Our first builds EVER - beginners consolation corner

[Cortexturizer]

Inspired by some of the topics and guys that emerge once a week hehe, and their apologetic comments about the guts being messy and all. All that made me remember my first, and why not share with you guys

So, this is the Emerald Beyond Fuzz, a Zvex Machine clone that I tweaked extensively on the breadboard before I finally boxed it. I wanted this pedal and had no money or ways of getting it so I tried to make one.
Of course, there was so many trial and error moments, frustration, countless hours holding the soldering iron and cursing.
Then the thing finally worked, hooray! So i started tweaking it, changing diodes, resistor values, introducing additional circuitry etc.
Somewhere I heard about the "square wave oscillator" LOL and I decided I will have that in my pedal. Hahah, that's right, I just decided that and went with it. The noob that I was. Still am hehe. So i practically INSERTED the SWO [based on the 555 timer chip] between the clipping diodes of the Machine. I was really pleased with the results. Here are some of the pictures, and down there, the clips of me playing it, I'll comment each clip.

small victories first


getting ambitious


first soldering moments


experimentation is loads of fun


getting to the finish






SWO included


Guts hehehe


And now the sounds. I put the SWO part on a switch so first a couple of clips without it and then engaged.

http://www.box.net/shared/k8n5fi5kar
http://www.box.net/shared/2nsany77et
http://www.box.net/shared/zj64x1q2r7

and now with the oscillator, depending on the frequency of oscillation you can get some crazy sounds

http://www.box.net/shared/bzmqunqrh3 [volume on the guitar is barely above zero, and then I crank it full]
http://www.box.net/shared/tzgbllr2sh [selected the frequency that's loosely equal to playing a 5th with the original note]
http://www.box.net/shared/3bu8nymc6x
http://www.box.net/shared/82fnr4mdad
http://www.box.net/shared/ep7zjbsrm9

Some of you might like this, hellz I still like it hhehe, haven't touched that pedal in a couple of years. Cheers

[selfdestroyer]

Thats awesome. Here is my first pedal I made. It was a Fairfield Barbershop and after I made it the damn thing kept shorting out so I stuck it in a bag.. lol

[Cortexturizer]

hahah I still have my 2-in-1 build built that way, the Octavia and the Squeezer, and I use em on every rehearsal and even live heheh


***  Okay so I changed the topic name so others would feel welcome to post their messy first builds   ***

[jkokura]

I think the first thing I built that worked (not my first attempt) was this headphone amp.

My first attempts were are a Ross Comp and a TS808 from Tonepad, but I couldn't get them to work for a while, and switched to this while I was trying to cool off and waited for parts/enclosures to replace what I had first ordered (got the wrong type of DC jack and ruined the 1590Bs I drilled).

But this headphone amp was extremely useful for a time, and I used it for making my first testing rig eventually.





Jacob

[hammerheadmusicman]

First thing I ever built, my grandad helped me, he is one of those super clever people who has done/knows most things. We mis drilled the box, so instead of binning the box, the board got cut, patched, and crammed, the soldering is horrendous, the wiring is awful! Believe it or not it's the one pedal that's not moved off my board, and even gets moved on to other boards!



ABSOLUTLEY SHOCKING!! but it sounds better than the neat ones I've built!!



I had some boards fabbed, as the original is not doubt going to go wrong one day!!!

So, to all the new comers churning out good builds, keep it up - it gets better quick!

EDIT - also, I'm interested to see how many people's first working builds were 1590A! I think even at the start I was punishing myself for something!?

George

[juansolo]

First pedal I built that wasn't a BYOC kit (actually build no 3)...

So lets start with the front:



Funky layout huh... They were supposed to be straight, but I misjudged the size of the pots and indeed, my aptitude with a drill at this point. The maltese cross is not there for decoration either, it's covering another hole...

Then there's the insides:



I don't really think I need to say much here. My wiring has, errrm, improved...

[alanp]

No, the battery didn't actually FIT there. 

[Bret608]

It almost feels like it hasn't been long enough for me to post something in this thread and reflect back this way, but it's actually about two years that I started out.

It's my first build alright, a Pepper Spray. Looking back, my wiring started out not too bad, but hasn't improved a ton in the interim. I used a little square of cardboard under the PCB to keep it from shorting. I didn't even know about board-mounted pots when I ordered the parts. The enclosure was a pre-drilled job from Mammoth that would have prevented me from using them anyway!



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Uploaded with ImageShack.us

I guess it all worked out okay and is still one of my favorites!

[Cortexturizer]

So glad to see this topic alive and others contributing, yay!

[Haberdasher]

pretty sure this was my first ever- a madbean neutrino (eternity).  to my great surprise it worked!  aand then the addiction...

[midwayfair]

I don't even have a gutshot from my first couple working and finished builds. This was my second:


If you search for my post about that build, you can read up about my very clever method of isolating the metal jack.

I wrote a blog post about my first completely finished, working, and painted build ... which ironically was the fairly complex Tap Tempo Tremolo. I don't even have a picture of the BYOC Envelope Filter that was the first thing I soldered up and it worked. It ended up in the box a little later.

[jimilee]

My first build, a confidence boost into an enclosure. A mod within itself considering it was just a board with no enclosure.
Crazy wiring but I think Juan has us all beat. He must've been going through wire like mad! Did you go back and salvage some if that wire for your next 10 builds? :-)

[juansolo]

Crazy wiring but I think Juan has us all beat. He must've been going through wire like mad! Did you go back and salvage some if that wire for your next 10 builds? :-)

That was my worst... I learned a lot from that one. As with a lot of my early stuff, it was recycled and probably made quite a few pedals after that, yup!

[hoodoo]

Here's my first, i wasn't going to post it, cause i cheated a bit. Went back in after my second build and added one of Josh's 3pdt boards and it neatened it up ALOT!!! on the topside, the soldering underneath is still pretty ordinary. I tried 3 times to paint it without runs, gave up and clear coated the sanded enclosure. The main reason i've posted this, was to show the size of the pcb that i etched, thought that larger would make it easier to solder, a trap for young players. Here she is, Violet Rams Head, sounded bloody great, instant addiction.

[JakeFuzz]

Oh man some of these are great. Love the mess of wires. Here is my first full build. This is my DSOTM mayo muff with switchable transistors.