What Are Decoupling Capacitors?
October 2, 2024While 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 […]
The Difference Between NPN And PNP Transistors
September 20, 2024Transistors come in a lot of different types, but in this article, I’m only going to be talking about bipolar junction transistors (BJTs). Specifically, I’m going to be talking about NPN transistors and how they’re different from PNP transistors. A transistor is a component that’s very commonly used in guitar pedals and other electronics. If […]
What Are Coupling Capacitors?
September 13, 2024In guitar pedals and electronics in general, coupling capacitors are important to keep different parts of a circuit separate and to prevent DC power and other noise from moving from one sub-circuit to another. All in all, it’s quite simple, and that’s really the explanation… but if you want to know more, read on for […]
The Difference Between Silicon And Germanium Transistors
September 11, 2024In the world of guitar pedals (and electronics in general), transistors are made from one of two materials: silicon and germanium. There’s a difference between these two materials and how they affect what a guitar pedal does, and it’s important to use the right kind of transistor in guitar pedal builds if you want to […]
What Is Gain (And How It’s Different From Volume)
September 5, 2024This is going to be a fun article to write (not really), because the concept of gain is actually kind of elusive to define if you’re trying to be general. I’ve always understood the concept of gain as it pertains to guitar pedals (and general guitar oriented analogue electronics). However, as I did some research […]
Transistor Saturation, Active, And Cutoff Region
August 23, 2024It’s time to get a little more in depth on transistors. If you haven’t read it yet, check out my guide to transistors for some background on how transistors work in guitar pedals and in general. This article builds on the general guide to explain saturations, active, and cutoff region in transistors. The basics of […]
What Is Transistor hFE?
July 23, 2024Transistors are used a lot in guitar pedals. Sometimes they’re used for a general signal boost to create a clean boost pedal like a ZVEX Super Hard On, sometimes they’re used as building block as part of a larger pedal design, and sometimes they’re used to create awesome fuzz pedals. All in all, transistors are […]
How To Find The Audio Signal Path For A Guitar Pedal
June 21, 2024Part of building DIY guitar pedals is creating something that doesn’t work then figuring out how to fix it. This is all part of the process of debugging guitar pedal builds. These things are hand built, after all, and even experts make mistakes from time to time. One of the common problems with a home […]
How To Read A Circuit Diagram
May 27, 2024Even if you’re just doing PCB kits or following strip board layouts, learning how to read a circuit diagram really comes in handy when building guitar pedals, or for electrons in general. So, if you stumbled onto this article with no interest in guitar pedals and just want to learn how to read circuit diagrams, […]
What Is A Voltage Divider?
May 23, 2024Most guitar pedals use a 9 volt direct current. There are pedals out there that use something else, but 9 volts is the most common, especially when it comes to DIY guitar pedals. However, what do you do if you need something lower than 9 volts? What if your pedal needs both 9 volts and […]
