guitar boost effect circuit

Boosts the nominal 100mV (peak) passive guitar output signal to anything up to a volt (peak). Note: I have modified this circuit to give better response for bass guitar. Essentially, the input and output caps have been increased so that the bass end frequencies are now passed with less impedance. This will increase the mains hum. As such this modification should be avoided when using a normal electric guitar. The biasing values will depend upon the actual transistor characteristics. This circuit should be bread-boarded with the actual transistor used. The biasing may then be adjusted by swapping values of resistor until you arrive at a good compromise. This process is much the same as in EC, the only difference being in that in the real wold you must have a selection of values. My resistors and capacitors are stored in IKEA boxes (the size of shoe boxes) and these are then divided up using cardboard card file dividers (the type that have labels on. The actual components are stored in resealable plastic bags with the value written using marker pen on each plastic bag. I have found that this is far superior to expensive plastic mini draws. It is much quicker to find the value you are looking for this way and it takes up much less space!

published 11 years ago