We’re going over two of the four Mojotone Pedal Kits today; Tube Screamer (TS-OD) and Blues Breaker (BB-OD). Our DIY pedal kits are designed for ease of assembly for first time builders, while giving you the option of popular mods for these circuits.

We think that you’ll find customized tone, quick assembly and playability in our guitar effects pedal kits. This article helps you to understand the different internal dip switch positions, mod options, and the toggle switch settings.

The Best DIY Pedal For a Beginner?

We keep DIY pedal kits simple. Even if you have never soldered before, these new DIY pedal kits come preloaded with the main components of each circuit. Keeping the guesswork out of reading color codes for resistors, polarity of capacitors, and which direction semiconductors are installed on the board. Just solder the jacks, switch, pots, LED and footswitch, install them into the enclosure then rock out!

Can You Mod The Guitar Pedal Kits?

Yes, you can modify these guitar pedal kits to create variations of effects. Who doesn’t like to mod a popular circuit to fit their tone? The switch in the center of the pedal allows you to select from “stock” and two other modifications to the circuit. For the TS-OD, BB-OD, and RT-OD there are internal dip switches for additional tone alterations on the circuits.

Tube Screamer (TS-OD) Pedal Kit

Based on the classic green overdrive pedal that everybody knows, our tube screamer pedal kit delivers. Great for that extra bluesy drive into a clean amp or for tightening up the low end on high gain amp.

Toggle Switch Functions

The toggle switch allows you to select from 3 different options for diode clipping. In the up position, this is using the typical silicon diodes that the original unit comes with. In the down position, this selects two LEDs which gives you less compression and a more open feeling overdrive. In the center position, this runs the pedal with no clipping diodes for a very loud boost with very little overdrive. BUT that’s not all! On the circuit board there are 4 spots for you to put in your own custom brew of diodes. The #4 dip switch puts the custom diodes in the circuit.

Internal Dip Switches: An Overview

Who doesn’t love more voicing options for a Tube Screamer circuit? The four internal dip switches allow you to do just that and combine them to make your own voicing. Switches #1-3 add in capacitors to adjust the pedal’s main voicing. Typically the TS circuit has a midrange bump around 720hz.

Internal Dip Switch Placements for TS-OD

The pedal's voicing can be customized using Dip Switches 1 to 3. When all three switches are in the off position, you get the default voice with a noticeable bump around 3400Hz, making the pedal function as a treble booster, which works well with darker amplifiers or when aiming for a super tight djent attack. 

Activating Switch 1 introduces a voicing bump at 1700Hz, adding some higher mids to the sound. When Switch 2 is turned on, you'll experience a voicing bump at 1000Hz, reminiscent of the high-quality tone of an expensive golden boutique overdrive. Switch 3 enhances the sound by adding a throaty quality with a voicing bump at 600Hz. 

Combining Switches 1 and 2 activates a voicing bump at 750Hz, returning the voicing to the original sound of a certain green pedal. Switches 2 and 3 together create a bump at 420Hz, ideal for beefing up lead lines or adding richness to single-coil pickups. 

And when all three switches are engaged, you get a voicing bump at 380Hz, enriching the lower mids, making it suitable for lead lines and even bass guitar applications.

Blues Breaker (BB-OD) Pedal Kit

Our BB-OD guitar pedal kit is based on the light overdrive pedal from a British amp manufacturer. Great for adding a little dirt without changing the core sound of your guitar’s tone. One of the tweaks that was done to the circuit was to give this guitar effects pedal kit more output. However, this pedal kit is not a one trick pony. We have added some selectable mods to the circuit to expand on what it can do.

Toggle Switch Functions

For this pedal, the toggle switch allows you to select the style of overdrive the pedal has. In the up position, the pedal is in its “stock” form of soft clipping, light transparent overdrive. Selecting the down position lifts the soft clipping diodes and adds in hard clipping diodes for a more compressed and aggressive overdrive. Moving the toggle to the center position, lifts all the diodes for a brighter high output boost. Great for driving the front end of an amp. This guitar effects pedal stacks great with other boosts and drives regardless of the toggle position. But just like the TS-OD, there’s an internal dip switch for even more fun!

Internal Dip Switch

Just like the TS-OD, there are 4 spots to roll your own diodes for the soft clipping section. Solder up your own recipe of overdrive, put the toggle switch in the center position and slide the internal dip switch on. Now you have your own custom soft clipping overdrive.

Mojotone Effects Pedal Kits

Having created some of the definitive kits in vintage amplifiers we realized that there was a place for easier-to-build effects pedal kits and that we could add some tone customization value. Our entire mission is to help musicians find their tone, and that’s exactly what we tried to do within our Mojotone guitar effects pedal kits.

I hope our descriptions of the internal and external switch positions and pedal overviews for our TS-OD and BB-OD pedal kits were helpful. Stay tuned for the next article showcasing the other 2 guitar effects pedal kits we launched - the RT-OD and BM-FZ. Can you guess which circuits those DIY pedal kits are based on?