Maker Factory ELECTRONICS EXPERIMENTS BOX Manual page 188

Circuit 165: Guitar Distortion
Setup information
Install the two transistors, the diode, the five resistors and the three electrolytic capacitors as shown in
Fig. 2.165. The eleven jumper wires come next. Last but not least connect the Piezo element. Check the
placement on the board again and only then connect the battery. You can significantly increase the sensitiv-
ity of the Piezo element by using a sound plate or even a sound box. Read more about it in Chap. 1.2.3
Experiment
Our circuit is nothing but a pretty lousy AF amplifier. This means that it will generate intentionally extremely
strong distortions. Good quality audio amplifiers are after all supposed to avoid distortion as much as pos-
sible. With this circuit on your guitar pedal, you can produce a distorted sound.
The circuit diagram for this experiment is shown in Chap. 3, Fig. 3.165.
190
Components required:
2 x 2N3904 transistors,
1 x green LED,
1 x 10 kΩ resistor,
4 x 22 kΩ resistors,
2 x 10 μF electrolytic
capacitors, 1 x 100 μF
electrolytic capaci-
tor, 1 x Piezo element,
1 x breadboard, 1 x 9V
battery with clip con-
nector
Fig. 2.165: Guitar Distortion