How to get started

[Mr.Hyde982]

Hi everyone, I'm new on the forum and I'm just going to get started to the wonderful DIY pedal world!

I have targeted a few projects on this site but I was wondering what's coming with the package, I guess for the price it's only the electric component (PCB, resistors, caps, etc...), so I have to buy apart enclosure, pots, knobs, jacks, led, switch, etc... Am i correct?

Will I find all the instuctions on how to proceed or not?

Well, if you can give me a brief general introduction or point me to an already existing topic concerning this (which I haven't found) that would be great!

Thanks in advance to anyone willing to help.

Cheers!

[flanagan0718]

If you are planning to get a PBC from madbeans you are making a good decision. Although you only get the PCB his are THE BEST I have used. You will need to order all the components his build docs are incredibly helpful. I would give beavisaudio.com a visit and check out the parts sourcing read through. Tayda is pretty helpful for inexpensive parts and bulk stock ups. Welcome to the forum!


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[Leevibe]

Welcome to pedal building! If you buy your first board and feel overwhelmed trying to source parts, I would recommend doing your first parts purchases from small bear or pedal parts plus. All the stuff they sell is focused on pedals so you won't have to spend as much time and energy trying to figure out what's what.

It might also be worth it to try a kit from General Guitar Gadgets or BYOC. That way the parts sourcing is out of the equation.

Either way, you're going to be hooked!

Lee

[icecycle66]

On Madbean you get ONLY the circuit board.

For the awesome detailed instructions on how to put the circuit board together:
1) Go back to the projects page; where you bought the circuit board.
2) Click the name of the circuit to the left of the little picture.
3) Let the pdf file download.
4) Print it.  Read it several times.

Then move on.

As far as components are concerned, on the instructional file, you will see a Bill of Materials.  Also known as B.O.M.
It's the list that has a bunch of stuff like "R1", "R2", "C1", "C2", etc.

That is also what you need to buy. Also, for any "IC" that you buy, buy a matching socket for it.
(A socket let's you take the IC in and out without having to solder and unsolder over and over again.)

You can also get single rows of sockets to use for transistors.

Go to Small Bear, Tayda, Pedal Parts Plus, Digikey, and/or Mouser.  Buy everything listed on the B.O.M.

Along with all the stuff listed on the B.O.M., you'll need a few other bits of hardware. 
Per pedal you'll need:
The enclosure.
At least two 1/4 inch jacks.  These are your in and out jacks.  For most stuff you can use mono jacks.  Although a lot of guys use stereo jacks.
A 9v jack.  (You may also want a 9v battery snap if you are into using batteries)
An LED to indicate the on/off status. (Maybe a simple bezel or LED holder so the LED isn't just floating there.)
A resistor for that LED.
A latching stomp switch to turn it on and off (usually 3PDT, sometimes not)
Knobs to put on the potentiometers.

Something you'll notice is that it hardly ever seems like you can get everything you need from one place.  If you do, good; but don't get to frustrated if you can't.  You'll also notice that there are different prices on the same things in all the different places.  So, if you get everything at one place, you might pay more for the enclosures or switches that you would somewhere else.  Don't worry about that too much for your first few builds.  For those first few builds you can get everything you probably need from Small Bear or Pedal Parts Plus.  That way you don't have to bounce from store to store and forget something.

[mr_mwr]

Welcome to Pedal Building!! Although I have a very low post count here, I've been lurking for a long time, I'm much more active over at BYOC. I plan to stick around here as well.

It might also be worth it to try a kit from General Guitar Gadgets or BYOC. That way the parts sourcing is out of the equation.

Either way, you're going to be hooked!

Lee

This is how I got hooked! I bough a kit from BYOC and now I can't stop building.
I found that the Kit for my first build helped me realize exactly how many components went into building, and what I would need to get if I was going to do one without a kit.
But after the kit I felt like I wanted more of a challenge so I just bough PCB's and sourced all the parts and pieces separately. It makes for a more original feel, but is more difficult and can be a pain when you realize you're missing a few pieces.

But the build Doc's here and all the places listed in the tool bar up above are very good and detailed and Everyone is very willing to help out if you have questions.

Good Luck! and have Fun!!

[pryde]

As much as I endorse all things Madbean I would recommend for your very first build to do a kit (i.e. general guitar gadgets as listed above). My reasons:

-takes all part sourcing out of the equation
-gets you familiar with first identifying components for a pedal build
-more of a "paint by numbers" approach to your first build=good
-a complete kit will be cheaper and much less time consuming to get your 1st build done.
-enclosure is pre-drilled and ready to load up.

You want this to be a fun and cool experience and not an exercise in frustration right out of the gate right? Make it easy on yourself.

Stay active here and we can help/guide you through your kit build if needed. After success with it THEN jump into a Madbean project. It will go much smoother.

There are my pennies 

[Leevibe]

As much as I endorse all things Madbean I would recommend for your very first build to do a kit (i.e. general guitar gadgets as listed above). My reasons:

-takes all part sourcing out of the equation
-gets you familiar with first identifying components for a pedal build
-more of a "paint by numbers" approach to your first build=good
-a complete kit will be cheaper and much less time consuming to get your 1st build done.
-enclosure is pre-drilled and ready to load up.

You want this to be a fun and cool experience and not an exercise in frustration right out of the gate right? Make it easy on yourself.

Stay active here and we can help/guide you through your kit build if needed. After success with it THEN jump into a Madbean project. It will go much smoother.

There are my pennies 

Sage advice.

By a madbean board or two anyway though. They won't go stale and you will be getting the parts thing figured out in no time. 

[chromesphere]

Sorry to plug myself but I don't know of any easier first build then the 7 min fuzz, assuming 'easy' is what your after?  If you want to learn a few things about how pedals work, get the experimenters kit.  You will however need to source an enclosure / hardware but the components and board are so easy to assemble its ridiculous:

http://www.diyguitarpedals.com.au/shop/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=1&products_id=31

Cheers
Paul

[Mr.Hyde982]

Thans to all of you for the suggestions, I'll defintely buy a kit as first build, you're right.

I forgot to mention that I'm a bass player, so i guess i'll have harder time to find some kit bass specific, but I'll give a look in all the sites you mentioned. Can you suggest me a good kit for bass? (i'm looking mainly for a distorsion, later also a compressor, delay, chorus)

I'll definitely bother you more later on once i'll be started!

Thanks again!

[PhiloB]

My first build was a BYOC 'Confidence Boost' and a BYOC 'Mouse'.  Their instructions were VERY detailed and helpful.  Here is a link to a bass overdrive that gets good reviews:
http://buildyourownclone.com/bassoverdrive.html
I've not even come up on my one year pedal building anniversary and I've completed about 13 pedals:) it's addictive for sure.  You have been forewarned!

[Mr.Hyde982]

Thanks Philo. That pedal might be good... but it's expensive too!!

Anyway, can't wait to start building one, who knows if it will be more of a "zen" or a "frustration" experience... it will probably start with second and hopefully eventually turn on the first one!

[playpunk]

A couple of things:

You are not saving any money in the short term not buying a BYOC kit. If you order your own parts, you will almost certainly make many mistakes, and be forced to make multiple orders. Trust me on this one.

That said, you will have to learn about capacitor codes and resistor codes and values sometime. Might as well be now. I found this chart: http://www.justradios.com/uFnFpF.html

helpful in figuring out capacitor codes. Resistors are pretty self-explanatory. Jubal81's BOM's http://www.madbeanpedals.com/forum/index.php?topic=5703.0 were also very helpful to me.

I ended up ordering some bulk capacitors and resistors, so that has made my life easier.

I started with a green bean, which I screwed up in many, many, many, many ways. I moved on to an egodriver, which worked, and have finished a bunch of pedals since. I started doing this in May of 2013, and have a bunch of nice pedals now.

Good luck!

[peAk]

My first build was the BYOC reverb this past December. After that, I knew I was addicted and I knew I wanted to source my own parts

Fast forward 2-1/2 months...

Finished about 10-12 builds, have three I am currently working on, about 5 that need to be boxed, and about 30 pcbs waiting to be populated. Spent more money than I care to know.

It's addicting. Very addicting. Sometimes I forget I even play guitar.

The guys on this forum are really awesome and have helped since the first post I made.

Being a beginner myself, IMO, the single most important thing for me was getting a good soldering station. I went through 3 until I found an affordable Haako ($100-ish) that made things about a million times easier. I know you can definitely get by with cheaper irons but for me this was the single most important tool.

[Leevibe]

Being a beginner myself, IMO, the single most important thing for me was getting a good soldering iron.

Totally

[GermanCdn]

Good iron + good solder = much easier build

Lousy iron + crappy solder = headaches, and not only from the fumes.