Skip to content

Pedal Builder

Lane Holloway edited this page Sep 8, 2026 · 2 revisions

Pedal Builder

Turn on Pedal Builder in Settings to get two things. Available from version 0.3.0.

The Circuits tab

A Circuits item appears in the navigation between Parts and Settings. It lists classic pedal circuits, each with its transistor and diode positions and the accepted ranges:

Circuit Positions Judged on
Fuzz Face (germanium) Q1, Q2 — PNP germanium hFE (DCA55‑equivalent), Ic leakage
Fuzz Face (silicon) Q1, Q2 — NPN silicon hFE
Tone Bender MkII Q1, Q2, Q3 — PNP germanium hFE (DCA55‑equivalent), Ic leakage
Rangemaster Q1 — PNP germanium hFE (DCA55‑equivalent), Ic leakage
Big Muff Pi (silicon) Q1–Q4 — NPN silicon hFE
Clipping diodes (silicon / germanium / LED) D1/D2 Vf, and reverse leakage for germanium

Each circuit has an active switch (only active circuits are checked), and every min/max can be edited: type a value and press Enter. Edited circuits are marked, and Reset to default brings back the built‑in numbers (or Reset all). Each circuit cites where its numbers come from; they are the commonly quoted builder values, not gospel, which is why they are editable.

Germanium gain lore comes from low‑current testers that subtract leakage (the DCA55 tests at 2.5 mA), so the germanium circuits judge gain by the DCA55‑equivalent hFE when it has been measured, and fall back to the DCA75's figure otherwise. Keep the Also measure at DCA55 conditions switch on for the best match.

The Pedal circuits card

With Pedal Builder on, every transistor and diode reading gets a card listing the active positions it is valid for (hover a chip to see each rule's value), and for positions of the right type that it misses, the first rule it fails — for example "Fuzz Face (germanium) · Q2: hFE (DCA55) 78.0 below 120".

Type, polarity and material are checked first: an NPN silicon part is never offered a germanium PNP slot. Diode material is inferred from Vf (below about 0.5 V is germanium, above 1.2 V is an LED).

Not yet built: pair suggestions (best Q1+Q2 sets from a bin) and tagging a reading with an intended role; see issue #3.

Clone this wiki locally