Progression of interests

[Luke51411]

I always find it interesting the progression of interests this hobby takes. For the first year plus of diving into building I haven't really been interested in the typical classic opamp overdrives or muff variants, your tube screamers, Klons, standard muff etc. Now I want to build ALL OF THE MUFFS and put a Klon and TS in the same box! Haha I have yet to build either so I figure I might as well hit both of those rights of passage at once! Anyway, for a while it was JFET ODs, then delay, then modulation, more delay, etc. I wonder what will distract me before I build all of the Klons, TS, Muffs... Well there is this bad ass tube pedal kit sitting on my workbench... Ooooh shiny object... drool. And then... "You mean my guitar can really sound like a Nintendo...!!!" In the mail.
... random thought of the day... I'm just curious what other odd progressions of interest other builders have had.

[drolo]

I regularly look at the possibility of learning programming (PICs, FV-1 etc) and tell myself: With this I could do ... anything! Muahhahahaha.

Then I take a look at some random beginner programming tutorial and go gently back to my breadboard ... until the next time ...

[Betty Wont]

I was spending too much money buying and flipping commercial pedals looking for exotic and interesting sounds when I found a tiny startup pedal company called effector 13. I bought one of their glitchy insane fuzz boxes and fell in love with it. Looking inside I saw a very basic homemade rig with about 8 parts. I thought "i can do THIS!" and used the new interwebs to find out how. I ended up building and designing for effector 13 and (eventually devi ever fx) for a couple of years before I got into anything other than simple fuzz. I then went through a phase of building everything out there. Vero, kits, pcb and parts. I built (and subsequently sold) stuff I'm not interested in at all, like OD, distortion, and compression. I spent too long on complicated dirt and simple modulation/filters. These days I'm all about the simple fuzz (back to e13 roots) and the complicated modulation/filters. Because that's what I use. and that's what I keep, so that's what I build.

[Luke51411]

I was spending too much money buying and flipping commercial pedals looking for exotic and interesting sounds when I found a tiny startup pedal company called effector 13. I bought one of their glitchy insane fuzz boxes and fell in love with it. Looking inside I saw a very basic homemade rig with about 8 parts. I thought "i can do THIS!" and used the new interwebs to find out how. I ended up building and designing for effector 13 and (eventually devi ever fx) for a couple of years before I got into anything other than simple fuzz. I then went through a phase of building everything out there. Vero, kits, pcb and parts. I built (and subsequently sold) stuff I'm not interested in at all, like OD, distortion, and compression. I spent too long on complicated dirt and simple modulation/filters. These days I'm all about the simple fuzz (back to e13 roots) and the complicated modulation/filters. Because that's what I use. and that's what I keep, so that's what I build.

Very cool, its interesting to hear people's backstories and where inspiration comes from. I got into into it by buying used boss pedals on ebay and I think I saw mod kits on there and realized I might be able to make cheap pedals sound Good. I did some research and started with a few Monte Allums mod kits then found GGG. I kind of got out of the hobby for years as I got married/life happened etc and then about a year or so ago interest peaked again, I figured out how to source my own parts and bang... off to the races! I'd like to get into the circuit design aspect of it a little more but I haven't done a lot of breadboarding though I'm capable of it, just distracted by pcbs and vero layouts so I guess I'm still in the "I want to build them all" stage. I'm getting to be ok with adding mods to pcbs and vero which can be quite fun on its own but it is easy to add "too much" to a circuit. Why not have all the options right? I try to always make sure my building is moving me in new and inspiring directions in at least one aspect. Right now I'm honing my box finishing skills, designing labels, and trying to make my pedals look as professional as possible.
Its always interesting building some big complicated circuit that takes quite a bit of time and then building some simple little treble boost or fuzz and getting as much if not more enjoyment out of it. Right now I'm tweaking a lpb1 to put in the same box with a big muff. So far I've added a dirt control and a 3 way switch to have treble boost, mid range, and bass boost essentially making it a Screaming Tree/bird, lpb1, and hogs foot all in one and I'm getting an insane amount of enjoyment out of it. Its crazy all the tones you can get out of a muff by sticking that boost in front of it!

[Betty Wont]

Have you tried the Demo Tape Fuzz (424) yet? It is my favorite boost for fuzz stacking. It has a very flexible 2 band tone section and tons of clean AND dirty boost. It works equally well stacked before and after and can be used to shape the hell out of any one dimentional fuzz. And its dead quiet, which is always a bonus for me.

[Luke51411]

Yeah I built it on vero and put it in a cookie tin with 5 other effects. I'll have to play with it some more

[deafbutpicky]

Here's my short cut to insanity:
1) I hate compressors
2) did some DIY building for a while
3) build a compressor going through the effort of tweaking, making a vero, pedal design etc.
4) still hate compressors
5) oh, there's a new circuit, seems to be a compressor, interesting

[Betty Wont]

Here's my short cut to insanity:
1) I hate compressors
2) did some DIY building for a while
3) build a compressor going through the effort of tweaking, making a vero, pedal design etc.
4) still hate compressors
5) oh, there's a new circuit, seems to be a compressor, interesting

I hate compressors too. I've built 2 and saw no purpose. Should be called line noise increasers. But I won't get roped in again.

[Luke51411]

Here's my short cut to insanity:
1) I hate compressors
2) did some DIY building for a while
3) build a compressor going through the effort of tweaking, making a vero, pedal design etc.
4) still hate compressors
5) oh, there's a new circuit, seems to be a compressor, interesting

I hate compressors too. I've built 2 and saw no purpose. Should be called line noise increasers. But I won't get roped in again.

Haha nice! I'm in the process of building a compressor to box in front of an ROG Azbache. It was a request from my uncle though. I've only built a few compressors and usually I fire it up and think... huh... is it working? I can't tell. Well I guess if I turn the knob this far this way I can maybe kinda sorta hear a bit of compression? Well seems good, box it up!

[Muadzin]

I hate compressors too. I've built 2 and saw no purpose. Should be called line noise increasers. But I won't get roped in again.

Like minded people!!! Yay!!! 

I'm not sure what started it for me, my first BYOC kit, or my first Monte Allums mod. I guessing the latter as I once bought a SD-1 on the Dutch version of Craigslist and it came with a MA mod, still in the bag. The SD-808 mod. I was so insecure I let a buddy of mine do the soldering. That seemed doable so when I first encountered BYOC I jumped onto that. I was in a Radiohead tribute band at the time so I had to have some of Jonny's gear, and BYOC had a kit for the DOD 440. I tried a few other things, the EA trem, the first version of the Large Beaver, boy, what a let down that was. That was legendary Big Muff? To the reject bin! And now I've built dozens of Muffs. Go figure!

I just love to build things. I used to be into scale models. Aircraft, ships, but mostly armor. I built so many 1/35 tanks during the Iraq invasion I'm amazed I didn't starve from lack of food. I guess I just transfered my love of building stuff to pedals. I love to plan ahead to what I'm going to build. I can visualize my perfect pedal board and what I would love to have on it, even though that forever keeps changing. I see something shiny, I make a BOM for it on my to do spreadsheet, that never seems to get smaller, only bigger. No matter how much I build.

I can't say there's a progression in what I build, i'ts always whatever is in vogue with me. Its often brand related, so Catalinbreads for a period, Wamplers for a while, then BJFE/MP, EHX. Dirtwise I have grown to appreciate fuzz. At first I didn't like fuzz pedals, preferring distortion and OD boxes, and probably still do  for the majority of my sound. But I have come to appreciate fuzz for its wild side. And the Big Muff. My big quest to built every version of this circuit known in existence.

[Luke51411]

I can't say there's a progression in what I build, i'ts always whatever is in vogue with me. Its often brand related, so Catalinbreads for a period, Wamplers for a while, then BJFE/MP, EHX. Dirtwise I have grown to appreciate fuzz. At first I didn't like fuzz pedals, preferring distortion and OD boxes, and probably still do  for the majority of my sound. But I have come to appreciate fuzz for its wild side. And the Big Muff. My big quest to built every version of this circuit known in existence.

Yeah maybe progression wasn't the right term to use in the first place. Maybe "Odd places for interests to wander" Or at least unexpected places. For one I have no idea how I've ended up wanting to build pedals that make a guitar sound nothing remotely like a guitar like that Arcadiator pedal.

[TNblueshawk]

Next progression is amps 

[Luke51411]

Next progression is amps 

Oh yeah definitely  I just need to get to the point financially where I can pony up larger sums that amp building requires... Or just start collecting little by little

[deafbutpicky]

awhhh, shut up now. I just convinced myself to keep it below 18V

[Luke51411]

What's the fun in building amps without the danger?