Catalinbread - Dirty Little Secret

This is a fairly new offering from Nic at Catalinbread effects. Check out the page here: http://www.catalinbread.com/DLS.html

There are plenty of demo videos on the Catalinbread website but here is an extra one;

The Dirty Little Secret has been getting rave reviews for a while now and that was enough to spark peoples curiosity as to what was going on inside. The guys over at freestompboxes.org opened one up and this is a schematic drawn up by WhiteKeyHole;

Here is the part list;

Catalinbread Dirty Little Secret - Part List

Part Value

C1 0.05uF
C2 100pF
C3 0.22uF
C4 4.7uF
C5 0.05uF
C6 0.022uF
C7 470pF
C8 200pF
C9 0.05uF
C10 47pF
C11 2.2uF
C12 0.033uF
C13 10uF
C14 100uF
C15 0.003uF
C16 147pF
POT1 100KB
POT2 100KB
POT3 1MA
Q1 2N5457
Q2 2N5457
Q3 2N5457
Q4 2N5457
Q5 2N5457
Q6 2N5457
R1 1M
R2 47K
R3 10K
R4 1M
R5 1M
R6 4.7K
R7 470K
R8 22K
R9 200K
R10 4.7K
R11 22K
R12 200K
R13 1M
R14 470K
R15 12K
R16 1M
R17 1M
R18 47R
SW1A DPDT
SW1B

A great vero layout from Harald Sabro (check out his site here for more great vero layouts; www.sabrotone.com);

As you can see - stacked mu-amp stages, a great way to get some serious marshall rock tones. I've not built one up yet but when I do I'm going to give mine an adjustable voltage supply ranging from 18V - 4.5V, these stacked mu-amp stages react very differently to altered supply voltages, articluate and dynamic at 18V and a softer, more compressed feel as you lower it down.

All in all the Dirty Little Secret looks like a great little pedal, much fun to play with :-)

BJF - Dyna Red Distortion :-)

[Note] This post also contains the Bearfoot FX Dyna Red Distortion [Note]

Everyone loves the Dyna Red - A great sounding overdrive/distortion circuit from Born of BJFe. A great, dynamic response with a smooth top end ar features of this great unit. Here's a demo video;

Check out the schematic here;

This schematic was reversed from a dyna red which had been modified by Bjorn himself to produce more character in the lower mids, Soulsonic found that by replacing the 0.47uF cap on the feedback loop with a 0.1uF cap that the original sound was restored.

Integrating the bass control of Paul C's Timmy circuit could work wonders, go on, give it a try!

Here's a perf/pcb layout for you;

Many thanks to all involved over at freestompboxes.org :-)

And now the Bearfoot Dyna Red Distortion, here's the scheme;

For more great info on Bjorn's stuff get over to the BJFe forum (http://www.bjfe.org) and ask some questions, Bjorn always puts an interesting answer down for you :) Get involved with the HoneyBee Project too!

Skreddy - Screwdriver Overdrive

This is a nice project, again from the Freestompboxes disection table. A very dynamic, natural sounding  overdrive from Marc at Skreddy pedals. I know lots of guys out there have been asking for this. So here is a schematic :-)

Demo video is here:

Check out the full thread on the discussion of the Screwdriver in the freestompboxes thread here:

http://www.freestompboxes.org/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=1368

Zvex Nano Head Schematic?

Yep. It's here alright, I actually drew the schematic up on this one! -

Check it out. Note that the power supply in the scheme is not the original switching type as used in the nano. It'll make no difference to the sound, all the power supply needs to do it provide 230VDC to those plates! You could sub in the power supply from this amp here: http://jjs.at/electronic/class_a_subminiature.html

Demo video:

This was kindly provided by a freestompboxes.org member, many thinks :-)

View the thread here: http://freestompboxes.org/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=511&p=55083#p55083

Here are some good links regarding sub-mini tube amps - http://amps.zugster.net/projects/subminiature

Emma - ReezaFRATzitz

Well, well, well. I just built this thing up. What a suprise - I loved it, which is a suprise seeing as I loath the sound of the "Tube Sound Fuzz" that this circuit seems to have taken it's inspiration from. I really love the Bias control and the tone control is very effective too. It's a much better distortion (In my opinion) than, say, a Rat. Pretty dynamic and cleans up well with the guitar volume pot. A nice find, I've recently started exploring CMOS technology with a view to developing my own distortion! I knew that invertors *could* be used to create a nice distortion as inside those little CMOS invertor blocks there are MOSFETs, and we all know how nice they are :-) Check the CD4069 datasheet here: http://www.datasheetcatalog.org/datasheets/90/206781_DS.pdf

Here's a demo video for the Reezafratzitz;

Anyhow, here is the Marketing blurb from the Emma website:

"Just when you thought you had seen the strangest name for a stompbox, EMMA offers up the Reezafratzitz! Like it's unconventional handle, the RF-1 is a unique type of OD/Distortion unit that stands out in an extremely crowded playing field. The RF-1 offers incredibly rich, full-bodied crunch that is so close to tube-amp overdrive that you''d be hard pressed to choose which was which. The secret to the RF-1's amazing tone lies in it's Bias control. This knob allows the user to morph between Class B and Class A biasing, altering the harmonic structure of the signal and providing a much wider variety of tonal options than your standard distortion. In Class B mode, the RF-1 exhibits a thick, chunky grind similar to a Marshall or Fender amp. Class A mode provides sweet, singing saturation worthy of the finest Vox AC30. Additional controls for Level, Gain, and a Hi Boost/Hi Cut Tone circuit allow the user to fine tune the RF-1 to taste. When you're ready to set trends rather than follow them, the Reezafratzitz will provide the audio inspiration you need to set yourself apart!"

Here is a project put together by thn.technik;

You'll notice this project has a "Bass/mids" mod performed on it, this slight alteration adds a lot of new tones to the pedal and is well worth doing. 

I must say a huge thanks to all those involved - you know who you are! For more info and build reports visit the freestompboxes.org forum.