My son's first pedal (Sqweeker) -and my first 1590A

[das234]

My 7 year old saw has been watching me build pedals and learning about them with me and getting excited when we get a new package from Tayda, Madbean, Small Bear or wherever.  So, I asked him if he wanted to build a pedal and he enthusiastically said YES.  I had etched a Sqweeker board that I thought would be a nice simple project for him.  I showed him how to read the doc to populate the board, gave him a soldering lesson and let him go to work.  He did a great job.  We tried out the Null mod but didn't feel like it was necessary.  We rocked before we boxed and then I let him design the enclosure.   We went with a 1590A simply because we could.  It was clear that, even with no knobs, it would be a tight fit so I took care of boxing it up (my first 1590A).  And I have to say, after tackling it, you 1590A devotees (you know who you are) are a different breed.  These little guys are tricky.  Anyway, I'm proud of his work; here it is:

[pickdropper]

That. Is. Awesome.

Congrats on getting your son interested in it.  I believe that getting him started early will be beneficial to him down the road.

[das234]

That. Is. Awesome.

Congrats on getting your son interested in it.  I believe that getting him started early will be beneficial to him down the road.

Or land us both in the poor house surrounded by heaps of shiny guitar pedals! 
Seriously though, it's awesome because I didn't learn to solder properly or identify a capacitor until I was over 40.  He's doing it at 7.

[davent]

Super project Dave! You have an EE or graphic artist in the making there.

dave

[lincolnic]

Great work, guys.

[jkokura]

My Boy is 2, and he already sits and watches me work. I love the idea of building with kids, and I can't wait till I can do it.

My kids friends are gonna be pretty ripped when they come to our house and see all the cool gear they get to use because their dad builds/hoards musical instruments...

Jacob

[midwayfair]

This is A+ work!

My kids friends are gonna be pretty ripped when they come to our house and see all the cool gear they get to use because their dad builds/hoards musical instruments...

Yeah, but once he's old enough for all his friends to play rock music, your kid's gonna be really embarrassed by his dad and all the electronics. 

Source: I used to be a kid and am still embarrassed.

[Stomptown]

Very Cool! I can't wait for my daughter to get a little older so we can do a build together. Looks great too. I love the graphics!

[jimilee]

I love doing this type stuff with my daughter, and she does too. Nicely done.

[davent]

This is A+ work!

My kids friends are gonna be pretty ripped when they come to our house and see all the cool gear they get to use because their dad builds/hoards musical instruments...

Yeah, but once he's old enough for all his friends to play rock music, your kid's gonna be really embarrassed by his dad and all the electronics. 

Source: I used to be a kid and am still embarrassed.

Yeah, you may well be the cool parent but that's only ever in the eyes of someone else's kids and they get real pissed if their friends want to come over to play with you and your stuff and ignore them.

[icecycle66]

I wish I were introduced to this sort of thing )electronics in general) at such a young age.

[Gledison]

OMG! This kid will be the Mozart of pedals!

[Thomas_H]

Usually its something that runs only a short time. Somewhere between the age of 8 and 12 you can get your children interested in such things. Before, they may want to, but cant, after, they usually loose interest :-)

[Sibob]

This is extremely cool!
My dad is an electronics engineer, and I did not come to be interested in pedal building until the age of 29 (I'm 30 now).
That's 29 years of not utilising my dads vast knowledge.
Obviously it's very difficult to keep a childs interest/enthusiasm about such things up during the various 'difficult years' of growth, but having that early exposure can only be a help......one I wish I'd made more of

Si

[timbo_93631]

Good work!  My dad started me soldering around the same age, as well as teacing me woodworking, carpentry, plumbing, mechanics, etc.  It has turned into a lifelong DIY mindset, and I was never embarrassed of his knowledge/skills. 

When I was a teenager I'd be embarrassed when I'd bring a girl or friends home around 10 o'clock and find dad rattling off hyper focused Morse code doing DX on his ham radio to someplace like Teran Tuva while wearing this outfit: WWII bomber cans over his ears, tighty whitey underwear, old holey V-neck tee, black socks. 

It is 5:30am, I am communicating with people far away through the internet while I sit in my Airborne Toxic Event T, boxers, and black socks so I guess the apple hasn't fallen too far from the tree after all.