Ultimate guide to guitar effect wiring: how to wire DIY guitar pedals properly?

Your guitar pedal circuit is finally populated and ready to rock! However, you still have to solder all the wires... I noticed that it was during this step that beginners encounter most of the issues that go along with guitar effects making.

Especially with veroboard, you can quickly get a huge mess of wires going everywhere in the enclosure, with the so-called "spaghetti wiring" that we all achieved at least once when starting to make guitar effects!

 

Why you should NOT paint your guitar pedal enclosures yourself

I know this is a bit against the concept of DIY, but the more I am spray painting enclosures, the more I notice that the results are not as great as a commercialy available prepainted enclosures.

First, sanding the enclosure is a long and painful task and is mandatory if you want a clean surface to paint on. Avoid the long long hours spent carefully polishing your enclosure !

Then, a lot of thin layers are required if you want a proper painting, and most of the time, the painting will still be fragile and sensitives to shocks. I got craks or scratches on the paint really quickly... Nice if you want a beaten-up, vintage, relic look, but not if you want something really clean and durable. You will end up having something similar to the first tall font russian big muff that had paint quality issue:

Black Arts Toneworks Pharaoh Fuzz clone

I want to make  Big Muff variants using my Coda Effects Big Muff PCB, and show you how to make them yourself. Lets start with the boutique version of the Big Muff that made it popular again on the stoner / doom scene: the Pharaoh Fuzz! Produced by Black Arts Toneworks since 2011, it was an immediate success because of the huge, warm, doomy sounds it can produce.

Here is my version:

As you can see, the Pharaoh has more controls than a classical Big Muff. There are the classic gain / volume / tone controls, like a classical Big Muff, plus a few other options. Here is the original version of the Pharaoh:

There are a "high" potentiometer that allows us to set the amount of trebles, and two switches. The first switch is a 'high / low' switch, that allow us to have 2 types of gain settings for the pedal: low gain and high gain. It modulates also a bit the trebles. Finally, you can choose the type of diodes in the last distorsion stage with the second switch: classic silicon diodes, no diodes or germanium diodes!

Finally, there are some modifications on the circuit. For instance, input and output capacitors are 10uF tantalum capacitors, which will let a looooot of bass go through the circuit!

Here is a gutshot (yes, I had fun drawing this!):

 

You can see the tantalum capacitors that are drop-shaped. I try to avoid as much as possible to use it in my guitar pedals. They are not especially good for audio, expensive, and most of all there are not really "ethical friendly". Tantalum is produced from coltan, a mineral that is the root cause of many conflicts, especially in Congo. Illegal mines were opened without any regulation, degrading environment in an uncontrolled way, with many Human right issues (a bit of reading about that on wikipedia). Traceability is a big problem with electronics. Most of the time we do not know how, where or in what ecological context components are made... For tantalum capacitors, just know that they are easily replaceable by electrolytic capacitors.

Wima capacitors are much better for that: they are made in Germany (and thus, their production must respect European ecological laws and regulations). This is why I try to use them as much as possible:

 

So, how can we make the Pharaoh from a classical Big Muff PCB?

Here is the schematic from the Big Muff page:

As you can see, it is very similar to the Big Muff circuit! We can use the Coda Effects PCB and modify it following the above schematic. Here are the modifications to do:
- no mid knob, 470k for R5.
- no R2 resistor (we will use a switch instead)
- no D1/D2 diodes (switch here too)
- no R8 resistor. (replaced by a "high" potentiometer)
No big changes!

If you want, Rullywow sells a PCB especially conceived to make the Pharaoh Fuzz, named "King Tut". If these mods seems a bit difficult to do, you can buy this PCB to make it easier ! Rullywow creates really nice PCB, and this one is no exception, and is of very nice quality.

First, we will remove the mid knob by placing jumpers on the mid knob pads, like indicated on the build document.

To include the switches, we will have to use a 125B enclosure, it will not fit in a 1590B. We will have to use long lugs potentiometers to place switches so they do not touch the circuit board and create false contacts.

For R2 and D1/D2, we will use switches:
- SPDT on-on for choosing R2
- SPDT on-off-on to choose D1/D2 diodes.

Choosing R2: switching between the Hi/Lo setting of the Pharaoh

We use a "on-on" SPST. Signal arrives to the center of the switch, and goes through a resistor, 39k ("high" setting), or 390k ("low" setting):

Try to make the connections on the other side of the PCB, it will be simpler. With this switch, you can choose the R2 value! In "high" position, there will be a lot of gain and trebles, whereas in "low" position, the sound will have more bass, less trebles.

It can apply to any resistor in the circuit, so feel free to experiment! Of course, some resistors are more interesting than others... I let you try!

Diodes choosing: 3 positions switch

We will use the same system for the diode switch. We are going to use a 3 positions on-off-on SPDT switch in order to have: germanium diodes (3 to have assymetric clipping), no diodes or classic silicium diodes. The second set of diodes to replace is D1/D2:

There it is! We have our two switches. Beware of false contacts with these switches: try to reduce the length of naked cables.Voilà ! On a déjà nos deux switchs !

Treble potentiometer

Last mod to add to have exactly a circuit like the original design: the treble potentiometer. In fact, you just have to replace R8 (tonestack resistor) by a 25k potentiometer. Just connect the lug 1 and 2 to each pad of the R8 resistor:

It can also apply to any resistor! You can investigate to find your favorite resistor to modulate ;)
There it is! Voilà! We have got our Pharaoh Fuzz PCB!

You can solder the other potentiometers now.  Beware: if we use "classic PCB-mount" potentiometer, the switches will not fit in the enclosure (they will touch the PCB and create false contacts). We will have to use "long lug" potentiometers like this ones:

You can also use classic potentiometer and make the lugs longer with soldered wire with solid copper wire or cur resistors / diodes lugs for instance.

You can now drill the 125B enclosure, and rock! :)
Have fun!

To go further:
Official Pharaoh webpage : if you are interested in buying the original pedal
Veroboard version of the pharaoh: a bit annoying and complex to make, but doable!
King Tut PCB: dedicated PCB conceived by Rullywow

Relay Bypass: conception and relay bypass code

You might already have heard about "relay bypass", or even used it without knowing it. It a different true-bypass system than the classical 3PDT switch. Instead of using a mechanical 3PDT switch, a soft switch, a microcontroller and a relay are combined to turn the effect on and off.

 So... Why bother? My 3PDT switch is great, don't you think?

As you may already know, 3PDT switches are the main cause of guitar pedal failure. These switches are not particulary though, and they often break, especially as we smash it continuously with our feet on stage.

A classical high quality 3PDT switch is rated for 30,000 activation cycles. With relay bypass, we use a relay that will play the mechanical role of connecting ins and outs. Relays are usually rated between 10 and 100 millions cycles! Thus, this system is much more reliable.

Moreover, the soft switch that we use to activate the guitar pedals also last longer than a 3PDT, usually around 50,000 cycles! They are also easier to replace, as there are only 2 connections to make with the relay bypass system, and not the full 3PDT wiring.

This blog post will present you how does it work, and how to make your own relay bypass system using a microcontroller, from the beginning to the end! Long stuff (but good stuff?)!

Guitar effects and reliability: 5 things to improve to make your pedals longer lasting

I am building effects since three years, and now that it has been a while, I noticed first failures on my devices. In this article I am going to describe what are the main causes of guitar effects failures that I noticed or that people report to me, how to repair it, and how to build your pedal to make them long term lasting or easily repairable.

1. 3PDT switches

3PDT switches are the main reason why a pedal stops working. A broken 3PDT switch can cut your sound, and the pedal is not easy to switch on and off. 3PDT (and switches in general) are mechanical devices that suffer when activated a lot of times. Usually, good quality switches are rated for 30 000 cycles, but with the way we treat our pedal (kicking them all the time on stage), they usually fail sooner than that. Moreover, most of the times, we do not use good quality switches, but rather “China Blue” 3PDT that are not that reliable (but way much cheaper than Alpha switches).

Replacing a switch is easy but sometimes quite annoying, as you have to rewire everything. To make replacement easier, you can use 3PDT miniboards and ribbon cables. This system is used in many commercial pedals, like in Electro Harmonix or even Diamond pedals:

But what if you just want something more reliable? Another solution is to use relays instead of 3PDT as a mechanical system to switch the signal. A normally open momentary soft switch can be used with a microcontroller to drive a relay to switch the signal. Indeed, relays are rated for way more cycles than mechanical 3PDT. For instance a Panasonic TQ2-L 5V, which is a classical relay is rated to last between 10 and 100 million cycles! The momentary switch is really easier to replace than the 3PDT switch, only 2 cables to solder. Here is an example from the Dr Scientist Bitquest pedal (great brand!):

 

I am planning on using this kind of system on my pedals soon. I have written a code for a PIC 12F675 microcontroller to use this kind of system. I am now designing a PCB to use it as a standard activation system, with some tricks. Also, this switching scheme is totally silent, which is nice!

2. Wiring dessoldering

When wiring the pedal, cables are not always really fixed, and the solder can break and cause a disconnection in your wiring. This can happen quite easily on the 3PDT jack where there is a lot of wiring going on, or even on input jacks. It can make the pedal mute, or generate a huge amount of noise if there are grounding issues arising from a dessoldered wire. It is easy to fix (just ressolder the wire), but quite annoying if the person cannot fix it at home (no soldering iron…etc) and needs to send the pedal over. There are two ways to prevent that. The cheap way to do it is to apply a kind of glue on the soldered wires to avoid physical stresses that cause unsoldering. This is the case in this Caline pedal (Chinese cheap clones):

But the best way to prevent it is to include the wiring directly on the PCB, ie include the jacks and 3PDT on the PCB. It is possible to use a separate PCB for the true bypass wiring like in this JHS pedal:

Or you can include the switching scheme directly on the PCB. I am planning on including it directly on the PCB on the new pedals I am prototyping. It also makes assembling easier and faster.

3. Loose jacks and 3PDT

This is a classical problem. Input jacks and the 3PDT can sometimes become a bit loose, even if you tight them with a pair of pliers. In the worst case scenario, the nut or the bolt can be lost in the process, and the pedal would be quite difficult to use if the input jack or the 3PDT “enters” inside the enclosure… It is really easy to fix, but it is a very common problem, and quite boring to repair because the customer would have to send it over (or I would have to send screws to repair it) just to fix a loose jack. There are two ways to avoid this: either your tight it a lot with a pair of pliers, either you can include jacks directly on the PCB.

However, it has one downside: if the jack input is not working anymore, it is quite boring to replace because dessoldering and ressoldering of the jack is not easy. So, do not forget to use high quality jacks like Neutrik NMJ6HCD2, and not to overcrowd the PCB around the jacks to make dessoldering possible.

I am designing my first “commercial” pedal, and I plan to include the jacks directly on the PCB. It avoids a lot of wiring (reason 2), and prevents loose jacks.

4. False contacts

If you let your PCB “free” in the enclosure, or just wire it without solid core wire (bendable wire), the circuit board can move in the enclosure. Sometimes, it can create false contacts that are quite boring to fix because you never know where it comes from. Also, it happens a lot with veroboard, where the copper side can make false contact with the bottom of the enclosure. The classical "spaghetti wiring" of beginners is also quite dangerous for that...

My recommendation would be to use PCB mounted potentiometers, which make the PCB fixed in the enclosure. If you are using a veroboard, use solid core wire to make the wiring, so you can bend it and try to fix the veroboard in the enclosure. But my ultimate recommendation would be: do not use veroboard. Honestly, it increases the risk of mistakes (misplacing components on the boards, complex wiring…), and can create false contacts easily. A PCB does not cause all this problems and is much more reliable in terms of assembling. This is why I use mostly PCB in my pedals now.

5. Component failure

Actually, I have never seen a component failure per se. Most of the failure I observed resulted from a power supply mistake. The most common case is with MAX1044 (voltage inverter / voltage doubler IC), that can only accept 10V maximum. If someone tries to apply an 18V voltage for instance, the chip simply stops working. Another thing that happens is when someone uses an inverted voltage on a pedal using a normal voltage (polarity inversion). Usually, the diode that protects the pedal from it usually just burn / melt and has to be replaced. Here is an example of a melted diode:

For the MAX1044, I use a socket so it can easily be replaced. For the diodes, I use a “long legs” package on my PCB so I can just cut the legs of it, which makes dessoldering easier. Also, SMD components are much more difficult to replace, so I would advise to avoid it.


There it is! This are the 5 main points I noticed concerning guitar pedal failure. I am sure that you can spot other things that make your pedal fail, do not hesitate to tell me by posting a comment!
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Big Muff mods and tweaks

I recently noticed that a page I referred to a lot just disappeared from internet... It is the Big Muff mods and tweaks page that was deleted recently.

Fortunately for us, there are some "internet archives" website that keep it alive for a while. In order to keep it alive, I added it here. I also added a list of personnal mods that work quite well, and some notes about mods I already tried.

Easy mods

Diodes mods

The Big muff contains 4 diodes (2 pairs of diodes), that clip the signal to create gain, and compress the signal. Changing these diodes can change the compression and gain of the pedal drastically:

• Silicon diodes: these are the original diodes used in the Big Muff. Usually, they are 1n4148 type diodes, and gives the Big Muff reference tone: gainy, compressed yet crispy and tight distortion.
• Germanium diodes: germanium diodes will cut the sound more. You will have a more gainy, more compressed saturation, but also you will loose quite a bit of output volume. No germanium diodes were used in original Big Muffs.
• LEDs: LEDs are also diodes and can clip the signal. Red diodes clip more the signal compared to yellow, blue ones. There will be less gain, less compression and also more volume output. It gives to the Big Muff a nice "overdrive" feel, with a bit more dynamics. Note from Coda Effects: I tried it on this Big Muff variant, I really like it! It gives a lot of dynamics to the muff.
• FET / MOSFET: if you tie together the drain and gate of FET / MOSFET transistors, they will behave like diodes. Sound is similar to silicon diodes, a bit smoother.
• Remove the first pair of diodes, and you have got a Colorsound Supa Tonebender! The unit will be louder, with more bass, but still quite compressed. Great trick for bass players.
• Remove the two pairs of diodes: great trick! By removing the diodes from the unit now sound if fed back. Result: more volume (LOUD!), less compression, less gain and a more open (overdrive) sound. In my Dolmen Fuzz, I removed all the diodes with the central position of the switch: massive spurry sound!

A good way to see what is your favorite combination is to use sockets for the diodes. You can also use switches to change the diodes. Here is an example with silicon diodes and LEDs :

Works really well and it gives you multiples choices. With 2 of these on-on-on switches you can choose between no diodes or 2 different diodes set for each gain stage!

Emitter mod

Each transistor's emitter of the gain stages of the Big Muff is linked to the ground by a resistor (either 100R or 390R, R12 & R16). Removing the resistors will increase the "gainy-ness" of the pedal, increasing the resistors will lower it.

Resistor mod Each of the gain stages has a limiting resistor on the start of it (R8 & R13). These are 8.2k (8k2) or 10k in different models. By diminishing these values the unit gets more gainy. (Note from Coda Effects: beware! There is a typo on the original Big Muff mods and tweaks text. Diminish it for more gain)

Creamy Dreamer

Basically the combination of the Emitter mod and the Resistor mod.

Noise gate mod

This mod will quieten the Muff while not playing, thus a noise gate. To do this, add a 100k trimpot (wired as a variable resistor) parallel to the 100k to ground of the second gain stage (R14). The trimpot can be adjusted to taste to get the max noise gate effect.

Coupling caps mod

The Muff has a lot of coupling caps (C1, 3, 4, 7, 16, 12 & 13). Coupling caps are next to the block of DC also a way to set the frequency response of the unit. 

Enlarging these caps give the unit more bass, making em smaller give the unit more treble. Experiment with em. Also the sort of caps can make a difference in noise, feeling and authenticity. Old Muffs used ceramic coupling caps; using film caps here won't give you the same sound

High roll-off mod

Notice those small ceramic caps on 3 of the transistor stages? They are used to roll of excessive highs. Normally they are 470 pF (C2, 5 & 8) but larger values roll of more highs. You can also remove em for a great result.

Clipping caps mods

Next to the diodes is also a cap placed (C6 & 9). This cap determines the frequency band the unit clips. Enlarging this cap will make it clip more low notes, make it smaller for more high end clipping.

Transistor mods

The Muff uses four transistors and the type and choice of these transistors will affect the sound greatly. The higher the gain, the more the unit will focus on the high end / treble. Some known examples:

• The Russian Muff uses E type transistors (newer ones use BC549C's though) which has a Hfe of around 500. I used BC184's as a great replacement of these transistors.
• The NYC Muffs usually use 2N5088's or BC550's with a Hfe of around 800.
• The Little Big Muff uses 2N5962 with a Hfe of around 1500 - 2000.

The Russian sounds darker due to the low gain. Knowing this, we can change the sound of a muff greatly by replacing the transistors. Small tip: use sockets when changing transistors. This way the transistors are not damaged by the soldering and swapping is much much easier. Some nice ones:

• 2N5133's: used in Triangle ones (the NOS versions tend to sound even better then newer ones) as FS36999's. Very nice sound, smooth, warm, open.One of my favs! Note from Coda Effects: I would not use these ones. They are really rare and expensive. I am not sure that they really sound better... I would try to find something similar in hfe (around 100-400).
• BC239's: also used in a bunch of Muffs around. Slight less gain as the above named but this gives the Muff quite a nice touch.
• 2N5087's: PNP transistors instead of the above named NPN (more usualble). To use these you need to reorient some of the caps and change the + and - of the battery (called positive ground). Although they must be identical to 2N5088's they were used in some old models and do sound different.
• BC141's: ultra low Hfe (around 100) and not suited for anyone out there. More bass, less gain but a very different sound.
• MPSA13's: ultra high Hfe (around 10.000). Nice touch for some more gain.

Experiment! Use four of the same transistors or try to mix. For example I like a Muff with 5133's for the clipping stages and MPSA13's for the buffer stages.

Note from Coda Effects: I also experimented with a few transistors, here is my feedback about this:

• The first transistor is the one that will define the most of the gain of your unit. Higher hfe = more gain, but also more trebles... I tried a few ones:
• 2n5089: high gain, but also gives a "gritty" touch to the muff that I do not really like. Also quite noisy
• 2n5088: nice sound, gainy unit, but less noisy and agressive trebles than 2n5089. I really like it and use it often.
• 2n2222A: low gain, gives more bass and smoother sound. Beware: polarity is reversed compared to 2n5089.
• MPSA18: extreme gain! I would suggest to increase emitter resistor to limit gain (especially for noise issues), but you can have a nice "doomy" muff with it!
• 2n3904/BC549C: great for a low gain Muff.

• The two transistors of the gain stages play a bit more with compression. I usually use low hfe. 2n2222 are really nice for this use. 2n5088 can also do the job.
• The last transistor will define the final output volume of the unit. I like to have quite a lot of output volume, so I prefer to use high hfe transistor for the last stage, like 2n5089, or MPSA18.

Feedback mod

This mod is also not for anyone. It will give the Muff a weird drone note that will interact with the notes played resulting in octaves (up and down), nintendo sounds or a huge MUSH. Can sound quite nice and interesting!!!!! The mod is done with a feedback loop: connecting two points together and letting signal flow back. I found two of these loops in my Muff (note: more can be there; try for yourself!)

1. Connect the emitter of Q3 with the emitter of Q2 through a switch (so you can turn the loop off). The sustain will be on full when this mod is engaged.
2. Connect the collector of Q3 with the collector of Q1 through a switch. The sustain now can be varied by the sustain knob.

Great addition: add a 1M potmeter in the loop (wired as a variable resistor) or, even better!!, a LDR (light dependent resistor). With the latter, you can control the amount of feedback with the light on stage / with your foot shading the LDR from the light. Cool!

Note from Coda effects: this is really cool, but I will suggest to use a momentary footswitch. If not, you can be quickly bored with the noisy issues that will rise from this mod. However, from times to times (beginning of a song), it is a killer mod to use!

Pictures:

NYC muff:

Russian muff: (Note from Coda Effects: these units are getting rarer and rarer, I would not modify it)

Tonestack mods

The Big Muff Pi is legendary due to his tone section; only one knob to select between a bass, treble or in-between setting. The overall sound of this tone knob is the loved / hated mid cut.

Some Versions:

• Triangle version: R1=33k, C1=4n, R2=33k, C2=10n;
• Ramshead version: R1=33k, C1=4n, R2=22k, C2=10n;
• 1975 version: R1=39k, C1=4n, R2 = 22k, C2=10n;
• 1977 opamp version (1): R1=5.6k, C1=100n, R2=1.2k, C2=120n;
• 1977 opamp version (2): R1=8.2k, C1=100n, R2=1.2k, C2=120n;
• Green Russian version: R1=20k, C1=3.9n, R2=22k, C2=10n;
• Late model: R1=39k, C1=4n, R2=100k, C2=10n
• Reissue version: R1=22k, C1=3.9n, R2=22k, C2=10n;
• Little Big Muff version = reissue version.

And then some different mods:

• Swollen Pickle: R1=33k, C1=3.3n, R2 = 22k, C2=47n;
• Flat mids: R1=33k, C1=5.6n, R2=33k, C2=5.6n; 

Tone stack bypass mod

By bypassing the tonestack the tonestack has no influence anymore on the sound thus does not color the signal in it's own way. Great way to get a more middy tone from your Muff. As the tone stack also cuts volume you get a huge volume increase

Tone stack complete mod

One of my most fav mods. Remove the tone stack altogether from the Muff and place a three band EQ circuit in it's place. Works like a charm and gives you more control over the sound! I also once added a Boss GE-7 in this place to give total control over the sound.

Read my post about the Big Muff tonestack for more infos about how the tonestack works and what mods you can do.

Bonus mods (Coda Effects)

Here are other easy mods and tweaks that can give a nice touch to a Big Muff:

Input Resistor / Capacitor:

The input resistor (R1) and capacitor (C1) defines how much signal enters the pedal, ie the overall gain of the unit. It also forms a filter that will allow some frequencies to go in or not.

Increasing the value of the resistor will lower the gain, and lower treble content of the pedal.
Increasing the value of the capacitor will increase the amount ot bass and the overall gain of the unit.

I like to use a switch to choose between a high gain bassy setting, and a lower gain treblier setting.
A smaller value in C1 also helps reducing noise. I used this mod on this Big Muff for instance.

LPB1 before the muff circuit

Adding a LBP1 before the muff circuit can allow you to add an extra gain / bass amount to the muff. It really add some "heaviness" to the distortion. You can do it on a veroboard, with a trimmer or external gain potentiometer. I want to use the PCB I made recently to try this mod. The musket from Blackout Effectors uses this trick. With a simple 3PDT wiring, you can make it activable or not.

Germanium transistors in the distorsion stage

It can smoothen the Big Muff a bit, but remember to have a high gain last stage to recover enough volume. This is used in the Hoof fuzz from EQD. I am not super found of this mod, but you can try it out if you want! Remember to use NPN germanium transistors.

Voltage starver mod

You can emulate a dead battery, that will give a very peculiar sound to the muff: it cleans up a bit, and the circuit starts to sound "gated", and "stutters" a bit because it does not have enough power to work correctly. I would suggest to use this schematic:

 

Just connect the output voltage to the voltage input of your Big Muff.

18V Muff 

Beware: I never tested it on a EHX, and I do not know if the stock pedal can handle 18V... If you have already test it, tell me. However, if you have made a clone with capacitors that can handle 18V or more, you can try to use a MAX1044 as a voltage doubler to supply your Big Muff with 18V instead of 9V!


Here it is! I hope that you liked it, good luck with experimenting!
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