DIY Guitar Effects
Pedals, effects and other cool projects related to guitar effects
Super Hard On
Rated as one of the best guitar boosters, this classic and simple DIY project is the Super Hard On. The gain is a negative-feedback control styled after classic 60's recording console inputs.
Mini Guitar Amp
This mini guitar amplifier is perfect as a home practice amp. It has gain and volume control, offering a very dynamic sound.
Distortion Plus
The Distortion + is one of the DIY pedal classics. It has the ability to generate a great tone range between overdrive to distortion.
Les Lius
The LES LIUS emulates the sounds of the vintage Fender amps. It has a toggle switch that allows you to change tones from Tweed Fender Deluxe, High Power Twin and Master Volume.
English Man
This pedal emulates a VOX AC amplifier working at the limit. It has the ability to work as a clean boost or an overdrive depending on the volume and gain control, offering a great dynamic response and open sound.
Eternity
This guitar pedal offers a very smooth type of overdrive similar to the saturation generated by a vacuum tube. It is perfect to play blues and rock, adding a smooth saturation and good sustain.
Plexitone
This pedal can generate every tone you need. The Crunch channel provides from soft overdrive to hard rock distortion. The High Gain channel offers from rock gain stages to high-gain shred. Additionally a Boost will add extra volume to your pedal output.
Box of Rock
The Box of Rock pedal emulates the JTM45 tone. This pedal has great headroom and you will be able to control the distortion by using the guitar volume knob.
Linear Power Booster
This pedal is the classic LPB booster, used for extra boost and definition. It will increase the gain and saturation of your amp.
Bass Booster Hogs Foot
This bass booster is the Hog's Foot or Mole. It is a Linear Power Booster tuned for bass.
Treble Booster Screaming Bird
This treble booster is the Screaming Bird. It is a Linear Power Booster tuned for highs. Whether it's overdriving an amp or just adding some highs, it will make your guitar cut through any mix.
Treble Booster Brian May
This pedal is a classic booster DIY project. You can use it to add treble or to overdrive the amp with a great sound.
Electra Distortion
The Electra Distortion is a simple and great overdrive/distortion pedal that emulates the tone of a cranked Tweed amp.
COT50
The COT 50 gives a boost to the guitar with a unique tube-like sound. It can be used as a clean boost, crunch boost or overdrive. It has only one knob to control the amount of gain.
One Knob Fuzz
This is the One Knob Fuzz, a high gain fuzz with a very smooth response. This pedal is a classic DIY project, it is very easy to build and has a great fuzz sound.
Purple Plexi 800
The Purple Plexi is a powerful distortion pedal with plexi-style amps tone. It is very dynamic and touch-sensitive distortion, perfect for rock music.
Distortus Maximus
Distortus Maximus is a high-gain distortion pedal with three-band equalization. It produces rich harmonics and massive amount of gain ideal to play metal.
Fuzz Factory
The Fuzz Factory is a five-knob fuzz pedal with huge range of sound possibilities. This is classic DIY pedal project that can be built with either germanium or silicon transistors.
Guv'nor
This is the classic Guv’nor, a high-gain distortion pedal. It has a vintage valve amp sounding, with a wide range of distortion and three knobs to control the tone. It is a perfect pedal for blues, rock or metal.
Fuzz Face
This is the Fuzz Face, the legendary fuzz distortion pedal. With this PCB you can build the original or many other variants using either Germanium or Silicon transistors.
JFET preamp
This preamplifier with JFET transistor sounds great. It operates in similar manner to vacuum tubes. The circuit is very simple to build and can be used as a booster.
PCB for 1590B enclosure
This board will help you to build your DIY guitar pedal in the 1590B enclosure. Led, jacks and footswitch are mounted on the PCB, being only necessary to wire the battery and the effect PCB.
Tubescreamer
The Tubescreamer is probably the most built overdrive pedal in the DIY community. The pedal has a characteristic mid-boosted tone perfect for soft rock and blues.
RAT
This is the RAT, one of the most popular distortion effects. It performs very nice high-gain distortion suitable for metal, grunge or rock.
Dual Looper
The Dual Loop allows you to alternate between two different effect loops. It provides two switchable loops (send / return) with a single foot switch.
Klon Buffer
This simple and effective buffer improves the high frequency degraded by long cables or pedal chains.
OCD overdrive
This popular DIY pedal produces the dynamic feeling and harmonics typical of tube amps. It has a switch to control the overdrive brightness.
BSIAB2 Distortion
The most popular DIY high-gain distortion pedal is here. The Brown Sound In A Box version 2 (BSIAB2) is the excellent distortion pedal. It performs Marshall-type distortion that sounds great with low or high drive.
SMD Transistor PCB
Quality through-hole FETs are becoming hard to find, replacing them with their SMD version is the best solution. This PCB is designed for placing SMD transistors and easily substituting the through-hole ones.
Protoboard for 1590B enclosure
This board will definitely help you to build your DIY guitar pedal in the 1590B enclosure. Just built your effect circuit on the preperforated area of the PCB. Led, jacks and footswitch are mounted on the PCB, being only necessary to wi
Shred Master
The Shred Master is a classic high gain distortion pedal from the 90s. It provides a good range of gain and has three knobs to control the tone. It is a perfect distortion for playing rock or metal.
PCB for 1590BB enclosure
This board will help you to build your DIY guitar pedal in the 1590BB enclosure. Led, jacks and footswitch are mounted on the PCB, being only necessary to wire the battery and the effect PCB.
Orange Squeezer
The Orange Squeezer is a classic DIY guitar project. This simple circuit provides an effective and smooth compression effect. It is perfect to control and shape the dynamics of the guitar sound.
Stratoblaster
This classic DIY pedal is the Stratoblaster booster. It will give a nice and warm saturation at high boost levels.
Rangemaster
The Rangemaster is the most iconic treble booster from the 60s, used by Eric Clapton or Brian May. This pedal produces a brighter tone and adds color to the signal.
Big Muff
This is the legendary Big Muff! This unique fuzz distortion pedal provides rich harmonics and a huge dose of sustain.
OD-1 Overdrive
The OD-1 is a legendary overdrive pedal. With only two knobs (gain and volume) creates warm and vintage overdrive tones.
EA Tremolo
This is the EA Tremolo, a classic DIY guitar effect project. This pedal varies the volume automatically over the time with speed and intensity controls.
Dr Q Autowah
Dr Q is a classic autowah DIY project. This envelope filter effect is highly interactive with the dynamics of the input signal, creating a distinctive choppy rhythm guitar similar to the funk recordings from the 1970s.
Zendrive
The Zendrive delivers the perfect balance of saturation and tone. It comes with four knobs to control the gain, volume, tone and voicing.
Fuzz Factory 1590B
This is the Fuzz Factory in a 1590B enclosure, a classic DIY fuzz pedal project that can be built with either germanium or silicon transistors.
Dr Boogie Distortion
Dr Boogie Distortion is a JFET emulation of the Mesa Boogie Dual Rectifier Solo Head.
Red Llama
The Red Llama is a very versatile and easy to build pedal. With just few components and two knobs, it delivers great overdrive and distortion.
PCB for 1590BB enclosure (horizontal)
This board will help to build your DIY guitar pedal in the 1590BB enclosure. Led, jacks and footswitch are mounted on the PCB, being only necessary to wire the battery and the effect PCB.
Blues Breaker
This is the Blues Breaker, a very popular DIY pedal. It gives a very dynamic range, from transparent to overdriven sound.
Full Drive
The Full Drive is a very versatile overdrive pedal with several clipping options and boost.
Timmy Overdrive
The Timmy Overdrive provides a classic transparent overdrive with a huge versatility thanks to the three clipping options.
Distortus Maximums (1590B Enclosure)
Distortus Maximus is a high-gain distortion pedal with three-band equalization. It produces rich harmonics and massive amount of gain ideal to play metal.
Box of Rock (3 knobs)
The Box of Rock pedal emulates the JTM45 tone. This project simplifies the original circuit by removing the boost section, fitting in a 1590B enclosure with 3 knobs.
Footswitch 3PDT PCB
This PCB is placed on the base of the 3PDT footswitch. It will help you to wire all the components of the pedal, keep a neat circuit and reduce the noise.
Super Six Stevie
The Super Six Stevie reproduces the sound of the 60s Blackface Fender turned up to six.