Another Parts Question...

[wrigley242]

Hello,

I am used to sourcing parts for repairs or mods but I am getting to the point now where I want to start making pedals from scratch.  I have a couple of questions about getting into this:

-I got four Madbean PCBs to start: a Cupcake, Karate Shop, LowRider, and Cherrybomb.  I have ordered the parts already but I am at a loss of what wire to get to connect everything.  Is there a standard size/gauge that I should get?  I heard somewhere that I should use shielded wire.  Is this true?

-I am familiar with Mouser and Small Bear for suppliers.  Small Bear offers things like "Resistor Starter Kits" where they package a bunch of different values together.  Is this a good buy to save time on picking each value separately normally? In other words, should I invest in some bulk purchases of certain parts and values because they occur often?

-I ordered green LEDs because that was the color I wanted.  I have since read that the LED acts like a diode and so a red LED will be less tolerant than say a green LED.  In this case, should I always get blue LEDs with the highest value so that the signal path is unobstructed?  I suppose that in certain cases, like distortion pedals, a red LED might be preferable but is there any general rule of thumb of which color to have on hand? 

Sorry for the length of the questions.  It just took me like two hours to source all of the parts for the four Madbean and so I am wondering if having extra parts around will help reduce the time it takes to source parts.

Thanks

[jimilee]

I'll come in here,as far as wire goes, 24 awg seems to be the most common that everyone uses. I up mine from guitarpcb.com and also fom a forum member,T-diddly.shielded is ideal ,especially builds like delays and chorus' but just mainly to avoid any extra noises and hums.As far as resistors and caps,I get mine from tayda.the resistors you have to buy 10 at a time and the caps I just do,because they're so cheap.as far as common values, dig through the build docs and see if there's something that jumps out at you the most.
If you have a Facebook page,tayda puts a discount coupon on theirs regularly and just posted one today.
Hope this helps.

[DutchMF]

-I ordered green LEDs because that was the color I wanted.  I have since read that the LED acts like a diode and so a red LED will be less tolerant than say a green LED.  In this case, should I always get blue LEDs with the highest value so that the signal path is unobstructed?  I suppose that in certain cases, like distortion pedals, a red LED might be preferable but is there any general rule of thumb of which color to have on hand? 

If you use the LED's as on/off indicators, you can use any colour/size/brightness you like! You might want to experiment with the value of the CLR (Current Limiting Resistor) as that influences the brightness, higher = dimmer, lower = brighter. I use 4k7 as Brian mentions in his build docs and that works for me. And LED's don't act as diodes, they are diodes (Light Emitting Diode) ! So when you use them in a clipping circuit, like in an OD or Fuzz, the different properties of different LED's do matter, but that's a matter of taste. Anyway, this doesn't apply to the circuits you have lying around, in those I would advise to use the diodes mentioned in the docs. When you do build a circuit (like a GreenBean) with clipping diodes, use sockets, experiment and let your ears guide you!

Paul

[wgc]

Agree with all of the above & if you like mouser, the thread below is helpful.

http://www.madbeanpedals.com/forum/index.php?topic=2970.0

You can also save a bom and share it.  Someone was kind enough to do so on 10-15 projects, should turn up with a search for "sharing mouser boms"

Tayda is great too.

[wrigley242]

Thank you Everyone!

This is very helpful!