Greetings.....

[peAk]

Greetings Everyone,

I am new to the forum as well as pedal building. I have been playing the guitar for about 25 years and recently stumbled across a DIY pedal site and thought that it sounded interesting. Without knowing a whole lot about it, I decided to order a pedal kit (Reverb) from BYOC and give it a go.

Although I crawled through the build at a snail's pace, ...to my surprise, the pedal started up perfect at the first go. I had already convinced myself prior to launching it that it wasn't going to work and I had screwed up somewhere along the way. I seconded-guess every thing I soldered. So, you can say that when IT DID work, I was totally thrilled and completely addicted to this new hobby.

Soon after that, I started reading, video watching, reading, more video watching of anything and everything that related to pedal building I could find. I knew that I didn't want to buy "kits" anymore and wanted to source the parts myself. I ended up building a RAT & Fuzz Face from Synthrotek, as well as a EA Tremolo from GPBC, stocked up on components, PCBs, etc. All pedals worked on first launch, and haven't really had any trouble besides realizing that I soldered the wrong "X" to "X" right after I soldered them because I was rushing and not paying enough attention.

So now I am finishing up the Nautilus (waiting on some trim pots) and I am hoping that it works on first launch. This was obviously my most complex build so far but everything seem to go smooth.

My question is (if you even made it through all this rambling) is .....this just luck that I haven't had any issues up to this point or is having pedal build issues more rare than I thought? Are most pedal issues bad components? And if so, is it pretty common to get bad components?

Personal stories welcome

(Promise future post will be shorter!)


Thanks!

[jubal81]

Luck is good, but it sounds like you're taking your time and that makes a lot of luck. I know when I first started (on pad-per-hole, whew) I would find myself rushing because I was eager to hear what it sounded like and make mistakes.

Bad components are one of the harder things to find when troubleshooting, but are generally only a problem when ordering from a surplus/discount supplier like Tayda or mystery Asian ebayer.

That's pretty much all there is to it - Do your homework, order the right parts and take your time. Welcome aboard!

[Leevibe]

Welcome to pedal building!  Sounds like you're off to a great start.  Builder error is far more common than bad parts.  Congrats on your successful builds.  Your confidence will grow with each one. 

When you get that first non-working circuit, check to make sure guitar is in input and amp in output, not vice-versa.  That's happened to me a bunch of times.  Make sure ICs are plugged in, guitar volume is up, amp is off standby.  If still not working, you can build a simple test probe and trace through the schematic.

Until then, keep up the perfect record!

[jimilee]

Welcome! If you want to read some silly things we all do, check for build mistakes or stupid mistakes, we all do it, it's good fun too! Taking your time is the key to this hobby. Confidence breads mistakes for all of us here, and then we forget to put in our trannies and IC's, or just plug in the guitar, or I will plug in the guitar but with the wrong cable, or plug the out of the pedal to the in of the pedal.......I could go on!

[chromesphere]

Welcome to the forum peak! 
I don't think its luck, I think you are being methodical, careful and doing your homework.  Like with any skill, when your experienced you'll know where you can and cant take short cuts but when your new you have to be careful throughout the whole process.
Also congratulations on posting on an awesome forum full of great people hope you like it here!
Paul

[stevie1556]

Welcome the the friendliest forum!

Glad to hear all your builds worked first time, always a great feeling!

One thing I will say is don't get too discouraged when a build doesn't work, as it will happen from time to time. But having said that, you will learn a hell of a lot from fault finding.

What's your favourite pedal so far?

Sent from my thumbs using Tapatalk!

[Gledison]

Welcome mate!
Dont worry, troubles will find your way! Im not being pessimist, its just the way it is! Than you will learn a lot trying to debug a pedal! Its a lot of fun in the beginning and can drive you nuts as well!
Any trouble u find, here is the place to post ur problem! The guys here are very experienced and helpful!
Long live madbean forum!!!

[neve1272]

greetings and salutations

luck is good
going slow and checking your self twice is better
every time i get excited  and rush i get in trouble
whats good about that is i learn so much from trying to fix my mistakes
cromesphere has videos on most of the things that will cross your path if you do run into problems (audio probe ect.)

[lars]

One of the best choices you made off the bat is to buy quality PCBs (like the ones found here ), the foundation of every good build. Generally builders run into problems when we try to etch our own PCBs based off of random layouts from the web that may or may not be correct. Also, when you first start out, stay away from any builds/schematics that use BBDs that don't have any bias trimmers. I tried to build a Zombie Chorus 3 times using different layouts and it never worked. There's no way to adjust the circuit for components that don't work perfect together!

[peAk]

what welcoming and encouraging responses. I did not know what to expect posting my first "noob" post. Already a wealth of information in these responses.

A few resposes to things mentioned here...

So far, all of my PCB purchases have been from here (Madbeans), GPCB, Synthrotek, BYOC, and 1776. 80% of my components have been from Smallbear and the rest from Mouser & GPCB. I am a little worried now because last week I purchased about 50 pots and 50 trim pots from Tayda. I hope I didn't make a mistake....? Most of the pedals I am building won't be for gigging (haven't done a gig in years) and I couldn't resist the .50 cent pot price. Any success stories with Tayda pots? ...yikes.

Favorite Pedal? Not really, and to be honest....I have spent more time building and less time playing. Just so damn addicting. As a guitar player, I have always enjoyed psychadelic/experimental sounds so I am really excited on some of the builds I am currently working on or about to start. Nautilus, HoneyDripper, Mini-Me Chorus, Soaring Skillet, Current Lover, Harbinger One...and I want to attemp the Multiplex Echo Machine Deluxe that I saw on 1776. I have always been a huge fan of the Rat and Big Muff so those were a must as well.

I am glad you mentioned a bias trim being a must for anything with a BDD. I did not know that. Luckily, it looks like all the board I have currently bought have that. I will probably just stick to buying boards here and the other places I have purchase from.

I do plan to build an audio probe, I just haven't needed one yet and I guess that it why I haven't built one. It's definitely on my things to do list. So far the best investment I have made is a Hakko Station. I bought kind of the entry level one for about $100 but ...boy...did it make a difference!

Again, thanks guys!

[rullywowr]

Welcome!

Tayda certainly has some great deals, and not all of their parts are crap.  The 16mm PCB mount pots and trim pots you got (3362 clones) are actually some of the better things to grab from them.  I also think their box capacitors are pretty decent.  They are a good deal for the most part, but sometimes you can find them on Mouser for less in quantities of 100+.  Resistors are good from Tayda (they do have thin leads) as well as enclosures are a good value.  Their ICs are pretty good as well for the most part.  Keep in mind, they run a 15% off coupon about once a month, member Jimilee is notorious for posting the code here as soon as it comes out.  You can also check www.facebook.com/taydaelectronics to see the code.

I think the hardest thing about getting into pedal DIY is buying the correct components and staying organized.  There is a thread on here about "how do you guys organize all your stuff" which is great information.  For film caps (1n-1000n or 1uF), you want to make sure they have 5mm lead spacing.  A few of the values on Tayda are really large (like 2.2uF film) which have a too big lead spacing and are 100v.  For electrolytic caps, you want to make sure they are no higher than 11mm and have a diameter of about 5mm...up until 100uF which can be 6.3mm in diameter.  No more than 16v or 25v (especially if using a charge pump) rating are good. 

It sounds like you are really getting into the hobby which is great, so I would suggest each time you need to buy a component that you don't currently have - to buy more than you need.  A lot of components such as resistors, caps are cheaper to buy in qty of 50pcs or 100pcs.  Having components on hand will make it really easy to just "whip" up the latest project.

For components which I suggest not cheaping out on are the following:  Jacks (get Switchcraft or Neutrik), Electrolytic caps (Nichicon, Panasonic, Lelon are good brands), J201 transistors (lots of fakes).