Anyone else built a Thunderdrive from DIY Mod Kits?

[Ghost Planet]

I got the schematic for a Thunderdrive from their website and built it has the distortion in my tiny giant. It sounds really good. It's a super simple circuit, looks just like an Electra distortion with an MPSA18 transistor. I was just wondering if anyone else has built the circuit or the entire kit for that matter? They list all the schematics to their kits on their website. I'm thinking about buding the rattler next. A link to the schematic is below.

http://www.modkitsdiy.com/sites/default/files/product_files/the_thunderdrive_schematic.pdf

[Renegadrian]

PNP fuzz face with diodes sticked at the end? wow that's original!!!
They even cloned the idiot wah by tim escobedo, see tea philter...

[Kipper4]

Yes i built the thunderdrive.
from scratch it's an ok effect i wasnt blown away.
For a parts count pedal it rocks but i can still think of better.
I prefer the SHO

[imguitardan]

I've got a Thunderdrive deluxe kit on the way. It'll be my first build. I really got it bc I wanted a COT on the cheap. Can anyone tell me in layman's terms what to swap out to make it a COT?  I don't understand schematics yet. Thanks

[iainpunk]

welcome to the forum

at least, you need to learn how to read schematics, if you plan on doing more complex pedals in the future, or modifications to existing kits like this one. i recommend you build it first the way it was intended in this kit, its probably a solid, good sounding pedal to begin with, if you insist tho... there are a few changes needed:

collector to 9V resistor 4.7k -> 3.3k
in the kit, there is no emitter resistor, the cot has a 47ohm, a 330ohm and a 1kohm pot in series, and parallel to the 330ohm is a 47uF capacitor
add a 500pf capacitor parallel to the diodes.
the 2n5088 that is in the cot is a little lower gain than the mpsa18 in the kit, but i doubt it will make a difference.
skip the distortion controll, since its replaced with the 1kOhm pot in the emitter path to ground

cheers, Iain

[imguitardan]

Thanks for the advice and the details.🙌