This is my latest guitar, which includes an idea I had for an on-board distortion module.
I had previously built a soft distortion unit as a separate pedal and it worked pretty well. So I thought I would try to add one to the guitar and house the Stomp button to activate it on the soundboard.
Other features of the guitar are :
- Unidentified hardwood neck - The wood came via a friend and it may be an African wood
- Homemade 'cigar' box as I still struggle to find the genuine article in the UK
- Box uses finger joints using a table saw jig I made a while ago. So pretty strong
- The added module is known as a 'soft distortion' amplifier. Unlike 'hard distortion' which works by completely clipping the tops of the signal, soft distortion just 'flattens' the signal more as the amplitude increases.Needs germanium diodes rather than silicon, then just one op-amp and a few resistors and caps etc.
- Battery powered via a 9V PP3. So the wiring harness looks like this
And the final build ...
Finally, here is what it sounds like with and without distortion switched in.....
https://youtu.be/A5diCG1baBQ
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