i used to not understand what modulation was. there was always a knob on an electric keyboard that said 'mod', but i could never find a consistent function for it other than making it sound wobbly. after learning what it was, i learned i was correct in my assumption. apparently modulation is using a wave, usually a low frequency oscillator (or lfo), to alter different parameters of the main sound, also known as modulation. no wonder it sounded wobbly, the sound was being altered by a wobbly waveform.
i found this incredibly simply modulation pedal on the internet, called the leyland ultra simple tremolo pedal. its basically just using an oscillator to control the volume of a guitar signal going through a bjt, and since it was so simple i decided to build it. it would also be my first project built on perfboard, which i never really understood how to use but i willl figure out now.
the original schematic can be found here, where someone built one with a low pass option. i will not be building it with the low pass filters, but i will include the boost function at the end of the effect since apparently this effect tends to attenuate the signal a little bit as it goes through the bjt. because i never worked with perfboard before, i decided to prototype it using kicad first just to get my wire orientation correct. the result went as follows:
keep in mind this not meant for pcb production but for perfboard planning. if i wanted to make it for pcb i could make it much more compact, but i just wanted to group power/ground traces while making connections relatively simple. the red traces could mostly be done using conventional connections flat against the board, but the blue traces represent the possible need to use jumpers or to arch the leads over the read leads.
i made one initial prototype, but that prototype was made with the flawed assumption that when using perfboard all the dots had to be flooded with solder. i neglected the role that the leads played in perfboarding and simply trimmed everything off, then while soldering wondered why the solder didn't flow onto the plastic into other holes when solder clearly doesn't flow on plastic. as a result, i didn't bother even testing it and when straight into making a new prototype without those initial assumptions.