distortion circuit

Hey guys,
I am looking into making my own distortion for my guitar, what is the best route to go?
Anyone has done this, and have positive feedback on the best route please
Thanks

an op amp feeding a pair of "nose to toe" diodes is usually a good start. make one diode silicon and the other a germanium diode, and that will add some even harmonics. adding tone control circuits after the distortion stage makes it a bit more versatile. you'll have to wait until i get home later today for a schematic....

also, quite a few years ago, i came up with a device called an "un-fuzz" that distorts more with less signal, and gets cleaner as you play louder. it simulates what's called "crossover notch distortion" in an improperly biased amplifier.

Ok i will look in to that, thanks

I have a 10W opamp, tda2003, gonna try this. is 10W too powerful?

for a fuzz box, you only need an op amp, not a power amp. the voltage across the diodes that distort the signal needs to be current limited, and a power amp would just burn the diodes out.
look here: https://fuzzcentral.ssguitar.com/schematics/blueclipper.gif

Okay, i will do some test with some opamps i have here, thanks

Two back to back 0A81 diodes on the feedback of an op-amp give a superb soft clipping sound. I made one in the 80's.
Dunno if germanium diodes are still available. I do remember that schottky and silicon diodes sounded horrible as the biasing of the op-amp relied on the awful leakage of germainium diodes that modern silicon diodes didn't have. I used an LM741 op-amp at the time as it was all I could afford.

the "dead zone" circuit.... i remember it well. the way it works is the op amp is open loop until the diodes conduct, then it's closed loop. a bit different sound than the overdriven diodes..... the bias problem can be fixed by limiting the gain with a 100k resistor in parallel with the diode pair.