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.