Custom Shop

Gigahearts FX Custom Shop is open! 

If you can dream it, maybe we can build it for you? We have a 15 year history of building on commission, making players visions a reality without the crazy by-the-hour prices. 

With a fully custom workflow, all aspects of the design, features, circuits, options, aesthetics, layout and more are consulted on and driven by your needs and preferences. 

All Gigahearts FX Custom Shop projects feature fully bespoke PCB design from the ground up, and can encorporate just about any design criteria you would like. 

All projects are agreed on in terms of scope, budget and turnaround time up front, and all the ideas shown below were delivered within 4 weeks and on/below estimated cost. 

 

Case Study 1: Super Jordan Fuzz Boost 

We were approached on Reddit, from a topic asking "Whats a pedal you want but isnt made" and a lovely chap mentioned something he had dreamed of, but noone could built it for him, or if they could, it was gonna be £500 and up due to the hours involved. After some discussion we arrived at the following spec list:

  • Transistor based vintage fuzz with bias control (was gonna be a ToneBender, changed to a Jordan Bosstone) 
  • Some form of boost - decided on a modified SHO Mosfet style 
  • Series/Parallel footswitching 
  • EQ section based on Broughton HPF/LPF but with tuned frequency ranges 

Here is the result:

Along the way, we added various clipping options,  a phase reverse switch, and a toggle for the EQ section. This was completed in six weeks and the budget was £200. 

Want to hear what this thing can do? Here you go! 

 

Case Study 2: Silva Bell (RPAD.tv) 

An existing customer reached out having enjoyed their Mashed Voltaire, with an idea for a 2-in-1 dual overdrive pedal. The idea was to combine the Colorsound Power Booster with the Bixonic Expandora, taking queues from a couple of boutique versions with additonal options and modes.

Here is the result! 

On the Power Booster side we feature

  • Transistor based vintage boost/overdrive, with independant Bias trims and test points. 
  • Dual power supply option for both 18v and 9v operation, to provide more clean headroom, or more saturation. This was provided by an internal charge pump circuit and external toggle switch

The Expandora side has even more tweaks 

  • Four different overdrive modes, increasing in gain and saturation through modes 1, 2 and 3, ending up with the famous "forbidden" mode, labelled "X" 
  • Three way clipping toggle. In the centre, its a pair of orange 3mm LEDs, with a Fv of around 1.3v. Silicon is a pair of 1n4148s, with around 0.6v Fv. Finally, a pair of authentic germanium 1n34a diodes (like the Klon) with an Fv of 0.3v. 
  • Fat switch, which brings in a 4.7uF cap in parallel to the 100nF standard output cap for extra (sub) bass content. 
  • Modified output inverting op-amp stage for increased volume capability 

Pedal special features 

  • Bi-directional order switcher, allowing Power Booster > Expandora, or Expandora > Power Booster
  • Gigahearts intelligent relay true bypass switching for both sides 

This was completed in just under four weeks and the budget was £200. 

 

Case Study 3: CR-285b Bass Preamp recreation

A new customer saw what we were doing with the custom shop and asked if it would be possible to end an odyssey for him - for five years or more, he had been asking for people to recrete the pre-amp of a Crate CR-285b bass head, his favourite. We took the vintage schematic, and 100% faithfully recreated that into a stompbox format. 

Internally, the same bi-polar 30V supply is employed as per the original head to ensure headroom and performance is maintained. Given some artistic license to "make it look as close to the real one as possible" we took the liberty of applying real wood veneer (with customers approval of course!). We think it looks as amazing as it sounds. As always, fully bespoke PCB design was deployed here. 

This project was delivered under budget at £230/$300 

 


Case Study 4 - Soviet Sparrow

An existing customer wanted to take their favourite Big Muff circuit, the Tall Font Green Russian, and max it out. We took the core schematic, with all the correct values, and went to town thereafter! 

  • Clean blend, featuring a dual op amp buffering circuit  for smooth blending
  • Mids control, with a 3 position "shift" and a pot to dial in the right amount 
  • Cream trim, from the Sustain Punch Creamy Dreamer, for more gain 
  • Tone Bypass from the "OpAmp" BMs 
  • Three-position clipping: stock silicon, red LED, and a unique schottky/silicon assymetric mode for increased harmonic complexity 
  • Input impendance trim, to tame the first gain stage with active pickups at the customers request
  • Post-BM volume boosting gain stage on its own footswitch, based off the Micro Amp. Can be used on its own, too, making the pedal more versatile 
  • Internal "treble bleed" switch, which retains much more high end presence when the fuzz control is wound back, compared to traditional BM circuits 
  • Completely customised graphics, including an LED for the Sparrows eye (with internal brightness trimmer for all three LEDs) 
  • Dual intelligent relay bypass with soft touch switching, momentary modes and startup state memory 

This was delivered on budget (£185, vs a range of £150-200 proposed on inception). 

 

MoonCat (Broadcast) 

We were approached to develop the customers vision of the "ultimate Broadcast" pedal. The key changes to the now classic and well regarded original are

  • Switchable 9v / 27v power supply from an internal charge pump arrangement
  • Externalised gain trims as full size pots, which offer a huge range of tonal options are are normally hidden away inside the originals (boo!) 
  • Low pass filter, to tame some of the brashness. This is footswitchable, and the vision was to allow lead/rhthym type sounds or simply a bit shaved off the top end. This was carefully and extensively tuned to preserve the impendance response with the transformer coupled output and not reduce the signal signficantly when switching. 
  • Fully bespoke PCB and graphic design included. 

 

The budget for this project was £250-300, and it was delivered at £260. 

 

Wireless (Broadcast) 

A smaller version of the pedal above; essentially the same schematic and modifications, with the high pass control on a toggle switch rather than the third footswitch. 

 

 

Gig Buff v3.0 Modders Edition 

An example of a completed pedal built from my PCB project of the "Big Muff 2" with a bunch of modifications. 

 

As we work on projects this page will be updated with examples of our latest work. 

Please get in touch if you would like to discuss your needs and commission a project!