise from AC signals. This may seem very similar to coupling capacitors, but there is a big difference. Coupling […]





Maestro FZ 1 fuzz pedal.

A Brief History Of Fuzz Pedals

September 24, 2024

I love fuzz pedals. I love making fuzz pedals and I love playing guitar through fuzz pedals. Although different overdrives or distortions won’t sound the same, I find the variance in sound between these types of dirty pedal is much smaller than the variance in sound you get from different fuzzes. One fuzz circuit will […]