ReValver

Have you ever been playing your favorite pedal, or any pedal for that matter, and thought to yourself "gee, this sure would sound better with tubes"? Well with the ReValver now (almost) any pedal can have a tube! I say 'almost' as I've tried all my pedals and while they all work, not all sound great. I tore apart Matsumin's ValveCaster circuit and did a little experimenting. Essentially adding a send and return into the middle of the valve circuit, injecting whatever effect into the 12au7 and adding that "warm" tube sound to say a...fuzz or a....delay.....or a flanger...etc.

Tap On Tap Off True Bypass

I started experimenting with some 9volt relays recently and this was the obvious first circuit. A means of turning on and off/bypassing effects via a momentary 'soft switch'. There's a few other methods of accomplishing the same feat though using slightly more complicated circuitry and/or parts. The 555 timer is cheap and readily available due to its vast uses. Any relay should suffice, I've tried 3 separate brands and all have function accordingly.

Ruby Amplifier

Not the greatest little practice amp but it's a cool project nonetheless. Only capable of roughly 1/2watt it's best suited for small speakers, large speakers will work too however. Low parts count and a quick build. Originally designed by RunOffGroove as an updated version of their "Little Gem" amplifier. I needed this when I was trying to design the layout for the "What Goes Up Must Come Down v1".

12 Over 2 Equals 6 Point 3

This is an almost useless circuit, at least to me anyways. I needed 6.3v for a tube project I was working on at the time and this was my way of getting there. While it does provide 6.3 volts I unfortunately failed to read the specs of the tube's heater draw and this method (LM317) ultimately doesn't give enough amperage for what I was doing. Lesson: always read the datasheet.

Ambient Light Synthesizer

Similar to how the Atari Punk Console functions but his time controlling the oscillation with an LDR and the ambient/surrounding light. The drone is constant, even in a dark setting, but the more light the LDR receives the higher the pitch of the drone becomes. Another simple, fast, and rewarding build using the 555 timer IC.

 

8 LED Random Flasher

The name says it all. Just another cool way of controlling LEDs for various projects. Someone could take this a step further and make a random sequencer. 

Always Remember To Never Forget

The ISD1820 voice recording IC has gained some popularity recently and has popped up in a few other cool projects and guitar effects. This one is pretty simple compared to those. It's a lofi sampler/looper essentially. Signal is split at the input via the 2N5457s and half of that is fed into the recording IC, while the other half remains clean(this allows your signal to be heard while in 'record mode'). There are three separate methods of playback: momentary, latching, or looping. Depending on where the sample rate is set at you get 8-20 seconds of recording time. Once a sample is recorded it's playback speed can be altered for some really cool and unique sounds. Special thanks and credit is due to BASTL and WRAA whose experiments with these voice chips is where my projects all stemmed from.

Wiggler (slow)

Same circuit as the regular "Wiggler" but with modified components/values to allow for slower speeds. Not much else to be said that hasn't already been mentioned in the original post.

Wiggler

A phase shift oscillator, courtesy of the Magnavibe. While it's not as powerful or as sophisticated as the Tremulus Lune oscillator, it's a much easier build and provides the needed controls to drive a lot of LDR circuits. "Depth" controls the brightness of the LED, whilst "Speed" controls the rate between fading on and off. I've also made another version of this circuit that allows for much slower speeds and will post it separately. At one point I made a "compact" layout of this circuit but it wasn't that much smaller and looked a little untidy, but if space is a concern you could shave off a couple rows and columns if you wanted.

Wiggle Wobble

Out of all the subminiature tube projects this one takes the cake. It's a tube powered vibrato, and it's lush as fuck! In the notes it says that by omitting one of the trace cuts you can get more of a tremolo effect, in retrospect I think this would be better implemented via a switch to connect/disconnect the trace cut therefore giving two effects in one. This circuit is a two part build and will not operate without a secondary 'LED' circuit to drive the LDRs. You can use any LED circuit you'd like however I found that a smoother fluctuation(fade) as opposed to choppy(blink) is more desirable in the actual behavior of the LED(s). Rick Holt who originally designed the circuit used a transistor based LFO, in my personal build I used the phase shift oscillator found in the Magnavibe pedal. I'll post a few layouts for the phase shift oscillator(PSU) that I used in another post.

Touch and Go

Another drone synth, but using the CD40106 this time. Really you could make a multi drone synth out of the same chip but I've already done that with the CD4093 design previously posted. This design uses a momentary switch to make/break the power connection to the circuit. The knob controls pitch. In the end you get a pretty fun little 'instrument' that requires very little parts to make. 

The Super Simple Sight Of Sound Circuit

A Robert Henry/Dead Astronaut design, the schematic can be found by searching for "sound 2 light" on various platforms. It does exactly what it says it does, turns your sound into visible light via LEDs. When building stripboard circuits you'll inevitably have some small bits of leftover stripboard laying about that aren't good for much else, put them to use with this little guy. The LEDs react and intensify in direct correlation to your playing. This allegedly works best with super bright LEDs and placed after an overdrive or distortion circuit.

Flooper

My first entrance into the world of ISD1820 answering machine ICs. They're designed for voice recording but depending on how its used/abused you can get some cool guitar effects. This is an interesting design I found on the DIY forums. A fuzz, a looper w/ speed/pitch controls, a lofi effect, a really loud boost. It's not the best looper out there but it is one you can build yourself. 

Sziklai Step Daughter

This is essentially the same circuit, more or less, as the Darlington Daughterboard I previously posted. The only difference here is that the polarity of  the two transistors must be opposite of each other. The same math applies. Gain of Q1 times that of Q2, and leakage is also multiplied. The cool thing about the sziklai/darlington method is its also a cool way of sneaking germanium transistor into otherwise silicon builds.

Darlington Daughter

A 'darlington pair' is a way of using two low gain transistors together in a way that increases their gain to a useable territory for guitar effect circuits. The polarity of the transistor must be the same in this method. The gain of Q1 is essentially multiplied by the gain of Q2. Example: Two low gain transistors with a hfe of 7 and 10 respectively, but tied together in a darlington pair you now have a single transistor with an hfe of roughly 70. It should be noted that the leakage of the transistors will also be multiplied by each other.

 

Banana Splitter

This circuit has been made and used by everyone and their uncle by now but it's pretty damn good at what it does. This is a signal splitter and buffer of sorts. Does exactly what you think it does, creates two of the same signal. Good for creating stereo effects, or for some of the lighting/indicator circuits I use. Jack Orman/AMZ/Musique seems to be the originator of the circuit or at least brought it to the masses. 

Police Light Simulator(USA)

Using 2 of the famous 555 timing IC and some charge/discharge capacitor action we get this cool flashing light circuit. Of course you can use whatever color LEDs you'd like and arrange them in any pattern you choose, so limiting this to just 'Police Light' is my fault for giving it such a title. I used this circuit on a cop/police/fuzz pedal I made as the indicator LED. Circuit could also be made with a single 556 IC.

Back And Forth

A subminiature tube tremolo pedal using the 5672. It adds quite a bit of boost and "grit" to your tone as well but still makes for a great effect. It lays somewhere in-between Tremolo and Vibrato. A very similar sound as the Bigfoot Magnavibe, for a modern reference. Rick Holt/Frequency Central posted the schematic on a forum somewhere deep in the mid to late 2000s and this is a part for part layout of that original schem.