April 2008
I was itching to build something again and I can't afford to build a Ceriatone Overtone Special, so I decided to do a General Guitar Gadgets ITS8 Tubescreamer Clone. Instead of rounding up the parts myself, I just ordered the General Guitar Gadgets ITS8 Complete Kit. I also got the ITS8 Kit Modifications Pack for another $8. All the stuff came to $75 to my door - a good deal!

Where to start... I decided to polish the enclosure like my last build so I did this first. I then drilled 2 holes in the box so that I could use stainless steel stand-offs to mount the circuit board instead of the stick-on plastic ones many people use. I don't want anything coming loose and rattling around. I then mounted all of the components with the exception of the 1/4" jacks.

Here is a top view.

I did a whole bunch of research and decided I was going to do some mods to the pedal to make it more flexible. I was already going to do the "Expensive Boutique Modifications" that General Guitar Gadgets lists in there documentation, but I decided to use a different fat boost mod that I found on Harmony Central thread on the web. I also decided to use metalized polyester box capacitors that this thread also talks about. I stayed away from the carbon comp resistors discussed, and went with the metal films that were in the kit because I want this baby to be quiet. Some builders have tried both in this pedal and cannot hear the difference. I then soldered in all of the components. I have to get a magnifying glass because I have a great deal of trouble reading the resistor colors. I metered everything anyway before I installed it just to be sure I didn't misread any components. I use a Panavise when I am soldering so I don't burn my fingers while trying to hold small items I am soldering.

Here is the board completed. Notice the 2 wires just to the left of the chip socket. This is to wire the 2 different caps to a switch for the selectable fat boost mod.

Here is the wiring to the potentiometers completed. I used teflon coated silver plated wire that I got from Powerwerx. Cool name and cool wire.

Here is the pedal with all of the wiring completed.

Here is a close up of the fat mod. I employed a mini buss bar to join the two leads on the caps.

Finished!

Tube Screamer Resources:
The True TS808 Chip
Mods for the ITS8 thread
Analogman - Tubescreamer History
Tubescreamer in Wikipedia - lots of info!
Technology of the Tubescreamer
The Tubescreamers Secret
Beavis Audio Research - Screamer Lab

Clips soon!

Other Pedal Builds:
General Guitar Gadgets MXR Microamp Clone

Amp Builds:
Rachelle Prototype
Rachelle - My one-of-a-kind personal amp
Buy a Rachelle amp!

Check out my current band:
The Hornrims

If you live in the Tampa area, go see my new rock musical in 2009!
Pericles

Buy some of my old music! Support my kids dance lessons!
- Joe Popp
- dogs on ice



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