WormBoy Gallery

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This gallery shows almost all of the pedals that I have built. Click on the thumbnail for a larger picture.

Various fuzzes

The distinction between a fuzz and a distortion is rather arbitrary, but these ones fall in my personal "fuzz" category. After building my first fuzz (Fuzzie Bear), I became really interested in that sound and wanted to know how other fuzz designs sounded.

My first Fuzz Face! Fuzzie Bear boutique germanium Fuzz Face clone (GGG board). Too many knobs ... but sounds great.

Germanium Fuzz Face clone, Built for Steven's birthday (GGG board).

And another Fuzz Face ... There is no such thing as too many Fuzz Faces ;-)

Silicon version of the Tone Bender MkII. Based on schematics at GGG, but made the board myself.

Three-knob bender clone with AC127 NPN germanium transistors. Great range of rather sweet fuzz tones. Based on this GGG project.

 

Copy of the Colorsound Supa Tonebender, according to this schematic. It is very similar to a Big Muff. Build the board myself. More info. At low fuzz it gives a nice buzzy distortion.

Clone of the Shin-Ei Companion fuzz (GGG board). Nasty industrial fuzz, not very dynamic. I will probably need to mod this one ...

Octavia clone with tone control (GGG board). Spitty and nasty octave sounds. I was a bit disappointed with this one.

The Yellow Alpaca, a clone of the Red Llama (which is a clone Anderton's Tube Sound Fuzz). Board from GGG. Great raw and direct overdrive/distortion, though a bit muddy.

Various overdrives and distortions

My first home-built overdrive was of course a Tube Screamer (every guitarist should own at least one).

My double screamer, several silicium diode clipping settings (BYOC board).

Built for Steven (silicon diodes and red LEDs, symmetrical and asymetrical) (GGG board).

Built for Wim (silicon diodes and BS170 mosfets) (GGG board). The mosfets in there give a softer overdrive, which is a good option togwther with Si..

My Guv'nor clone, with several diode clippers (GGG board). Agressive distorted sounds.

The Senator; a Guv'nor clone built for Wim (GGG board).

A clone of the F'tone OCD (which itselfs is a clone of the Voodoo labs OD). Spliced in a hi/lo tone control (AMZ). Made the board myself, based on schematics from the net. Don't know how the original sounds, but this is a great overdrive.

Clone of the SansAmp GT2 (Tonepad board). Basically stock, but with a switch to make it cleaner. Wiring is a pain ...

 

Delays, modulation, tremolos and phasing

A variety of pedals in this category ...

Digital delay with analog filtering, two delay settings (GGG board), and added a switchable output buffer. Great analog sound.

Rebote 2.5 Delay (TonePad board) with two settings, built for Wim. Some hiss at longer delay settings but great warm echo's.

Small Clone clone (TonePad board). Sweet analog chorus, with switches for vibrato and chorus intensity. 

My first build: an EA tremolo! (BYOC kit). As a mod, I turned the volume trimmer into an external pot.

A dual tremolo, built for Steven. One side is the smooth EA tremolo, the other the choppy original EHX Pulsar.

Double Phaser (BYOC board, Phase 90). Two settings, volume and feedback control ... hmm too many knobs! Distorts a bit with humbuckers.

Ross phaser using TonePad board plus extension board. Build this for Steven. Added a depth knob. Sweet sounding, chorusy, phaser.

The Easy Vibe, a Univibe clone using LEDs instead of a light bulb and opamps instead of trannies. I used the Geofex layout and etched the board myself.

A BYOC flanger kit. This one I bought as a kit as it is quite complicated to fit in such a small box.

 

Various filters and wahs

Envelope filters and wahs. Especially the Filter Sample & Hold is interesting.

Envelope filter (Nurse Quacky) combined with a Green Ringer (GGG boards).

Filter Sample & Hold clone, built for Steven, with all "Tonda mods" (TonePad board). Difficult to get the S&H sound juicy, without ticking or squealing!

Wah using a Tonepad board, and a mosfet buffer/booster from AMZ (made my own board). Sounds very warm, but I had big problems with a scratchy pot (brand new ICAR taper). 

And another wah from a drop-in BYOC wah kit. The shell is from an old Crybaby.

Various noise boxes

Noise!

Tim Escobedo's Ugly Face with LFO (suggested by Mick Bailey). Really weird noise pedal!

Blue Box clone (Tonepad board), with tone control for extra highs. Very weird pedal; gives a synthesized two-octaves down that you can blend with a fuzzy direct signal.

MrGreen. A Green Ringer clone I built for Steven's birthday. Made the board myself. And ... no controls whatsoever!

This is the GargleTron from Folk Urban. Exciting when someone turns the pot for you, but some nice vowel sounds in front of  a distortion. Experimented with a different way to finish the box.

Various boosters, buffers, splitters and compressors

Assorted pedals for buffering, boosting, compressing ...

Rangemaster clone with power filtering and in/out cap selection (stripboard). Very nice treble booster, with subtle distortion..

Clean boost using a single Mosfet. Schematic by Jack Orman (AMZ), did the board myself. The switch toggles between boost and buffered (this acts like a line driver from my pedal board to the amp).

Microboost and buffer (TonePad stereo microboost board). Built for Steven, with his "artwork". Very clean boost.

Buffer & splitter with two inputs and switch for muted tuning. Schematic by Jack Orman (AMZ), did the board myself. More info.

My Maverick amp sounds very muddy on the lead channel. So, I made a silicon treble booster (home-made PCB) which simultaneously switches the amp.

Ross compressor with tone knob (stolen from BYOC) and variable recovery mod. Board from TonePad layout. Nice thick funky comp.

Multi-effects, power supplies and other stuff

Some other projects. The SuperSwitch is up till now the most complicated thing I have ever attempted to build.

Multi-effect (compressor, phaser, overdrive/distorion, booster, input/output buffers, tuner out) (TonePad and GGG boards). If I want to use only ONE pedal, this is the one.

The SuperSwitcher! A fully programmable unit that switches 3 TB loops, an internal tubescreamer and booster, and a Cutterbox that sits on the amp (controlling the amp channels and a volume control in the effect loop ... OUCH! More info.

My first experiment with power supplies: an approx. 9V transformer from a discarded adaptor, with a rectifier, regulator and filtering. All bunched together in a plastic deep freeze box.

My own power supply with 4 isolated 9V outputs, excessive filtering, on/off switch, neon indicator light, and fuse holder. Take a look inside.

Wim's Electric Mistress, which I made 2010-proof.  More info.

 The bare essentials for soul/R&B in one box: an Orange Squuezer comp and a MicroAmp booster, with a tuner out.

   

Bat detection

After building several guitar effects, it started to dawn on me that there were also other interesting elctyronic projects. As a biologist, I have always been interested in bats, and these devices open up a bit of the bat's world for humans.

Simple bat detector (Board from Tony Messina). Allows you to hear the ultrasound calls of bats!

A mini portable amp for my bat detector! Speaker from my old PC, and a LM386 amp (GGG board).

My second bat detector, but this time a heterodyne one. More info.

A tiny speaker in an enclosure. When the bat detector has enough output, this provides enough volume.