I created a guitar effect pedal collection to showcase my skills in analog circuit design, CAD design, and rendering.
- Date: March 2020
- Author: Thomas Kimble
- Field of Study: Design, CAD, Electrical Engineering
- Context: Personal Project
Inspiration
Having played the guitar from a young age, I have used many effect pedals. But it was only recently that I discovered that the circuits inside were quite similar to what I had been learning in my electronics and electrical engineering classes. I therefore decided to look into each of my pedals circuit design in more detail.
From this I decided to create a collection of my favourite effects and render them to simulate a product line to potentially make and release one day.
Space Theme
I needed to find a theme for the icons to put on each pedal. Along with Robotics, I also have studied space technologies at EPFL for my Master’s degree. So I went with the Space theme for my pedals.
Here is a list of the pedals I have currently designed circuits for:
| Name | Effect |
|---|---|
| Big Dumb Booster | Boost |
| Chasma | Chorus |
| Comet | Compression |
| Drag | Distortion |
| Fuselage | Fuzz |
| Orbit | Overdrive |
| Tektite | Tube Screamer |
| Tidal Force | Tremolo |
I have plans for more, including different pedal shapes and sizes, some which can be found in the 3D model viewer below.
3D Models
I created casing for each pedal using Catia V5, my go to CAD software. I then uploaded the 3D models in Blender and created a studio like setting with different camera and lighting settings to render high quality images that showcase my designs. I used different textures to simulate painted and polished metal finishes and to created icons with Adobe Illustrator for each effect.
Some more fiddling in Blender allowed me to export the models in the .glb format which allowed me to showcase a more detailed view here on my website.
Feel free to have a play around with the models shown below!
Circuits
I have designed circuits for all of the pedals mentioned above and have tested a few of them including the Fuselage fuzz circuit based off the Electroharmonix Big Muff Circuit. Here is its schematic:
This circuit uses silicon transistors to create a fuzz effect. It consists of three stages:
- An input booster controlled by the Sustain potentiometer
- Following is a clipping amplifier characterised by the clipping diodes D1 to D4 and a combination of high and low pass filters controlled with the Tone potentiometer
- We finish with an output booster circuit controlled by the Volume potentiometer
Additional Material
For any more information on the project including more circuit diagrams or pedal ideas, please don’t hesitate to contact me here.
