What makes an overdrive pedal original? Are they all Tubescreamers? 

I think the pedal building community is one of the best in customer relations. With channels like yours and JHS, I learn more and see more about guitar pedals than I ever would have on my own. It's so cool to get to learn this kind of stuff directly from the people who create such incredible products. Thanks for the knowledge Brian!

Man those guys at the gear page hear things the pedal designers don't even hear. They can even hear if a cap has been installed by hand or on a PCB. Pretty incredible.

Instructions unclear. Soldered amp to guitar.

I followed your first diagram and was able to plug my pedal into my front load washing machine. Tone was awesome! Played best with towels and shirt loads. Analog filtering maybe?

I would recommend that any parent that has a kid that aspires to play guitar, but the parent wants them to study hard and become an engineer, show these videos to your kid. You might end up getting both.

That cat's gurgling meow is adorable.

I learned in 1982 from Craig Anderton's Electronic Projects For Musicians that A: most of these circuits were perfected early on, B: there are infinite variables to these circuits, and C: all that matters is that you like the sound.

We need a dedicated channel of that cat talking about things.

Yeah, but that's because electronics is based on magic, you really can't predict what's going to happen. It's not a science....

You'd make a very good professor. You've almost got me believing i could someday grok all of this and build my own Dumbloid.

This kind of video is relevant to my interests

"Out To (drawing of washing machine)" lol This video is great.

Great video Brian, im glade you made it.

Just stumbled across this while building my first pedal, as a complete novice following a kit. Thankyou, I now understand a tiny bit more of what I'm actually doing!

I drew something a lot like your diagram at 12:50 once when I was much younger. There was a hallucinogen involved. And something horrifying that I called beetlebots that looked remarkably like a 4558 and burrowed under my skin. It was one of the roughest nights of my life, who knew that I may have been diagraming an amazing pedal?!

Congratulations, this is a great one explanation about how a Tube screamer is made. And beaten the myth of Op amp, that makes unique and non-clonable the difference in the Ibanez pedals. Sorry if my grammar is not reflecting the syntax's of the things and concepts I wanna say. I'm from Spanish spoken. I´m an enthusiastic of the pedal sounds and gear. I´m a guitar player too, keyboardist...And for some reason this has been my life in the last months, I´m not a boy, neither a young anymore, and it has been very difficult for me had a stable job, the situation in the country is very precarious. I buy and sell audio equipment and occasionally I repair or mod, (but to much basically) a few pedals, and I would like to make this as an professional kind of life. Here some people built pedals and sell but in a manner of download schematics and copying without making any difference, none has an original design or sound. All are schematics clones. I want to learn to make my own design in the pedal fx industry, at least regionally. I wonder how to find some guides of how it works or the parts of which an pedal is made. I like a lot the gear you built, Dracarys, Tunmus, Pinnacle, just for mention some of it. I admire your job, for this reason I dared to ask about this matter of building / designing pedals. Could you tell me how to start?

Dear Brian you fully deserved the cup of coffee at the end. With respect to your acknowledgement of 'soft focus', self forgiveness at the start of video, being from the rainy UK, and the nation from hence came forth Shakspere, may I, ...compare you to a summers day...... Specifically quite cloudy. No problem there the diagrams came out real clear. However, on a more electronic subject, a very Big thanks for the 'guitarists' schematicing. Those diagrams, well I guess we all know they are meant to convey, signal comes in from guitar, then wonderful things happen to the electrons, then desirable output happens again expressed in electrons. Then to amp then finally to ears. As a fledgling pedal builder, this video, has helped me a great deal, I get the basic point of all you are saying, and am encouraged to look at schematics as electronic building blocks of conventions of different manipulations applied to the signal, (which is what they are), but remember to learn the language. Can I suggest a large area of ground, lots of greenery. There all kinds of GUITAR PEDAL technology is produced and a very nice lifestyle is enjoyed, surrounded by nice people, and maybe a pet cat and goat and call it 'Germanium Valley'. Bless you Brian!

Breakthrough: building blocks. It's all about building blocks. I've been looking at schematics one component at a time. But they're in blocks. And you add them and get rid of them in blocks. Noob. Mind. Blown.

So, if anyone ever tells you that your pedal is a tube screamer cause it has a 45-58...(weird noise emitted) slap them around a little bit 😁

Thumbs up for no other reason than "It's my video and I can do what I want!". Brian, thanks for being you!!!

Your best video ever. Love the simple explanation of tech stuff.

This is the best video for understand how clipping and tone circuits can work together..

As a musician, once I related distortion, sustain ,EQ to my circuit classes it helped me a lot understanding these concepts.

Love your video, Dude, and your willingness to share. Merry Christmas!

Fascinating stuff watching Brian attempt to draw the album cover to Led Zeppelin 4 over and over and never quite get it right.

It's like watching a mad scientist at work, love it!

I just recently started getting into pedal circuitry, just modding stiff and building kits right now. These videos are really giving me a lot of comprehensible info. I am super grateful for this resource you're providing. I don't care, I'm going full nerd.

thank you for the help , ive been really enjoying making my own pedals lately . i just got into it a couple months back and you have helped me to understand a few things i was confused about .

Thanks Brian, this explains it so well. I have built some pedals from kits and have a basic understanding but this makes it so much clearer.

love the freshness and elegance of these 'lectures' ... mind spanning... also making you wanna have some coffee...

Thanks man, loved geeking out with you - enjoyed it!!

By jeez Brian!!! Your a GENIUS man!!! A GENIUS I tell thee!! I just understood electronics for the first time in my life!

Great explanation for non electronics guys. I´ve have build a 808 standar tube screamer, two rats and my loved npn rangemaster. I am on a self-learning way (I am petroleum engineer) but really like the way fx circuits works. I am simulating the TS808 with LTSPICE to see the way how change the signal/wave after changing some values so I could build my own overdrive designe but... ...it´s always better to do it with a breadboard after all. I´m just a novice but I like to study deeply fx electronics. Thanks for this video, would be great you to show the difference between the sound you get feeding the op amp by the +input (non inverted) or the -input (invert), I am not that clear on this. Saludos from Venezuela... ...(and sorry, my english is not perfect!!!).

Thank you very much Brian! Im just starting to design boost and overdrive pedals. I studied some electronics in the college and now i am a guitar player. I just like the part that you say that are just building blocks! Thanks! Cheers from El Salvador! (I bought a Dual Fusion an a Nirvana Chorus)

Voodoo Lego pedal building blocks! Your random way of showing me things gives me hope for modding, building and designing my own pedals some day! LOL Thanks for sharing and being an awesome human being!!

Watching this 3 years later and using coronavirus restrictions to learn new stuff. THis is really interesting and useful.

Really enjoy your videos, I would like to see more like this with the circuits in question on the breadboard to demonstrate what the changes sound like. Keep up the good work.

Hey Brian - I wanna Congratulate you on the Pantheon. It's a Killer . . . and going to be Huge for You. Awesome Sounding Pedal. Fantastic job with this one. People are talking. It will be: the Must Try Pedal for Holiday Season 2018. Best of Luck brother.

You could make it even funnier by dubbing the video after realizing you mixed your stuff :D What a good video though. This alone almost allows one to make their first own drive pedal.

Men!! Thanks!! Really, it was one of the best expanation of circuits i've ever heard!!

I agree with you. With the same 4558 lots of different clipping pedals can be made. IC Big Wuff, Klon clone, TS clone, Rat like clone, OCDrive like clone, OD-1 and its sons, even a compressor, etc... or something experimental... and all of them are going to sound different to each other, depending on the surrounding structure, circuit architecture and components. Cool Video.

Thanks for the knowledge! this is literally saving months of readings and figuring out stuff!

what an interesting video!, thanks for share Bryan

Perfect timing as I just picked up a TS9!

Learned more in 20 minutes from this video than 4 years of college.

I love it. I think Brian should keep on making more videos while he's baked.

Awesome vid Brian! There's always a way to complicate things, but it's usually best to go back to the basics! In the couple times I paid attention in Chemistry class my teach always said "Science is the confusion of the obvious," and that seems to be the case with a lot of myths and lore in the pedal-space. Cheers!

that is an extremely talkative kitty.

"if yea want to get all nerdy feel free too, I'm not gonna do it!" Then proceeds to nerd-out. ha, thats ok, thats why I came here in the first place ;)

Gotta be honest... I don't use pedals when playing guitar (home studio / logic pro x / VST) but these Wampler videos are just so much fun, I'll start buying Wampler pedals just for fun. Cheers.

Your 'amplifier' looks more like a dryer :D

So all guitar pedals are tubescreamers? Got it.

All 4558 chips are the same - and all teles sound the same too! Too many discussion groups and NOT enough gigs. Thanks for 'splaining this, and I liked the little wires on the breadboard acting like little antennae - great analogy.

Thank you for doing these videos. Very inspiring. Keep em coming

It's my video! I can do what I want! Haha 😂 Love it! 🎸🎶🤘🏻

You should get into bass overdrives... The bass world needs you!

this is so awesome, so much information

Please include more of the cat 😂 I love the mrrps and meows

Thank you for dispelling the myths about OD pedals and the concept of transparency. I bought a O.D. several years ago because it was touted as being "transparent." That was B.S.! While it's a effective overdrive, as well as clean boost, it is not transparent. Now, thanks to your explanation, I understand why it isn't and more importantly, why a truly transparent pedal would not be desirable. And what I have learned so far about pedals, amps, and circuits in general, I have put to good use by making modifications to some of my O.D. pedals so that they give me the responses I wanted from them in the first place. Once again, if you want it done right, do it yourself.

Thanks its good to talk about guitar electronics without getting too geeky!

Dude just became my favourite nerd.

Thanks, Brian! I learned a lot!

I could watch a whole series of this.

i personally dont see the point of boosting pedals anymore. just like i dont see the point of phaser pedals having no mix knob. (WAMPLER PHASER PEDAL PLS)

A while ago I bought a Wampler Plexi-drive I also tried a Boss Blues ndriver and a ibanez Tubescreamer TS-9. I ended up picking the Plexi. I wanted to get a marshall tone through my Fender Twin. When i use it with my Boss Parametric Eq i can get pretty close to that Marshall sound. Thanks for a great product.

Smart dude. Thanks a lot for this explanation.

Dang! Brian’s thrown together breadboard distortion circuit sounds better that most other distortion pedals on the market!

Thanks Brian, anything that generates as much comic relief from the peanut gallery public comments is okay with me, and I probably learned something too. Cheers.

GLAD TO KNOW IM NOT THE ONLY ONE DRINKING CAFFEINE LATE AT NIGHT

this video deserves 1 billion views.

Brilliant- thanks Brian. Australia

I don't really grasp the specifics of these things, but I love that you Get specific when demonstrating. Side question, when you record guitar for these videos, what's the wattage on the amp you use? At which volume?

The world desperately needs a commonly available shredmaster clone/reissue!

Mini robobotic metal spiders are what makes pedals Tubescreamers, got it

OMG! Brian said BUFFER! BUFFER!!! It's going to destroy my sound! 😂 I love the Buffer in my Pedals. It is a great help for my signal. Thank you for this great video Brian your pedals are awesome 😍

I know this is all about pedals, but let's acknowledge that Brian's playing is ALWAYS tasty, always great, never masturbatory, and worth showing up for every time.

Amazing work here! Would you please make a similar video comparing a cummon booster and a treble booster, like the range master?

Thanks for sharing this most known opamp schemaics .the elementary basics of this is the knowledge of opamp schematics you have to know and understand when you're building overdrive/dirt pedals. Buy a breadboard. Buy some resistors ,caps,diodes, transistors, of different values and built these schematics.and tweak minor sections to hear how it responds. It's an addiction I tell you. What Brian wants to tell us that's not rocket science. Somtimes it is starting to squeal or hum when you use the wrong combination of components but that's the part of learing. Or put an elco in the wrong way in so that could explode....the gold old times. Keep this videos up! Soft clipping or Hard clipping, search for you dream overdrive tone or simply buy a wampler pedal....

Felt like I was watching Good Will Hunting... I couldn't quit watching though. Cool video.

I love the disclaimer, hahahaha! As far as your thumbnail pic, I bought a pair of those a while back, but apparently my head is too big to wear them, lol. (Guitarists with big heads? Not a first, but this is a literal case.)

I have a fuzz with a 4558 in it, I had no idea I was playing a tubescreamer all along.

Gotta say I miss these nerdy and cheeky videos a bit!

The 4558 was in everything Mixing Consouls just the name of one🤘 1:04

The chips reminds me of that sci-fi flick with Gene Simmons called RUNAWAY ‼️ 😂

Excellent!

You forgot the schematic for the guitar amp.

Super interesting video, thanks for share!

best thumbnail ever

Great video... I just wish that RU-vid would do something about the dodgy investment scheme ads (A "Quantum Code" longform ad came up just shy of 17 minutes through through watching).

Really interesting, mate. I actually learned something.

love your videos man

Enough with the Amp-In-a-Box, we want a Cat-In-a-Box! :D

I showed this to my girlfriend, and she left me. Still worth it tho.

you explained it so well it almost makes me think i could make a DIRT BOX :) it would be cool to come up with something cool :)

All Wampler pedals are works of art & ✨HIGHLY RECOMMENDED ✨

"Slap 'em around a lil bit"

In the Boss BF-2 Flanger, that's made in Japan, there are 2 4558 chips ...

I'd love Wampler to come with the "Uber Mega Ultimate Overdrive" pedal with most different circuitries (Rat, TS, Klon, OD/DS, etc...), all in one unit with switches and knobs to select the type and change the values to pretty much cover all drive... (pretty much like the Elektron Analog Drive)

Quick question, I have a 90's Japanese Ibanez Tube King. What overdrive is it comparable to? I want to get other gain pedals but don't want to waste money on one that is just like it. Thanks for all the videos! I have learned tons.

I'm an illustrator and these drawings upset me so much. I'll pray for you.