I want to start building, guide me?

[stripes]

I've got this perpetual itch where every time I see people's DIY builds to jump on that bandwagon and make some of my own. I've never done a BYOC or really tinkered around with mods before, but I've read about pedal electronics on the net enough to have a basic understanding. I guess my question for all you guys would be simply, where should I start? Should I start making fuzzes from kits and work my way up from there? Or should I get books and study electronic engineering before I just start soldering shit? A part of me just wants put together very random combinations of components and see what it sounds like. I want to get practice, but I also don't want to have a bunch of useless lame clones laying around that I don't really want to do anything with, not to mention spending the money. Maybe that's me being stubborn to work through the "beginner" stage, maybe I'm ignorant. I don't know... I just WANNA MAKE PEDALS.

How did all you guys get started?

[skullservant]

There was a how you got started building thread a few months ago on here... but I say I think your best best would be a BYOC. You don't have to worry about a parts list or drilling, JUST making the actual pedal. And if you chose a fuzz, you could look into mods for that specific fuzz and swap parts

[Chankgeez]

Electronic Projects for Musicians by Craig Anderton is a good place to start.

There's another very popular book that I'm forgetting the name of right now which is also really great.

Of course, there's always all the websites and forums with tons of information to study.

[Mike]

I think that building something-- anything-- is more important at first than learning how an effect works. A kit helps with that. If you build something that works, you will be encouraged to continue building and learning. If you struggle and fail to get a working build, you will be less likely to continue. Success is a great motivator.

After you know you can build something, you can get a breadboard, a stash of parts, and a pile of schematics, and have at it. You can breadboard until you come up with something you like before putting in the time, effort, and expense to box it up.

Mike

[Moustache_Bash]

I just jumped on it, no kits. Trial and error. Lotsa error. I'm not sure I recommend it. However I go to school for Electronics Technology, but it's not really as to applied guitar/sound/sonic stuff. (I'd be lying if I said it doesn't help, though.)

EDIT: I just read your "I don't want a bunch of useless clones laying around, blah,blah..." This is a good site to get started on: http://tagboardeffects.blogspot.com/ You don't really need to know what you're doing, and you'll learn a lot as you stumble. And you can also try building stuff you actually want. You'll learn about ordering parts, and all that good stuff. And then when you don't know what to do just ask the internet, or shoot me a PM. I'll try to help ya.

EDIT AGAIN: 666

[Scruffie]

You want to "put together very random combinations of components and see what it sounds like."

Buy a breadboard, two jacks, a dc jack (a 3PDT footswitch if you want, not entirely necessary untill boxing) some wire, a few cap values, a few different npn transistors, a few resistors, a few different diodes and a couple of pots (right angle board mount fit breadboards best I find) and build this.
http://beavisaudio.com/bboard/projects/bbp_BazzFuss.pdf

It's incredibly simple, the breadboard will allow you to experiment with all the values with ease to get it to sound how YOU want and create new combos (an LED instead of the diode, two bazz fuss in series etc) there'll be no real bypass wiring (which a lot of beginners struggle with) you don't have to box anything and find out you don't like it and with a decent selection of parts (in todays cheap world, you could buy plenty of values of components for around $10 from Taydaelectronics) you can not only build this circuit but many other transistor based pedals.

With an enclosure and some perf or vero board to commit your circuit to an actual pedal if you find something you like, it'll probably be no more than a BYOC or simmilar kit for all that if you shop around properly. Plus untill you're ready to commit, no need to even really buy a soldering iron and you can't mess any solder joints up on a breadboard or ruin a PCB/Jack/Footswitch with excess heat.

Oh and one more thing, no matter how cheap it is, by a digital multi meter, if something wont work, using that to take just a few voltages or check two things are actually connected can mean someone can help you get it working in most cases.

That's my suggestion anyway, you'll learn through experimenting and actual practice and when something wont work, you can ask 'why?' or 'how can I make that work' and learn through doing, getting in to theory with no practical knowledge is gunna be boring and probably stop you dead in your tracks, unless you like learning that way that is. For me, theory is just something that makes a design improved or allows me to get to a good end result faster, experimenting got me to understanding that theory though or searching it out to get something to work a particular way or understand it wouldn't.

[stripes]

okay, so i've got a breadboard and an online shopping cart full of transistors, capacitors, resistors, diodes, 1/4in jacks, dc power, wiring, and trim pots. is there anything that i'm missing?

[mysteriousj]

okay, so i've got a breadboard and an online shopping cart full of transistors, capacitors, resistors, diodes, 1/4in jacks, dc power, wiring, and trim pots. is there anything that i'm missing?

Op Amps might be handy if you don't have some. NE5532 / TL072 are pretty standard.

[tuffteef]

aligator clips?

[jfrey]

Bazz Fuss is a great starter project.

http://www.home-wrecker.com/bazz.html

[Volume IV]

I think I may try a Dwarfcraft DIY build for my cherry poppin!

[LaoWiz]

check out madbean's pcbs. Shitloads of different types of projects. Great boards and good documentation to get you through the project.

Breadboard setup is good to tweak things to your ear and experiment/learn. If you go this route, then there's other learning curves to get past before you build an actual pedal. Just depends on what you're leaning towards urge-wise....

[Bret608]

I agree with Laowiz. Madbean was actually my starting point. It's a nice intermediate point between doing kits and just starting from scratch with a breadboard. I can certainly see where Scruffie is coming from though.

[Scruffie]

I agree with Laowiz. Madbean was actually my starting point. It's a nice intermediate point between doing kits and just starting from scratch with a breadboard. I can certainly see where Scruffie is coming from though.

check out madbean's pcbs. Shitloads of different types of projects. Great boards and good documentation to get you through the project.

Breadboard setup is good to tweak things to your ear and experiment/learn. If you go this route, then there's other learning curves to get past before you build an actual pedal. Just depends on what you're leaning towards urge-wise....

I agree, beans boards are great projects, but he mentioned that he wanted to a) learn, b) experiment with random components and c) not end up with clones he didn't want at the end of a build. While the pedals on beans site are pretty well documented, known, demoed etc. you can never be sure how it'll work with your set up and sound in person and those boards wont hold up to experimenting for too long without pads starting to lift (no fault of beans, the boards are great quality, just the way it is).

A breadboard should allow him to learn the flow of a pedals signal, what some of the stuff is doing, how the connections should be made (making mistakes leads to learning why something wont work once you fix it) and I think a lot of the skills are transferable when it does come to comitting something to a board and you can hear and be sure you want any pedal before you've spent money on a board, built it and realise it's not your cup o' tea.

The only real learning curves to overcome after will be pretty simple i'd say... making good solder joints, getting your wiring right, populating boards properly (no real different to getting the right parts/orientation in the breadboard though) debugging (which hopefully some experience will be learnt from breadboarding) and drilling and finishing I suppose too.

[LaoWiz]

I agree with Laowiz. Madbean was actually my starting point. It's a nice intermediate point between doing kits and just starting from scratch with a breadboard. I can certainly see where Scruffie is coming from though.

check out madbean's pcbs. Shitloads of different types of projects. Great boards and good documentation to get you through the project.

Breadboard setup is good to tweak things to your ear and experiment/learn. If you go this route, then there's other learning curves to get past before you build an actual pedal. Just depends on what you're leaning towards urge-wise....

I agree, beans boards are great projects, but he mentioned that he wanted to a) learn, b) experiment with random components and c) not end up with clones he didn't want at the end of a build. While the pedals on beans site are pretty well documented, known, demoed etc. you can never be sure how it'll work with your set up and sound in person and those boards wont hold up to experimenting for too long without pads starting to lift (no fault of beans, the boards are great quality, just the way it is).

A breadboard should allow him to learn the flow of a pedals signal, what some of the stuff is doing, how the connections should be made (making mistakes leads to learning why something wont work once you fix it) and I think a lot of the skills are transferable when it does come to comitting something to a board and you can hear and be sure you want any pedal before you've spent money on a board, built it and realise it's not your cup o' tea.

The only real learning curves to overcome after will be pretty simple i'd say... making good solder joints, getting your wiring right, populating boards properly (no real different to getting the right parts/orientation in the breadboard though) debugging (which hopefully some experience will be learnt from breadboarding) and drilling and finishing I suppose too.

That's pretty much what I did in the beginning. I got a breadboard, made a breakout box, and starting laying shit down from schematics. From here I experimented with swapping transistors, diodes, etc. It was really fun but I'm not sure what I really learned. I think I spent way too much time doing this instead of making pedals. I also think I wanted to play around with a circuit I liked and come up with my own perfect version of it which resulted in too much time changing stuff out. When I finally perfed them, Im not sure if what I did was better but it was always fun.

I'm not sure which direction is better, I think it depends on the person. I think if I were to do it over, I would start the same with a breadboard setup and try out different circuits. But I think I would also either learn to etch my own boards from the vast number of pcb layouts available online or order prefabbed boards every now and then to break things up.

The OP said he wanted to learn but at the end he states that he just wants to make pedals. There is just that general itch there that sounds familiar. So, Stripes do what your gut tells ya. The idea of "clones" may seem whack, but when you are starting out it is unlikely that you are going to come up with an original circuit without knowledge and experience.
Get a breadboard, try out some shit that interests you, and try to put in your own tweaks, etc. Perf that shit or find a prefabbed board of the same circuit (or etch your own) and start making some noise. It can be frustrating at first but if it catches on, you're in for a potentially great ride...