Learning More (and by "more" I mean some)

[tenwatt]

So I'm creative, hard working, can solder, and follow I directions scrupulously.  The reason I have to follow directions so meticulously is because I'm an idiot when it comes to knowing what does what in the circuits that I'm building and I can vaguely read a schematic.  What are some good resources to learning this fine art of manipulating tone? 

[jtn191]

I'd try http://www.beavisaudio.com/techpages/ and maybe some Brian Wampler books

[CRBMoA]

Anything by Craig Anderton.

[Haberdasher]

Honestly, at this point you'd probably benefit from getting the free copy of Eagle and practicing schematic capture.  Manually drawing in the schemos of circuits found here will force you to learn some things really quickly.  Then you'll be better prepared to venture out to bigger things.

As far as books go, it didn't seem like I got that much from the Wampler books, but there are some good examples in them at least.  I've been eying the RG Keen book, and if I buy another book it will likely be that one.

But if you find that zipped file Brian has around here, there is more reading material in there than you'll know what to do with.  There's an Anderton in it IIRC.

[jtn191]

Stompbox Cookbook is great too

[bigmufffuzzwizz]

It would be great if there was a book of collected information just pertaining to pedals. The craig anderton book is great and does break each circuit down, but is kinda hard to follow. I had to take notes on it and feel like it should be accompanied by a class. 
Something that explains what each part of a circuit is, why the parts are placed the way they are with the values chosen. I slowly grasp new concepts and can recongize something simple like a voltage divider(amp) but anything beyond that I get lost. The beavis pages have offered a lot of help and guidance to me and I would recommend reading through the archives available. This might be a bigger project than I understand..

[tenwatt]

Honestly, at this point you'd probably benefit from getting the free copy of Eagle and practicing schematic capture.  Manually drawing in the schemos of circuits found here will force you to learn some things really quickly.  Then you'll be better prepared to venture out to bigger things.

As far as books go, it didn't seem like I got that much from the Wampler books, but there are some good examples in them at least.  I've been eying the RG Keen book, and if I buy another book it will likely be that one.

But if you find that zipped file Brian has around here, there is more reading material in there than you'll know what to do with.  There's an Anderton in it IIRC.

I downloaded EAGLE and the first couple componants I tried to place wouldn't drop.  I'm going to have to spend some time with it to figure things out.

[Haberdasher]

Yeah, you'll have to monkey with it for a day or so, but once you get going it is actually pretty simple.  Go to youtube & watch the rpcelectronics tut vids or search for the tangentsoft.net tutorials.  Either of those should be a good start.

[bigmufffuzzwizz]

EAGLE is something I gotta give a try but I think it would help to get over my fear of etching boards first!

[irmcdermott]

Check out the EAGLE sticky for a bunch of links to useful websites to get you going. It definitely has a learning curve, but the overall the program is pretty easy to use. Laying out PCBs on the other hand.... thats the tricky part and has nothing to do with EAGLE... that's all you.