This page started out as part of my LunchBox amp’s pages, documenting the tone control options I tried out while working on that amp. It’s since expanded to be a repository of schematics and layout drawings for various tone control/stack options I’ve tried or am planning to try. I find doing detailed layout drawings in Visio to be extremely helpful to me personally. On my last couple of projects I’ve drawn and verified the entire layout in Visio, which has enabled the physical building stage to go off without a hitch.
I’ve been collecting and analyzing circuits for other tube distortion pedals, which I’ve started to summarize here. I’ve simplified each circuit into block diagrams to illustrate their architecture.
I started building amps to have a low volume alternative for home recording. However, sometimes even any audible sound at all is too much.
Guitar amps are wonderful things, but they’ve often got this little problem. They’re loud. I got into building DIY amps because of that. My Music Man HD130 was just ridiculously loud. I mean, we’re talking jet airplane kind of loud here. Guitarists are constantly struggling with how to get great tone at lower volume. One method of lowering the volume of a cranked amplifier is to place a device inbetween the output of the amp and the speaker or speakers it’s driving. This device is called a power attenuator.