Warp Sound - Fuzz and Filter

Kevin Shields knows a thing or two about gloriously fuzzy tone, and the shoegaze master uses the Pearl/Vorg Warpsound on 'Sometimes' to great effect. His ex-guitar tech got in touch a while ago to say he build one of these kits and it was spot on with Kevin's original. Nice.

Not just a dirt box, not just a filter. A wonderful mash of harmonic mayhem that's difficult to describe. If you're looking to add a new element to your sound this is worth checking out. The envelope control gets you from dirty, bassy and muffled through to high-end cocked-wah.

The original unit has an internal trimmer to set the distortion amount, and to be honest we'd stick with that every time. This circuit really shines when the gain is full up. However, we've added the option for an external distortion pot for you tweakers.

This is a buffered bypass effect (lots of booing in the background there....), but you can wire it true bypass if you prefer. No biggy.

Another option is the pot for the Envelope control. The orignal has a 10KB, which has pretty much all the adjustment in the last fifth of the turn. A 5KB is much better, though you do lose the very bottom end of the range.

The kit is supplied with vertical-mount pots which have round shafts, so you'll need set-screw fitting knobs.

If you want the PCB without parts there's a link for that at the bottom of the page.

Partial kit: PCB, all board-mounted components, pots.

Full kit: As above, plus footswitch and appropriate daughterboard/components for your selected bypass type (see Downloads section for details of those), jack sockets, DC socket, battery snap, hook-up wire, LED.

Enclosure (pre-drilled) is available as an option with full kits, and can take a battery if desired with footswitch positioned 22mm higher, closer to the controls. Knobs are not included.

Inspired by: Warp Sound Fuzz and Filter

Difficulty: Easy

PCB size: 50 x 29mm

Knobs required: 2/3

Enclosure: 1590B

Download the INSTRUCTION PDF