How Did You Get Started Building?

[digitalzombie]

DIY pedals and tweaking circuits has always interested me, but every time I read a discussion about it I'm immediately in way over my head. I would love to crack open a pedal and say "Oh, if I replaced this with this then I could get (X-sound) out of this thing" but 'layman' probably doesn't even begin to describe my level. My experience only includes soldering for the Sniper Mod for my Boss EQ, and I'm about half-way through my DIY Snowflake kit from this site, and that's only because I got Tom Dalton to give me extremely detailed instructions. I picked up Craig Anderton's Electronic Projects for Musicians but the projects in the book seem kinda dated and impractical, and there's never any explanation as to WHY something is in a circuit. It was suggested to me to pick up Mim's Getting Started in Electronics, but I'm not convinced that will help either.

So I'm wondering how you all got your start into building/tweaking/electronics.

[Mike]

Looks like I made my first order for DIY parts in January 2009. The reason was that I had a Valve Junior that I wanted to modify. I had read enough warnings about tube voltages that I was scared into building a few effects before cracking open the amp.

I have found that many DIYers can be put into one of two categories. One is circuit-by-number builders, building kits, or on PCBs, or maybe on pre-made Vero. Most people seem to start in this category. The other category doesn't have a semi-insulting name like circuit-by-number builders, at least not one that I have come up with. People in this category (like me) start as circuit-by-number builders, but realize that it gives the equivalent amount of satisfaction as... well... paint-by-numbers.

There are a lot of circuit-by-number builders who create perfectly fine results and are perfectly satisfied, and there is no fault in that. I wasn't one of those people, and it seems that neither are you.

My recommendation is to build, build, build, even though you don't really need to build anything to learn. In three years, I think I have built maybe 8 effects. Eight. But, the effects that I built for myself are exactly what I wanted. I don't build until I have spent some quality time with a schematic and a breadboard.

Start with the beginner project over at DIYSB. It's a good boost, it will force you to learn how to order parts, and it will force you to learn how to use perfboard (which I think is key to learning how to take something from a paper schematic to a working circuit). As long as you have a positive attitude, you will find that people are eager to help get you going.

From there, look up a few of the "Technology of" articles that R.G. has written. Read them, again and again and again. Then, build them, at least on your breadboard. Then, read them again and again and again. They will eventually start to make sense.

Doing these two things will cause you to learn in a hands-on way, but with accurate and helpful references.

From there, the sky is the limit. Want to learn about low pass and high pass filters? Find one. Breadboard it. Tweak it. Take notes. Learn. Want to learn about LEDs and current? Breadboard it. Blow up a few LEDs. Take notes. Learn. The more you breadboard, the more you learn. The more you learn, the more you will understand when you read your books. You will soon find yourself making your own layouts, etching your own boards, and having a great time.

Good luck!

Mike

[Schlatte]

^ what he said. I'm a student of a school for higher tier electronic engineering and telecommunications. I loved noodeling around with a big muff (my first effects pedal). Then I started some researching, built a transistor booster and later an Electra distortion and a mxr dist+. As a project for school I designed some effects by myself. To my advantage I had all the basic knowledge I needed. A few circuits worked, a few didn't.. it is all about fun doing electronic stuff and building/designing effects.

[greeny23]

i got bored.

[Rygot]

I had no money and wanted a devi pedal, if i remember correctly.

However, I ended up just building a dark boost for the bassist and it took off from there.

[Jero]

The seed was planted in elementary school, when my dad would get me those 200in1 electronics project boards for xmas. Years later I started playing guitar, then found the wonderful world of effects...that's about it.

[Christopher]

real pedals are expensive, and i have more free time than cash.

[RR Bigman]

I bought a black muff from a friend (my first fuzz actually) and the battery snap broke. I learned the basics of soldering trying to fix that damn battery clip. Them I wondered how that shit worked (i love the way a populated PCB looks aesthetically) diystompboxes and a few hundred broken transistors later here I am. I'm far from a great designer of musical electronics, but I find DIY gives me a feeling only rivaled by making music. I was attending school for electronics engineering, but the academic setting seemed to clash with my circuit bending style experimenting. I find self learning more fulfilling anyways

[skullservant]

I started first building by bending, I circuit bent the first pedal that I got which was a Digitech Death Metal. Then my Freshman year of college I started building Atari Punks and oscillators. I built oscillators for about two years before I attempted my first pedal, which was a SHO that I perf-boarded about a year and a half ago!

[Craiz]

boght a DS-1 from a local music store, and, in looking it up, found out about all them bootiful mods that can be done. did pretty much all of em. since then, it's just been a haze of solder smoke and fuzz.

[IEatCats]

It started with doing wiring mods to my strat because I was fucked over by a local shop (later closed for fraud, which serves them right because they lied about a lot of shit when I bought a guitar through them). I never wanted to be fucked over by a shop again, so I learned how to change pickups, change my wiring, and install mods. I'd always had crazy ideas on what I could be doing to my instruments (using odd conductors in place of wires, photoreceptors, IR) but I've never had the money to do them. Building pedals seems like a way to apply that curiosity to something I can sell.

Hopefully, by the end of the year, I'll have the money to start building Buddha Box Pedals for everyone here.

[eatyourguitar]

it all started when Experimentalists Anonymous Collin was sold out on the Parallel Universe. I begged him to build me one but all I got was this schematic and a suggestion that I "just do it" and after my second please-please-please email he was like "its not that hard". then analog mike told me $400 and I was like ohhh yeah I'll build it myself. it was pretty bad and mostly fail but it got me started.

[LaoWiz]

I bought a guitar, some pedals and an amp in 2008. After looking at all the boutique stuff out there, I somehow stumbled on the
DIY world and became fascinated. And the fascination hasn't stopped and it keeps getting better. To be able to shape your own sound
is amazing and it seems like the possibilities are endless. And it's just fun.

[morange]

My first project was the RS Theremin. Couldn't get it to work. Still have the nonworking carcass. After a while I circuit bent an Arion Stereo Phaser into maybe the best fuzz ever. Then other stuff.

[TheRiffer]

Long story short...I was born the son of immigrant minority sharecroppers. I couldn't afford even the most basic eqpt, let alone fancy pedals...So due to my extraordinary playing abilities on my friends guitar rigs, they all donated their old and broken equipment to me. Using a torch and coat hangers , I repaired and cobbled together crude sounding circuits to make me sound more rad than they. Being poor dictated that I be resourceful.

Then I stumbled across Craig Anderton's book when it was actually new ..( puts me in the legitimate geezer category)...I then realized that I was in control of my tonal destiny.
Have been a serial tinkerer ever since.

Thats' my story and I'm sticking to it...