Im new here!

[billtwof]

Hello all,

            I'm new to this Great site here, some excellent advice found already but i have one question of my own!
I work in a guitar shop and have done a small amount of basic soldering and am not completely alien to the world of musical equipment in all its wonderful and baffling varieties.
I am however totally green with electronics and reading schematics.
Can anyone recommend a good starting point, reference book or tutorial?
I've searched online and the amount of different types of 'electronics' guides from wiring aircraft to building computers that come up is amazing.
Is there something along the lines of or considered as a pedal building bible?!
I'm confident of sticking a simple project together but would love to actually know what each components job is and how swapping out different diodes will change the resulting sound etc...
I found one by a Brian something who makes and sells some nice looking stuff but its been discontinued!
Thanks in advance

[irmcdermott]

Welcome!

Here are a ton of books to start with.

http://www.madbeanpedals.com/forum/index.php?topic=1232.0

Read everything you possibly can on R.G. Keen's site

http://www.geofex.com/

I have found the Tech stuff over at Beavis Audio's site helpful as well.

http://www.beavisaudio.com/techpages/

That should be enough to get you started.

There should be some tutorials popping up here on this site in the future. Again, welcome to the forum!

Ian

[slimtriggers]

I found one by a Brian something who makes and sells some nice looking stuff but its been discontinued!
Thanks in advance

I think you're thinking of Brian Wampler aka Indyguitarist.  Yeah, looks like his books are out of print

[shawnee]

Welcome!
Some of this stuff is pretty simple to learn and some of it gets pretty involved. I can tell you that I have learned quite a bit by reading and asking questions in just a few months but I have only scratched the surface so far.
I would suggest starting with each component and making sure you understand what they do by themselves. Then move on to simple circuits like series and parallel resistors and RC networks. This isn't something that you can learn in a few months. It will take a while. Pick up a good basic electronics book (I have Electronics Fundamentals: Circuits, Devices and Applications) and highly recommend it. That being said, it really doesn't take any knowledge of electronics other than component indentification to build pedals. It's just a puzzle that has to be completed correctly.

[billtwof]

Thanks all, This is all a great help.
Just ordered my first batch of parts for my first project. i'll let ya know how it goes, maybe a video of me being either noisy with my new toy or of me hitting it with a big hammer because it doesn't work!

[Mike @ Rawkworks]

welcome!

[TNblueshawk]

Bill, I'm sort of new to pedal building. I see your question as sort of two fold. First, I am not aware of a pedal building "book" out there...I've looked. What I've learned on actual pedal building comes from sites like this, BYOC in particular, and the aforementioned websites above as well and a few others.

Now, in terms of a book I've read a few and for me I didn't know squat about electronics. I didn't know a resistor from a capacitor. So, in my effort to figure out what each does, I searced for books. The one that could explain it to a moron like me was Electronics for Dummies. It will explain what each componenet does to start you from the ground up. What it won't do is help you build pedals but at least if you are like me you have a much greater understanding of what is going on.

The next book I'm ordering is the Art of Electronics. I'm told many consider it the Bible of electronics which means I probably won't understand any of it  .

The best advice I could give is read, read, read and when you think you are done, read some more. I have to read things several times to make it stick sometimes and the more different sites and way of explaining it I read the better off I am.

Just my 2pf's. Good luck.

[shawnee]

I am not saying that one book will do it all but I am still going to suggest the "ELECTRONIC FUNDAMENTALS: Circuits, Devices and Applications" by Floyd. It starts off slow and shows pictures of components, what they do by themselves, and eventually how they react in a circuit. It is really laid out well and it's easy to search for specific things. It's great if you want to look up how to calculate frequency of a filter or something like that as you progress. It covers a lot of ground (about 1000 pages) but doesn't go too fast. This was our text book when I took some electronics classes at a tech school and I was an 18 year old kid that couldn't even spell electricity yet. It really is an ELECTRONICS 101 type book but it does get deep enough to cover a lot of what we would use on pedals. They are up to 8th edition now but the 5th edition goes for about $5 shipped on ebay! Now if I could take those classes again I would really soak this stuff up because I would have an application.  Back then (almost 25 years ago) I learned how to give back information for a test without really understanding what I was saying.

[bigmufffuzzwizz]

I am not saying that one book will do it all but I am still going to suggest the "ELECTRONIC FUNDAMENTALS: Circuits, Devices and Applications" by Floyd. It starts off slow and shows pictures of components, what they do by themselves, and eventually how they react in a circuit. It is really laid out well and it's easy to search for specific things. It's great if you want to look up how to calculate frequency of a filter or something like that as you progress. It covers a lot of ground (about 1000 pages) but doesn't go too fast. This was our text book when I took some electronics classes at a tech school and I was an 18 year old kid that couldn't even spell electricity yet. It really is an ELECTRONICS 101 type book but it does get deep enough to cover a lot of what we would use on pedals. They are up to 8th edition now but the 5th edition goes for about $5 shipped on ebay! Now if I could take those classes again I would really soak this stuff up because I would have an application.  Back then (almost 25 years ago) I learned how to give back information for a test without really understanding what I was saying.

I 100% agree on this one. This is the exact book I had to get for my electronics classes, the only one for all 4 semesters. I have the 8th edition.  
My specific program was electronics communications (the only one around available at community college) and I had a hard time understanding the relationship between that and what we are doing (audio-wise) but I get it more now. I plan on re-reading this book one day, not rushed by a teacher but trying to pick up all the technical info I can use for designing and understand how things actually work. I too never really liked the feeling of repeating information for a test or to prove to the teacher I understand even if I really didn't.
Now that I pulled this big heavy book out...I might just have to keep it out and open it up once in awhile  

[TNblueshawk]

I was reading some reviews on the book you guys suggest and would like your thoughts.

The main criticism is that the book shows you the electron flow the way it really flows vs. how we view and deal with it now. Keep in mind, we are talking about noobs here trying to get their mind around this stuff.

Do you think that is confusing to go back (to the book) and forth (to some current circuit you are working on) while in the embryo stage?

[shawnee]

Bigmufffuzzwizz- I'm glad you agree! I think it's a great book and I'm might even pick up the 5th edition since it's so cheap. I think mine is the first edition. There has to be something worth $5 in the extra 100 pages right?

TNblueshawk- I don't think it's an issue at all. When you are talking about audio, we are most concerned with signal path and this will always be input to output. I don't remember getting confused about electron flow when we went thought it but I don't know what has changed though the 8 revisions. You don't have to go though the whole book to help you with pedals either. There is plenty of good info there even if you don't use or understand it all. Just get a used one on ebay for $5 and don't spend $90 on a new one. It would be pretty hard to be let down at that price!

[TNblueshawk]

Ok, cool. I'll add this to my list of reads.

[bigmufffuzzwizz]

The main criticism is that the book shows you the electron flow the way it really flows vs. how we view and deal with it now. Keep in mind, we are talking about noobs here trying to get their mind around this stuff.

Do you think that is confusing to go back (to the book) and forth (to some current circuit you are working on) while in the embryo stage?

I remember they went over that the first week of school. It was a confusing concept to grasp especially in the beginning but it's something you gotta know so your familiar. IIRC its conventional flow and electron flow theory. I remember them saying they are basically the same and its an argument like who came first the chicken or the egg. Regardless everything you learn in that book can be applied just the same. My book was a lot more than $5 but I got it brand new. I'd check out Half.com, its an ebay related site that sells books at the best price I've seen them.