ilovefuzz.com

Hey everybody,

I wanna get started with my first DIY pedal soon, and I was just wondering what order all you seasoned pedal builders do your thing in. I'm talking soldering components and wires, drilling holes, painting etc. What order is the easiest to build a pedal from start to finish? Hopefully this question hasn't been asked before.. I certainly haven't found it (but I might not be looking hard enough )

I usually drill the enclosure then sand it and paint it , since it takes time to dry (duh). While it's drying I solder all of the parts to the pcb. Then when the enclosure is done being painted, usually the next day or the one after that, I assemble the pedal and apply whatever (if any) stickers. That's about it. I'm fairly new at pedal building, I started last December. It probably takes my between 5-8 hours per pedal, I work at a slow pace, s to not make any mistakes (since I'm new), whilst listening to music. Since it's a hobby I don't need to rush as if it was work.

I would recommend getting the BYOC starter kit, it comes with all of the stuff you need. A soldering iron, solder, wire clippers, needle nose pliers, de-solder braid,wire strippers, a signal tester, and a digital multimeter.

Good Luck

Thanks for that The4455! That's super helpful!

I've got a good soldering iron and all that jazz, I make my own cables so I'm pretty familiar with that side of things. The BYOC starter kit has some good stuff in it though, I might have to make a signal tester!

I've had a look at the BYOC pedal kits cause they seem like the best place to start, namely the overdrive (ts808 clone) but I don't really like the layout of the parts on top of the pedal. They look a bit too close together..

I think I'd like to use a bigger enclosure and do my own knob/footswitch layout to make something really cool, but I don't want to fuck it up and have things not fit.. Would you recommend trying to use an undrilled enclosure for the first DIY? A couple of years ago I painted up one of my old crappy pedals and I really liked how it turned out, so I'd want to build something with a bit of "blank canvas" space.

oh yeah, here's a photo of that old pedal I repainted back in '09

I order all of my parts from Mammoth Electronics (check em out). You can buy drilled or un-drilled painted or bare enclosures from them. I started using drilled enclosures, just because everything I've built (until recently) was pretty standard. Also you could check out Mad Bean.com, you can get a tube screamer pcb from him, and order all of the parts from Mammoth.

BYOC has teh best documentation for any kit website, so it is a nice place to start, but like you said their pcbs are little weird compared to others.

i do the enclosure first then resistors, caps and sockets, then trannys

i dunno why but it works

I etch the enclosures for almost all of my pedals, and I design the PCB layouts for every build I do. I do all the design work before I begin building anything. I really enjoy those parts.

For a beginner, I would recommend that you take it in steps. Build the PCB without the bypass switch. Use alligator clips to connect it to your instrument and your amp. Debug your circuit before you even think about putting it in an enclosure or hooking up a bypass switch. Make sure it works. Switching and off-board wiring errors are easy to make, very common, and incredibly frustrating for a beginner builder.

Beyond that, when stuffing a PCB, do it by height. Holding the board in your hand, put in all your resistors and diodes. Put a piece of cardboard over the components, flip the board, set it down, and solder. Clip the leads, and flip it back over. Then, move on to the next component by height-- usually sockets. Same thing-- stick 'em in, cardboard over top, flip, solder, clip. Then usually film caps, then electrolytic caps. Works great.

Good luck, take your time, and have fun.

Mike

awesome, this is all really useful information! Thanks everyone!

I do the circuit, solder all the shit together, throw it in a box for testing, pull it out and do the enclosure. Dunno why.

I do the enclosure first typically, and hand measure everything. I'll set knobs and switches on the face of the box before any marking/drilling, so I can play around with the layout/see how much space I will need based on the size of the knobs I'm using. Also to make sure there's enough room for the pcb. When using a decal, you can mark the drill spots on the graphic/decal, which helps ensure even spacing and lineup.
Sometimes I will solder the components to the boards first. If I'm doing several at a time, I will solder them all at once, do the enclosures all at once, etc.
Then I like to put all the offboard parts (switches, jacks, pots) into the enclosure, to check my drilling (done with a drill press), and make sure everything looks right.
Now with all the offboard stuff already in the enclosure, I put it all together. Since everything is in place, I can be more precise with the wire lengths and routing, allowing for a clean finish and easy maintenance (should any be needed).

You have to do up the enclosure and circuit boards before anything else, obviously. So those are first. Their order doesn't matter, because... it just doesn't.

I mount the pots and switches in the enclosure first, then mount the circuit board(s). You may need to dry mount the circuit board to get an idea of how long to make the wires.

Then, obviously, wire it up. Then put the jacks in and wire those up.

Sometimes you'll wanna leave out certain things to keep them out of your way until you need them. That just depends on your pedal.

Finally, turn it on, try out and be all "Awww yeah. I'm awesome." 'cause, you know what? You are awesome.

- I usually do the enclosure first (painting and shit), then drill. for that I either use the decal on the box (I mark the knob positions with dots, since they will drilled away anyhow), or a paper drill template that i attach with painters tape, if I don't label the box.
- I stuff the board and usually attach the pot wiring at that time as well. That way you get shorter wires.
- Then I do the offboard wiring of the switch, jacks, LED, and battery/power hookup with everything inside the enclosure. This is easier when there is no circuit board in the box yet.
- I then simply drop in the pcb with the pots and simply have to hookup in/out/gnd/9v and I'm done.