What Goes Up Must Come Down V2

The exact same tube preamp/tremolo circuit as the first layout, however this time fed into a more powerful amplifier IC. This is definitely the better of the two versions of this design, and while you do lose the gain control found on the first layout the amount of volume more than makes up for it. Speaker on this one is 4ohms. The speaker connections must remain isolated from any metal enclosure.

What Goes Up Must Come Down V1

My second little 'tube amp', this time with onboard tremolo! Now it's not great but it gets the job done... I suppose. Tube really needs to be a 12au7, and the IC needs to be the LM386N-3. The LM386N-1 will work but it has a slightly lower output capability. Speaker is 8ohms. These little amp ICs are really good at small speakers but if you want something a tad more useable I suggest building version 2 of this design.

10x LED Chaser/Follower

The name/title says it all. Circuit is a typical LED chaser circuit comprised of 10 LEDs. Another design lifted from one of the pages of Forrest Mims many books. I used this exact circuit to indicate the speed of a pt2399 delay using a stacked 100K potentiometer. One level of the pot controlled the speed of the actual delay circuit, while the other level of the pot simultaneously controlled the speed of the LED chaser. The times didn't exactly line up but it's really close and the idea/effect is really cool. This also isn't too far from how one would go about making a sequencer or 'music box'. 

Terrible Tubes

A powerful preamp (of sorts) using a pair of 5840 subminiature vacuum tubes running at 36v. The gain and tone controls both have a wide range of of useable settings/sounds. When you max the gain knob you'll really want to call this a fuzz but everything below that is somewhere between an overdrive and a preamp. The switch isn't the most noticeable in all settings but it gives two gain settings ultimately. If it's got subminiature vacuum tubes involved you can almost guarantee it has something to do with Rick Holt/Frequency Central, this circuit is no exception. 

 

12v Tripler

This circuit takes 12v+ on the input and gives you almost 36v+ at the output. Some of the tube circuits I've been playing with require running the heater at higher voltages so having this laying around has been pretty handy for experimenting with "headrooms". 

Buffer Fucker

 This is a guitar pickup and controls simulator. When using the classics (tonebenders, fuzz faces, univibes, etc) its a known fact that they pretty much require being placed first in the signal chain. Their simple circuitry cant handle being downstream from our modern effects, in walks the Buffer Fucker. The little transformer has a primary winding with a center tap, this emulates the actual coil (single or bucker), the two trim pots acts as your guitars volume and tone controls, the remaining parts acts as the tone cap and any further capacitance and resistance given by your guitars internal wiring and patch cable. Placing this circuit at the input of your "classics" will allow you to set them anywhere in the chain.

The Good, The Bad, The Ugly

Three oscillating drones from a single IC. The two first oscillators have a pretty wide range of frequency, while the third and final drone is substantially narrower. The pitches can be matched or pushed just slightly off balance with each other to create some really cool tones. This is a design pulled straight out of one of Nic Collins electronic experiments books. Not all 4093 chips are equal and I went through quite a few before settling on one that sounded good and behaved accordingly.