Engineer's Thumb Compressor PCB

Pretty musical, I think it will live on my pedalboard

"All of Fuzzdogs PCBs have just gone so well for me. I've done about 4 or 5 and they all work on the first try. Instructions are very complete (like stating the conventions for square pad). Photos are good to understand how the board flips. This one went together in a few hours. I went for only board mounting the threshold pot and SPDT switch, as a way of mounting the board. I prefer off board wiring and am putting this in a 1590B. Right now it pre-boxed, but just wanted to dash off a quick A for this project and Fuzzdog in general." John Silverman - 10 October 2021

Thumbs UP!!!!

"Thumb's UP for Engineer's Thumb PCB!!! To be honest I had some reservations about ordering this board. The Thumb gets great reviews as a compressor, but can only be built not purchased. Also living in the States and ordering from England, how long was it going to take to get here? I am so glad I ordered this board! The shipping was much quicker than I anticipated. One week after the shipment notification, there was a nicely packaged set of PCB's from Fuzzdog in my box. An inspection of the board was conducted and it was in perfect shape and ready to go. I populated the board in about 2 hours, looked over everything. Made myself a cup of coffee and inspected the board again. Touched up a couple of joints real quick and called it a night. Day 2 rolls around, the enclosure got drilled, so now its time for the pots and switch to go in. The drill template was spot on, everything lined up nicely and the pots were soldered in. Completed wiring up the jacks, 3PDT switch and LED. Time to plug it in and see what we got. The led comes on when its plugged in, good sign! I put it bypass, fire up the orange amp and I have sound. So the bypass works! Yea! I go for the gusto, press the foot switch and....Nothing! Forgot to put the IC's in the sockets, AGAIN! So I grab the IC's put them in, reconnect everything and fire it up again. GREAT DAY! What a sweet sound emanating from the little amp! The range this circuit has is incredible, it went from a nice clean sound with a nice amount of compression, up to a very sweet overdrive sound with good compression and a real nice sustain on it. The best part, the noise usually associated with a compressor, was minimal. Overall this was a great build, the PCB is nicely laid out and the instruction are spot on. It took a little over 4 hours to complete, and besides me forgetting the IC chip's, it fired up with no problems. If you need a compressor this is definitely worth it! As for the variations, I went with all 5 pots, and the toggle switch, and highly recommend them! Up Next The Gristelizer, I did say a set f PCB's!" Charles Grant - 25 March 2020