ilovefuzz.com

I want to start building, but need soldering practice in a big way. Are there any kits out there that come with a pre populated circuit board that I can just solder switches,jacks,knobs to and put in a pre drilled enclosure? I just want to practice my soldering on the easy stuff at first. Please add links if you know of any. Thanks!

Probably better off buying a cheap pedal and de-soldering and re-soldering the parts you mention.

Or just practicing on some scrap vero/perf board with bits of wire.

Can't think of anyone who offers that sort of kit.

damn. I want to practice soldering and get a nice new pedal that I "kind of built" at the same time.

You'll probably be fine with a kit! If you order from BYOC I think they include a starter kit with orders or something and PCBs are a lot easier to solder than you probably think, most people tend to mess up on the stuff like Jacks & Switches but most things can be remedied, all part of learning to DIY.

Thanks for your input. I think I'll order some kits this week.

yeah BYOC has a "confidence boost" thats really simple and easy. It's actually a decent little boost that you may want to incorporate into a later build or give it it's own housing. they also have a circuit tester that you construct and is a very useful tool once you get into more complex stuff. it's a great place to start.

You should consider building some true bypass loopers, or a feedback looper.

Neither require a circuit board, and will allow you to practice your soldering with usable results.

Mike

You can often find populated pcbs in the classifieds of the byoc, freestompboxes, and diystompboxes forums.

Damn! This all really helps. Thanks.

Scruffie wrote:Probably better off buying a cheap pedal and de-soldering and re-soldering the parts you mention.

in my opinion I think it is harder to desolder than it is to solder. you can build kits without ever desoldering anything. I have sold populated boards before to people who were very new to diy. I think it might also be partly because it is easier for me to build one board for one person than to write detailed build docs for one person. sometimes when you buy synth DIY PCB's now they come with some of the SMD components placed already with the rest of the board being unpopulated through hole parts.

eatyourguitar wrote:

Scruffie wrote:Probably better off buying a cheap pedal and de-soldering and re-soldering the parts you mention.

in my opinion I think it is harder to desolder than it is to solder. you can build kits without ever desoldering anything. I have sold populated boards before to people who were very new to diy. I think it might also be partly because it is easier for me to build one board for one person than to write detailed build docs for one person. sometimes when you buy synth DIY PCB's now they come with some of the SMD components placed already with the rest of the board being unpopulated through hole parts.

It is, which makes it good practice, because with first time builds (or even further) can come mistakes.

Watch some instructional videos on good soldering (and desoldering) practice on Youtube. Have a few goes practicing then go for it! With no prior experience that's what I did - dived straight into a Big Muff (;)) from BYOC and it worked first time (after sorting a grounding issue). It wasn't a neat job, nor was the BYOC Superfuzz i built afterwards but they both sound great! I recommend getting some knowledge and a bit of practice then getting on with a BYOC - they take you through step by step so it's pretty hard to mess it up.

I agree with everyone above in that you should build something yourself, ideally a BYOC kit because they're awesome for beginners. That said, I noticed this site earlier in the week http://www.garlandguitar.net/ and it sells exactly what you're looking for. Seemed pretty dumb to me at the time but what the hell

Jesus that site blows, this is the right link-
http://garlandguitar.biz/shop/category_ ... =cid%3D%26

If you can get hold of these modules, then you've got a pedal ready built

http://www.esr.co.uk/cebek/index.htm

PM-13 fuzz

add diode clippers to PM-4 and you've virtually got a Distortion+

PM-5 is a Baxendall tone control - like the Colorsound PowerBoost/Overdriver