Gudday all, after a year of procrastinating about it, I finally ran the pedal workshop for my guitar students who were interested.
I chose Brian's Madbean Sprouts, etched by Haberdasher, got the components from Jaycar, and the outboard stuff from Pedalpartsaustralia.com. I spent yesterday afternoon sorting parts for the kits and drilling enclosures.
Got a few kids and their dads interested, and we spent the day putting them together. The first hour was spent learning how to solder....
Anyway, the day was a great success, everyone went home with a working pedal and everyone had a ball. I'd like to say that everyone's pedal fired up without issue first go, but it just wasn't the case. I think two fired up first pop, and the others had issues that got past the QC but were solved pretty quick (a dry solder joint there, a solder bridge there) once we realised they didn't work! Pretty good considering the ages ranged from 6 to 14.
Thanks to Brain, Haberdasher, and To RobA for his time in my troubleshooting thread.
Willy.
That is awesome, well done. Figure we'll be getting more members here soon, lol.
Fantastic man. Great job. :)
Few more pics. The older lad in the second photo is my stepson (who is a better solderer than I am) who spent the whole day working with the 6 year old. He made the 6 year old solder EVERY part in the pedal and walked him through it all. Between him and I we troubleshot every issue that occured. Couldn't have done it without him.
And yes, we rocked everything before we boxed it!
Awesome Willy
Glad everything worked out! :)
I forgot about the r5 mod (increase to 1k from 82r) though (which I only just remembered about now after reading our earlier PMs). For some reason the first couple of pedals seemed to be plenty loud with plenty of gain (through a Squier strat), but the later ones seemed to be just under unity through humbucker equipped guitars and a lot mellower. Either way, all good.
I suppose they all have the knowhow to replace r5 if I tell them about it now!
I can't express how cool of an idea I think this is, Willy.
I setup a soldering workshop back when I was in college. It's amazing how quickly people pick it up if with just a little bit of guidance.
Very nice. I love all the focus and concentration in the first photo. Congrats on how well this went.
This is an excellent thing.
That's really great! 8)
Very cool!
Josh
fantastic event it was! props to you man!
I'm giving you an "air" High Five right now... Where was this when i was a kid???
This is just epic on so many levels.. I can only imagine what it would have been like to not only see the process of building, but to build a pedal with my own hands at the age.. I would either be a rich man or a very broke man from all the pedals I would have made by now. lol
I commend your efforts and I hope you know what kind of impact this could have on a child. Very awesome.
Yep, this is a brilliant idea... well done!
Taking this one step further.... may I suggest....
The Pedalbuilding Merit Badge
(http://www.danekinser.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/Madbean-Merit-Badge.jpg)
haha that would be awesome.
http://www.adafruit.com/category/70 (http://www.adafruit.com/category/70)
My wife bought most of these for me.. just need to figure out what to do with them.
That is really cool, and a good learning lesson for the kids :) work through something, fix the problems, and you end up with something really cool that you made yourself!
Willybomb, you must be a good bloke, to organise something like this, good karma to you mate. All the best, Matt.
This cannot be any cooler.
You're a good man Willy. Keep investing in those kids. It's worth it.
Jacob
Im all impressed Willy. Your guitar students have one brilliant pedagogue!
Very good job!
Cheers!
Quote from: jkokura on July 12, 2013, 04:43:49 PM
You're a good man Willy. Keep investing in those kids. It's worth it.
Jacob
+1
Very cool man.
Kudos to you man! Excellent idea
great stuff man! keep the future in check.