Why did you start building?

[icecycle66]

Too many pedals, not enough money.

The last new manufactured pedal I bought before starting to build my own was an Iron Ether Nimbus (which has since been replaced with a Rub-a-Dub).  I was looking for a good delay that sounded nice on bass and this was top dog at the time.

I spent a little over $200 on it.  When I received it, as nice as it was, I was disappointed that it cost so much for a non-life altering event.  Then while I was looking for new and different distortions I found the Zvex Machine. When I saw its price tag I was reminded of the Nimbus experience. 

So I started to look for other options.  I started doing circuit bending on cheaper pedals like Behringer and Digitech stuff (I now have a wicked mean modded Death Metal that I never use and can't seem to get rid of.)  I still wanted the Zvex Machine and nearly baught one for several hundred dollars. 

However, I was bitching to a friend of mine about how much pedals were starting to cost.  he laughed at the piddly $300 Machine and told me about the Klon.  I'd never heard of the Klon before so I looked it up; you all know how that went.  But while researching the Klon I started to see things about "clones" and "klones". 

"What is this 'clone' of which you speak?"

Doing a little more research I discovered BYOC.  This opened up a whole new world.  I continued to dive into the DIY world to see if there was a Machine clone I could build.  Eventually I found the Madbean section of no longer offered boards.  Alas, there was the "Macheen".

I sent Brian an email to confirm that this was indeed a circuit similar to the Zvex Machine.  It was.
Even if I failed building this thing a dozen times I could still come out with the sound I wanted for less than too much money.  Once I found out there was a plethora of pedals I could build I decided that I would build them all before buying a new one. And except for a special case (Digitech Bass Whammy, which was funded mostly on sales of a few DIY builds) this has held true.  If I want a pedal i see in a magazine or website, I'll build the closest DIY thing I can find instead.  That scratches the new gear itch, is cheaper, and satifies my "want to build something, don't want to sweat" urge.

[AntKnee]

I started playing guitar at age 10. I was never really into pedals until the last few years. I was more into amps and rack gear. Always been a diy guy. I worked as an electrician in my early 20s, worked on and restored cars my whole life, and love to work with my hands and build model cars. Later, got into pedals mostly for artistic reasons. They are like little custom hot rods. When pedals started to get rediculously expensive, I decided to build my own. A little over a year, and about 30 pedals later, here I am.

[Justus]

I started playing guitar in high school, and played with a couple bands on into Junior College.  Pretty much quit when I transferred to University, but always still played around with the acoustic for my wife (she sings, I play, for church specials and the such), and I ended up selling the majority of my gear, keeping only a wah pedal and my Mesa F-50 amp, which was a much-needed size downgrade from the Peavey 100W half-stack I had been playing, but also an "oops" moment because I bought it as part of a silent auction for a benefit fundraiser for someone who had a health issue.  Turns out my bid, which was the first bid on the opening day of the auction at the music store, ended up being the only bid.  It was low enough I didn't seriously think I'd win the thing.  Luckily I was able to quickly sell the half-stack to cover myself, lol!

Then last year we started going back to my wife's home church, and were asked to be on the worship team.  I got my electric back out and noticed that I really needed a delay pedal... and an overdrive.  So I bought a TS-9 and started researching delays, only to find out the prices of the ones I liked were $300+.  Ugh.  I was still looking at internet articles about the TS-9, even though I already bought it, and stumbled across all the mods, and then the clones.  More research, and I stumbled across MBP.  The cost is low to enter into this kind of hobby, so I thought I'd give it a shot.  Besides, if I can build my own pedals I can save a fortune! Haha!  Ha ha...  ha. 

So I bought some copper clad and chemicals, learned to etch boards, learned to solder better, then bought a better soldering station ($$), a crap ton of components and hardware from Mouser, SB, mKlec and BLMS ($$$), and a powdercoating gun from Harbor Freight with powders from Columbia Coatings ($$$), some drill bits off Amazon ($), and sunk in a ton of time learning about all this stuff.  I think it's just now starting to all come together, about 10 months after entering into the DIY world of guitar pedals and giving the equivalent of maybe 2 to 3 hours per week to actually doing something physical with the stuff.  I built and boxed a Green Bean, and put the TS-9 up for sale "to fund further projects."  Now I have 2 Snarkdoodles ready to box up and JMK's testing rig (just need to clear coat the boxes).

So, yeah, I wanted a delay pedal but I still really got here because I'm the proverbial "I just wanna build a tubescreamer" guy.

[m-Kresol]

When I first picked up guitar lessons, when I was 15 or 16, I was totally into Blink 128, The offspring and so on. So I kinda wanted a dirt pedal to play that stuff and got a crappy one from a friend very cheap. It still sounds horrible to me today. I continued to play but I never really got into it. It was just a from time to time thing.
Fast forward to august 2013, when I finally pulled the trigger on a new guitar to motivate me. A good friend and co-worker did an electronics school before studying chemistry and he just said: "How about we build an amp for that new guitar?" So, we started planing a solid-state amp. In the process, I thought about adding a dirt channel to the amp and started looking around how to do so and stumbled upon uk-electronics.de where I promptly ordered a klon kit. My friend showed me how to solder, identify parts and so on and from that moment I was hooked. The next projects followed soon thereafter from mbp.
Since then I've build a dozen pedals, but still can't play properly and want more nevertheless. It's not so much about me using them. I just love planing a build, putting it together and the feeling when you hit that switch and it does what it is supposed to.
Ps.: still didn't finish that solid-state amp :p

[Govmnt_Lacky]

Been playing guitar since 1996 although... I sound like I have been playing since Christmas 

Anyways... about 15 years ago, a cousin of mine was starting up his own band and talked non-stop about wanting a TS808. My uncle could not afford one of them so... one day I overheard him talking about getting one for him. I said that maybe I could help and took it to task. I have worked on electronics for a few decades and was relatively experienced in soldering, part ID, etc. So... I scoured the interwebz (nowhere near as easy as it is now) and it led me to a schematic for it. I was able to fashion a crude PCB and populate it with parts from my work. I even found an old 4558 for it! I built it in a BUD box I found. Painted it enamel Green, which I think is still not fully cured, and presented it to my uncle to give to him. Soon after he received it, we began the modding. He still has it to this day!

Not to soon after this, I found a few forums popping up but never really got involved in them until around 2007/2008. Its been all fun and games since then. I haven't bought a production pedal since they unveiled the SansAmp GT2 if that helps with dating things...

Still wish I could play guitar better though... 

[selfdestroyer]

/book begin

I started playing guitar when I was 15 and a few friends of mine in a neighboring town started a band. We started by playing Bauhaus, Love & Rockets & Sisters of Mercy covers. We then decided to start making our own tracks and called ourselves "The Fuzz" as in The Police. Looking back it was pretty funny since I did not own any fuzz pedals. In fact I never had any pedals I used since if I wanted any kind of overdrive I would just turn the Bassman up louder lol. My first pedal was given to me by a bass player/friend that played with my dad a lot. He gave me a V3 Big Muff and using a reel to reel as a delay device, I was set and hooked on effects. I then became addicted to reverb and delays. I have owned so many analog & digital delays I have lost track. I went through a phase where all I had was rack effects and a MIDI foot controller. I would run my guitar, drum machine and vocals through it. In came the obsession with Ministry and Skinny Puppy. I was a huge synth pop / Industrial fan and tried my hand at it many time.

fast forward: Married, gained 100 pounds, found better gear.

I have always been a gear whore and loved getting my hands on everything. Even if its just for a short period to try something.I have been very fortunate with the deals I have found and the friends I have made along the way. As anyone that owns/collects classic hardware you know that repairs are inevitable. I learned some basics to fix pedals and amps but nothing to invasive by any means. I have/had a hobby of collecting video game consoles and modding them. Most of the time the mods would be for better video out or the ability to play game backups. I started repairing game consoles and built up a decent workshop of tools for working with very small circuits. Anyone that has modded a Playstation 2 or a Game Cube will know what I am talking about. Tiny tiny pads and hair thin wire to work with.

I got a Japanese Jazzmaster and was hanging out at OffsetGuitars forum and seen a DIY Effects section. It really intrigued me and I wanted to know more about it. I started googling around and seeing what others were building. When I found I could make a bunch of Big Muff variants I was hooked. I started with a Skreddy Mayo from a vero layout from Mark's Tagboard website and it was a huge failure. Wrong part sizes and I spent more time trying to make it look pretty than making it work. So, back to the drawing board. After posting a few successful builds over at OffsetGuitars I was contacted by Timbo since we lived in the same town. He told me about the Madbean forum and said I should definitely check it out. When I seen Brian was not only selling PCBs but he was also giving out etch masks then I knew I needed to learn to etch. Much reading a trial and error I ended up able to make boards. This opened up a huge door for me since I did not have much money to spend on parts and PCBs. I was now able to spend more money on getting my parts & enclosures stocked up.

My blog was started as a catch all for stuff I found around the web and I wanted to archive but it has evolved in to much more. My goal was to share as much information as I can to help people just like me get started or try something new. I used to think etching was the hardest thing to get the hang of, now I pop boards out in 25 minutes with no issues. If it was not for all the people along the way that put up with my stupid questions and the help to the now obvious answers then I would not be sitting where I am today.

Even though I love etching I also see how important it is to support others by buying PCBs and building others layouts.

One last thing. Just as I am a proud owner of things like a Roland Space Echo RE-201 and various vintage amps, I am also a proud owner of Jon Patton's Nature Dweller & Timbo's Nuevo Jefe pedals and look forward to getting builds from all my favorites. Simply put, I am happy to be part of this community of such talented individuals and look forward to the future of this hobby.

/book ending

Cody

[dont-tase-me-bro]

I realized a guitar pedal is not that much on parts cost.  It seemed like a way to save money.  In retrospect, that turned out to be incorrect although I made a pretty good amount of stuff in around a year

[pryde]

Like many here it was driven from an insatiable need to understand how stuff works under the hood. My parents used to kill me for taking apart everything I owned just to see what was inside. I still do that a lot 

[tcpoint]

I got started back in '83.  My brother got an electric guitar and we didn't have any money for an amp.  We were both starving students.  I was taking an electronics class as part of my computer science curriculum.  I read a Craig Anderton article in Guitar Player about how to build a solid state practice amp.  I couldn't resist.  I went to the local electronics shop and bought the parts and made the amp.  We found some old car speakers and made a cabinet.  I made a few distortion pedals and modded a Marshall and kind of quit.  A few years ago, I started making stereo amplifiers and headphone amplifiers.  I, also, did a few digital projects.  I started making dirt boxes again and really got hooked.  Now I'm making delays, compressors, phasers, etc.  A lot of fun.

[GermanCdn]

I realized a guitar pedal is not that much on parts cost.  It seemed like a way to save money. 

The trap that ensnares us all.

[chromesphere]

Approximately 8-9 years ago. I was at a friends house, he was showing me his 'boost and buff'.  Cost him, think it was $100.  He showed me the inside, where the battery goes. There was like...this tiny little board with about 8 components on it.

"that's it...like...THATS IT...!?"

Next week, I was building the Diystompboxes beginner project (npn booster).

[VanDerchuck]

I started with amps out of necessity. Always wanted a four 6V6 Deluxe Reverb. Still haven't built it yet. Maybe someday. After a half dozen amps I needed an OD pedal so I thought I'd do a BYOC ODII. Which ended up being a spectacular disaster. It sounds awesome... ...when it works. It was far cheaper than an amp, but still a little expensive. A friend asked me for a boost pedal and I was amazed to find it incredibly easy. And cheap. And fun. Now I have so many projects going I do t know what to work on when I have time.

[jubal81]

Great stories, guys. Love reading these.


I need a reverb and picked up a Holy Grail on the cheap that was beat to crap and needed some fixing. Google led me to DIYstomp when searching for fixes.


Then came the familiar refrain:
"Holy crap, you mean I can make a $200 boutique boost myself from a few radio shack parts?"


I didn't know about PCBs and built my first few effects on pad-per-hole perf with a $10 iron. Not beginner friendly at all, but once I got something running I was hooked.


Sometimes when I build something that sounds really good and toss it in the 'maybe box it one day' pile I could just about kick myself because my noob self would have gone bananas over it.

[selfdestroyer]

Sometimes when I build something that sounds really good and toss it in the 'maybe box it one day' pile I could just about kick myself because my noob self would have gone bananas over it.

Exactly this!

Cody

[dont-tase-me-bro]

I am a bit of a spaz.  Once I got my first pedal to actually work, I went kind of nuts building things.  It feeds off making functional things that I actually want and can use, with the other side seeming like I have a license to print money.  I'm stickin it to the man.