As Pierre explains “For the cost of a few analog stompboxes, it is now possible for a guitarist (or any musician, actually) with some knowledge of computers to develop effects for her instrument with virtually no limit but her own imagination.” Pierre’s effect system can be heard on these tracks from a recent Pierre et le loup recording:

Learn more at Pierre’s blog Guitar Extended.

See the kit at www.harpkit.com/renguitar.

The terms “white noise” and “pink noise” refer to specific types of noise that are used for testing electronic equipment, and for other purposes as well. The color names stem from a comparison to white light, which contains all wavelengths of visible light from red (longest wavelength, lowest frequency) to violet (shortest wavelength, highest frequency). When all of the light wavelengths are in balance we see white light. If the redder wavelengths are in greater proportion to the others, the light shifts to the pink or red. As we will see below, this same idea applies to noise sources.

For the purposes of this discussion, electronic “noise” is a random signal. If the signal contains an equal amount of power within a fixed bandwidth, we say that it has a spectrum power density that is flat. This means that every equal-size bandwidth contains the same amount of power. For example the 20Hz-wide audio bandwidth from 20Hz to 40Hz will contain the same amount of power as the 20Hz-wide band from 1000Hz to 1020Hz. You can hear a sample of white noise at www.simplynoise.com by clicking on the white noise button.

With its flat power density, white noise might seem at first to be an ideal test signal. However human perception of sound does not have a linear response to frequency, but instead responds to passbands of sound, generally agreed to be in the 1/6 to 1/3 of an octave range. For this reason we are generally more interested in having an equal amount of power per octave, and per portion of an octave, since as a starting point we want to have a flat response across all the notes and octaves of our scale. Recall that an octave is a doubling of the frequency, so 20Hz to 40Hz is one octave. Thinking back to our example above, where 20Hz-40Hz and 1000Hz-1020Hz have the same power, this means that the octave from 1000Hz to 2000Hz will have 50 times the power of the octave from 20Hz to 40Hz. The octave from 10kHz to 20kHz will have 500 times the power of the 20-40Hz octave.

Compared to a white noise signal, the noise spectrum with equal power per octave will have relatively more power in its lower frequencies, analogous to a source of light with pink or red tones. We call this pink noise, which has a power spectrum that decreases at a 3 dB per octave rate with increasing frequency. When measured with a 1/3rd octave analyzer it has a flat frequency response. This tends to give an equal representation of all frequencies in the audio spectrum, from lows to highs. If you listen to a sample of pink noise at www.simplynoise.com you can hear the greater emphasis on low frequencies compared with the white noise signal.

One last point – while pink noise is useful for electronic testing of amplifiers, microphones and speakers, it is not terribly useful for listening tests, which need instead to use something that is memorable and can be analyzed by the listener. Keep in mind the need to combine both electronic and listening tests.

Mojo’s Blackface Princeton Reverb Style Amp Kit features JJ tubes (2 6V6 output, 1 GZ34/5AR4 rectifier, 1 12AT7 preamp and 3 12AX7 preamp), a Jensen C10Q 35 Watts speaker, carbon composition resistors, Sprague, TAD and Orange Drop capacitors and an original black Fender-style fiber board with eyelets.

“I had the opportunity of meeting Antonio Tessarin, one of the best and most highly regarded luthiers among Brazilian guitar makers”, says O’Brien. Over the next couple of years, he studied the craft under him and built several guitars under the supervision of Tessarin. Antonio taught me the tricks of the trade and selflessly opened his shop and home to me. His attention to detail not only gave me the skills necessary to make a fine handmade guitar but also taught me to be passionate about the art of guitar building”.

O’Brien recently moved back to the States and now resides in Parker, Colorado where he continues building guitars using the methods learned in Brazil. He builds both high end classical and steel string guitars, and offers building classes in both subjects at Red Rocks Community College in Lakewood, Colorado. He is the author of several instructional DVD’s on guitar building and finishing as well as the creator of the very popular Luthier Tips du Jour instructional videos on Youtube. He has taught hundreds of students how to build their own custom designed acoustic guitar. O’Brien also teaches one-to-one in his private shop on how to build a custom classical, flamenco or steel string guitar.

O’Brien’s online classical guitar construction course focuses on every step in the process of making a classical guitar. With over 25 hours of guitar building instruction on video it is designed to be like having a luthier mentor standing right beside you during the entire guitar building process, teaching you the guitar construction ideas and procedures one step at a time.

In the video below O’Brien, talks about the LMI kit he uses in his Online Acoustic Guitar Building Course. The price for the online course is $197 and includes a set of the neck angle jig plans used in the video.

This directory has two sections. The first is a list of kit makers with a brief description of their offerings. Following that is our cross-reference of classic pedals and the kits and board sold to clone them.

To read our articles about building these kits please click on the category of interest in the orange menu bar above.

Have you built one of these kits? We invite you to share your knowledge and experience by commenting on our articles. You don’t need to be a registered member to comment.

• Beavis Audio Research – started in 2005 as a hobbyist site to share information on DIY guitar electronics. From the initial few pages of questionable designs, it has grown to a popular place for DIY freaks to visit and learn. Along the way, beavis has evolved into a small company. They strive to advance the DIY ethic and provide resources, tools, kits and products to the worldwide community of gearhounds.
• Build Your Own Clone – opened for business with only three kits – the Fuzz Face, Tonebender, and Rangemaster, and they came with point to point
  eyelet boards. Today BYOC leads the way in DIY FX kits for guitarists. With distribution in Canada, Europe, Australia, Great Britain, and Asia, and over 25 thousand kits sold worldwide, BYOC is a leader in DIY effects. And our goal has not changed – to bring guitar players a product that is more than just some DIY effects project that merely “works”, but a complete stompbox that will rival or surpass any of the big name boutique pedals on the market today.
• DIY Pedal Kits – supplies hand made guitar effect pedal kits from the UK. All you need to complete their kits are a small number of basic tools. These are a soldering iron, screwdriver and wire cutters/strippers. In addition, needle nose pliers make things a LOT easier but they aren’t essential. Included in each kit is a pre-drilled metal enclosure, 3PDT true bypass) switches (if applicable), high-quality quarter inch jacks, all wire, solder, heatshrink, components, etc needed for the build, 2.1mm center npower supply socket and full color build guide.
• Fuzz Box World – We are dedicated to bringing the highest quality components to builders of guitar and bass effects. We want to be the number one source of parts for electronics diyers. Whether you are a professional boutique pedal builder or a weekend hobbyist, your business is very important to us. We will do everything we can to make sure you are happy with your experience at Fuzz Box World.
• General Guitar Gadgets – is a family owned operation located near Good Hope, Missouri, USA. Our goal is to provide the absolute best Do-It-Yourself Guitar Effect information on the internet and to provide resources to the world for building your own guitar effects.
• GuitarPCB.com – designs and sells printed circuit boards (PCBs) with a boutique look for classic and boutique pedal designs. Their active forum provides support for builders using the PCBs. A theme throughout their site is that you expensive boutique pedals are simply classic older designs with little or no modification, and you can easily build your own.
• KillerTone.com makes the ToneCrafter pedal, an easily modifiable pedal device that comes with the parts for seven different effect pedals.
• Madbean Pedals provides schematics and circuit boards so you can create your own pedal kits. As the creator, Brian, describes it, “I love making music and I love making things, so pedal building is a happy accident for me. Mostly, it came from being too broke to buy any gear. I owned and used only two pedals for about a decade: a TS-10 and a Digitech PDS-1000 Digital Delay. I used those for both my bass and guitar gigs. Even my drum gigs, I think. Anyway, rather than spend money I didn’t have, I decided it would be more fun to take a “peek under the hood” and see what the whole effects thing was about. That was about six years ago, and the obsession grows a little more every day! “
• MEK UK Electronics – is a maker of custom guitar effect pedals, mods and more, handcrafted in Germany.
• Mod Kits DIY sells kits for amps, mods and pedals through their one-stop shop, AmplifiedParts.com.
• Monte Allums Mods – Tweaking the tone of inexpensive stomp boxes is an obsession of Monte Allums. He started modding mainly because he refused to spend $200 to $300 or more to achieve great tone. Monte believes that most expensive boutique pedals are simply clones of inexpensive pedals, but upgraded with higher-quality components. So his mods and kits feature classic designs with better components to deliver superior tone.
• Moody Sounds – sells guitar effect pedals, DIY kits, parts and custom pedals.
• MusicPCB.com – offers PCB projects to build guitar and bass effects, and synth modules. All PCBs are professionally manufactured, and include soldermask, a silkscreened component legend, and plated through holes and pads. They are designed to be easy to build, provide simple and clean wiring, to work well with your other pedals, modules, and instruments, and most of all to sound great and provide sounds and features not available in commercial designs. Each PCB comes with a PDF document with wiring diagram, schematic, build notes, and large modding sections with details on how to perform a variety of mods to tailor the design to your needs/taste.
• Officially Licensed Circuits (OLC) – makes pedals and kits for the DIYer. Through partnerships with some of the more knowledgeable people in effects design, OLC offers kits from Runoffgroove and others. New kits are always being added.
• Pedaldoc – is a company specialized in the production of kits to convert standard guitar effect pedals into boutique sounding pedal stomp boxes. They carry “do it yourself” kits to modify many topselling Boss pedals, Electro harmonix stompboxes, Vox 847´s wah pedals and more. The only thing needed to perform one of their mods in is about an hour of your time and a soldering iron. Their kits are designed for guitar and bass players who may not have any knowledge of electronics and all the components that need to be substituted are clearly market on a picture of the pcb board of the pedal.
• TonePad – provides ready-to-use layouts and circuit boards for effects and amplifier projects to the do-it-yourself music community. All layouts are provided free of charge and are subject to the limitations set forth on their legal page. Parts are available from Small Bear Electronics, and ready-made PCBs for many projects are now available directly through tonepad.

CLASSIC PEDALS CROSS-REFERENCE TO PEDAL KITS AND BOARDS

This is our new cross-reference between classic pedals (e.g. a Fuzz Face) and who makes kits or boards to build it yourself. In some cases the kit or board is for an exact clone. In others, it is for a circuit based on the original but with improvements or combinations with other pedal designs. Read the description specifics by clicking the link and visiting the maker’s site.

The list is sorted on designer or maker (e.g. Arbiter Electronics for the Fuzz Face). If you don’t know the designer/maker and can’t find something, try searching the page by using the ctrl-F search function of most browsers.

This is our first pass at this project, and only includes kits and boards from General Guitar Gadgets (GGG), Build Your Own Clone (BYOC) and TonePad.com (TP). We’ll be cross-referencing more kit and board makers soon.

Click on the kit makers initials to be taken to the kit or board on their website for the classic pedal indicated. Please give us any feedback on missing items or errors by leaving a comment or emailing us at editor at guitar kit builder dot com.

To read our articles about building these kits please click on the category of interest in the orange menu bar above.

Have you built one of these kits? We invite you to share your knowledge and experience by commenting on our articles. You don’t need to be a registered member to comment.

• Allen Amplification – Most of Allen Amplifier’s manufactured models are available in kit form at substantial savings due to the extensive amount of time involved in point-to-point hand wiring. The cabinets come completely finished with faceplates and logo. Most kits have step by step instructions to guide the assembly and wiring. Building the kits requires that you enjoy this type of work, know how to solder well, pay attention to instructions and details, and typically finish large projects that you start. These are advanced kits, so you should have some basic kit building skills, and most important, soldering skills! Typical kits can take from 15 to 25 hours to complete. If you follow the instructions, you are never exposed to live circuits or dangerous voltages. All parts are guaranteed except shorted transformer windings, torn speaker cones, or similar abuses incurred after you receive the kit. Speakers and tubes are guaranteed for 30 days.
• Amp Maker – Amp Maker is a UK company that has been supplying guitar amp kits and parts since 2005. Their first kit was the SE-5a (5W), followed by the PP-18 (18W) and WF-55 (4W).
• BitMo Mod Kits – makes kits to modify amplifiers including BlackHeart, Epiphone Valve, Fender, Jet City and Vox models. They also make kits for pedal mods and various other items.
• Brown Note Amplifiers – Building on some of the most revered tone platforms, Brown Note’s mission is to bring legendary tone to the professional and aspiring guitarist. They focus on making a quality product with an emphasis on hand-wired craftsmanship and premium components. Several of their amplifier models are also available in kit form.
• CeriaTone Amplification sells affordable guitar tube amp board kits for the DIYer, amp shop or a boutique amp manufacturer. CeriaTone has classic circuits to offer, as well as custom made to client specifications. They are located in South East Asia.
• Doberman Music Products is the main sponsor of AX84.com – the Cooperative Tube Guitar Amp Community. AX84TM provides a variety of free resources to tube amplifier homebrews around the world. Doberman was founded to supply kits for AX84TM projects, and is the only entity authorized to do so. Additionally, we offer other parts that homebrewers might need. Doberman is a small, family owned internet-only business.
• Electronic Valve and Tube Company (Australia) commenced business in 1995, although they have been accumulating tubes since the mid 1980′s. During this period they have acquired in excess of 50,000 tubes and CRT’s, including many rare vintage types. In addition they are regional distributors for Svetlana®, Winged C, EI, Electro-Harmonix, Golden Dragon, JJ Electronic and Sovtek® tubes, Hammond Audio and Power Transformers and chassis and Jensen® music amplifier loudspeakers.
• Gab Kits sells amplifier upgrade kits for Blackheart Little Giant, Vox AC4TV, Fender Champ 600, Epiphone Valve Junior and Orange Holy Terror models.
• Guytronix sells 1/2-, 2- and 8-watt vacuum tube amplifier kits for guitar. Everything is included except solder. The chassis are finished for the customer with all holes being drilled and punched. Kits feature a Mil-Std black anodized chassis, Mercury Magnetics power transformers, Gerhart Amplification’s proprietary output transformers manufactured by Mercury Magnetics and all stainless steel chassis hardware. The assembly manual guides the builder through each step.
• Marsh Amps offers high quality amp kits, replica amplifiers, amp cabinets, tubes, transformers, speakers and electronic components for amp builders.
• MetroAmp In addition to ready-built Plexi-style amplifier, MetroAmp carries everything to build and repair Plexi amps. Their complete DIY amplifier kits include 50-watt Plexi, 100-watt Plexi and JTM45.
• Mission Amps carries guitar amplifiers, cabinets, speakers, parts, tubes, amplifier kits and mods. Their amp kit is a 5E3 tweed style.
• Mojo Musical Supply is a source for vintage amplifier & guitar parts. They offer a complete line of guitar and amplifier products, specializing in vintage (pre-1980) reproduction cabinets and exact replacement components. They manufacture and internationally distribute their own custom wound pickups as well as custom amplifier and speaker cabinets in Burgaw, North Carolina. Their amplifier kits include blackface, Marshall and tweed styles.
• STF Electronics is a supplier to electronics hobbyists and industry for over 90 year with a line of parts and kits for the vacuum tube builder.
• Torres Engineering sells tube amplifiers, parts, amp kits, guitar kits, guitar parts and downloadable plans for building and modding many guitar amp models. All the kits have vintage fiber/phenolic circuit boards plus all the parts to build the circuit. All kits may require some metal drilling and fitting. Regular hand tools are needed for assembly. Their instructions include very detailed drawings, including full size layout drawings, showing location of all parts not as schematics, but as illustrations of the parts. Full kits (suggested for new kit builders) include the metal chassis correct for the amplifier, and all parts for the complete amp up to the specs the kit is designed for.
• Trinity Amps is called Trinity Amps because the company was started by a team spanning three generations – the Father (Stephen), Son (Andrew) and Grandfather (Glen – a.k.a. the “Holy Ghost of Tubes”). Trinity Amps offers an economical Do-It-Yourself way to build you own Trinity Amp such as the Trinity 18 Watt sIII, 18 watt v6 Head, TC15 Head or Combo, Tweed Deluxe 5E3, TRIWATT Custom Lead Head or Combo, Tramp Combo or Head Kit.
• Triode Electronics sells electron tubes, tube amplifier parts, and DIY tube amp kits. Yheir guitar amplifier kits include JCM800 and 5E3 Tweed Deluxe models. They also carry made-in-USA transformers for Dynaco, Fender, Marshall, Vox and Leslie amplifiers.
• Tube Depot As their name suggests, the core of Tube Depot’s business is vacuum tubes. In addition to selling a wide array of tubes, they sell guitars, basses, amplifiers, amplifier kits and parts for do-it-yourself projects. Their guitar amplifier kit models include a tweed deluxe, tweed champ, tweed bassman, blackface deluxe reverb, JTM45, and 18-watt british style amps in combo and head formats.
• Watts Tube Audio is a family owned, internet based business located in Saint Petersburg, Florida dedicated to bringing superior service and high quality tube audio products. They make amplifier kits and mods. Each kit comes with parts and components bagged and tagged for easy identification.
  Layouts are detailed and easy to follow.
• Weber Amplifier Kits Weber makes a wide variety of tube amplifier kits ranging in complexity from very simple to extremely complex. Their kits are graded for difficulty and they do not recommend anyone attempting to build any of the kits that are rated at 3 or higher unless you have the assistance of a qualified amp builder or electronics technician. This is due to the sensitivities to wire placement, grounding schemes, and other parts related issues, troubleshooting the potential malfunctions and noises which can be very frustrating without the necessary experience and knowledge. All kits feature cabinets manufactured by Weber Custom Cabinets.

We maintain this list of guitar kit building and guitar-making workshops as a service to our readers. We have no information on the quality or customer satisfaction of these sources. If you’d like us to list your program, please send us the program name and website to editor at guitarkitbuilder.com

AUSTRALIA
The Luthiers Lot

BELGIUM
Centrum voor muziekinstrumentenbouw
ILSA Internationale Luthier School Antwerpen

CANADA
Timeless Instruments
Summit School of Guitar Building and Repairs
Sergei de Jonge Lutherie
The Canadian School of Lutherie
Fret Works
Lado Lutherie School

Pembina Valley Luthiers Guitar Building School/
Bruand Lutherie-Guitare
Ecole Nationale de Lutherie

FRANCE
Le Bois de Lutherie
Ecole Nationale de Lutherie

GERMANY
Staatliche Berufsfachsschule
Stratmann Workshops
Stoll Guitars

INDIA

Jungle Guitars

ISRAEL
Algranati guitars

ITALY
Corso di liuteria Cloe

MALAYSIA

Jeffrey Yong Guitars/

NETHERLANDS
Outback Acoustics

SPAIN
Gitarrenbaukurs auf der Insel Formentera
Stephen Hill

SWITZERLAND
Werner Schär’s Gitarrenbauschule

UK
Mark Bailey Guitars

USA – ARIZONA
Roberto-Venn School of Luthiery

USA – GEORGIA
Atlanta Guitar Works
Everett Guitars
Luthier International

USA – VIRGINIA
Wells Guitars

Doc, we’re happy to try to help diagnose the problem but we need some clarification. How do you know you’re having a problem with the COSM switch? In the owner’s manual there is a Tuner switch, a “Select” switch, and the rotary knob for the different COSM sounds. The select switch changes between the clean lead channel and the COSM effects I believe. You’re saying that the tuner switch is working. What happens with the select switch – does it change between the clean lead and the COSM effects (which you say is stuck on Black Panel)? With the tuner on, try the manual tuning mode – does the rotary knob work in terms of changing the string being tuned?

Couple of other things – make sure there is no footswitch plugged in, since this interacts with the rotary knob setting. Also, do a factory reset to make sure that the solo feature is not getting in the way. To do the factory reset, Hold down the [TAP/STOP] switch and the SOLO [ON/OFF] switch at the same time and switch on the power. The SOLO indicator blinks and the settings saved with the SOLO function are returned to their factory defaults.

Let us know what you find.

* * * UPDATE * * *

Doc writes back:

“Thanks for your help. I reset to factory settings and things seem to be in order – when all else fails, read the manual !
Thanks again, Doc”