New To DIY Pedal Building

[KidBrother_Dan]

Hi guys,

I'm a complete noob but I'm looking forward to endeavoring into DIY Pedal building, seems like a very rewarding hobby

What i was hoping for is some tips on what equipment i will need before i even start, like i said I'm completely new to this so any help will me much appreciated

Thanks,

Dan

[jkokura]

Man, that's such a big question! Welcome to the forum, here are my general tips:

1. Get a decent soldering iron. Depending on how deep you want to go into the hobby, you should consider carefully what soldering iron you get. Usually you can use an inexpensive one, but the maintenance and use of that soldering iron will take its tole the more you use it. Spend a bit more, like 50-100 US dollars and you can generally get a very usable iron that will last.

2. Have to hand some basic hand tools. Screwdrivers, sockets or nut drivers, side cutters, pliers, wire strippers - these sorts of tools. You really should have a decent set available. You can borrow these, or buy them second hand, and while quality is usually helpful, it's not as necessary. In particular, having a good philips head screwdriver, a 1/4"-3/4" set of sockets/nutdrivers, and a set of needle nose pliers, side cutters, and a good wire stripper are the most important.

3. Don't buy stuff you don't need. It's tempting to spend money and just load up on all sorts of stuff. However, I've known people to spend lots of money, and then get bored or frustrated with building and then feel they've wasted money.

4. Try it out with a kit or two before you really dive in/build a simple project first. There are great kit options available out there, and there are lots of great starter projects available from all the PCB suppliers that partner here in on Madbean. These easy builds are a great way to get your feet wet. They're usually more successfully built, and they're usually less expensive. As you get better with your skills, you'll be rewarded with being able to handle larger and more complicated builds.

5. Plan, plan, plan. Planning is by far the most important skill. The adage 'measure twice, cut once' totally applies here, but it's more like, "double check you plan six or seven times, then execute the plan."

Jacob

[KidBrother_Dan]

Thanks man

i do have most of the stuff listed, i just didn't want to be missing something that could potentially hinder a build, I'm going to order a couple of kits and see how i get a long with them,

I can't wait to fail miserably and spend most of my time cursing at my work bench

Thanks for replying though dude, really appreciate it

[Leevibe]

Man, that's such a big question! Welcome to the forum, here are my general tips:

1. Get a decent soldering iron. Depending on how deep you want to go into the hobby, you should consider carefully what soldering iron you get. Usually you can use an inexpensive one, but the maintenance and use of that soldering iron will take its tole the more you use it. Spend a bit more, like 50-100 US dollars and you can generally get a very usable iron that will last.

2. Have to hand some basic hand tools. Screwdrivers, sockets or nut drivers, side cutters, pliers, wire strippers - these sorts of tools. You really should have a decent set available. You can borrow these, or buy them second hand, and while quality is usually helpful, it's not as necessary. In particular, having a good philips head screwdriver, a 1/4"-3/4" set of sockets/nutdrivers, and a set of needle nose pliers, side cutters, and a good wire stripper are the most important.

3. Don't buy stuff you don't need. It's tempting to spend money and just load up on all sorts of stuff. However, I've known people to spend lots of money, and then get bored or frustrated with building and then feel they've wasted money.

4. Try it out with a kit or two before you really dive in/build a simple project first. There are great kit options available out there, and there are lots of great starter projects available from all the PCB suppliers that partner here in on Madbean. These easy builds are a great way to get your feet wet. They're usually more successfully built, and they're usually less expensive. As you get better with your skills, you'll be rewarded with being able to handle larger and more complicated builds.

5. Plan, plan, plan. Planning is by far the most important skill. The adage 'measure twice, cut once' totally applies here, but it's more like, "double check you plan six or seven times, then execute the plan."

Jacob

Good advice here. Welcome! Looking forward to seeing your first build!

[selfdestroyer]

Welcome to the forum Dan

Jacob brought up some great points.

-If I were to do it all over again I would build a testing rig  right off the bat. This way you can test a pedal before mounting it in an enclosure. (Rock it before you box it)
-Kits can be a bit expensive but they come with everything you need. So there is no need to source all the parts yourself and it will take a lot of the learning curve away. Do a couple and get yourself familiar with the different parts.

When I first started I bought some of the giant bags of metal film resistors from a China eBay seller. That covered all my resistors needs for quite some time. Sure, the leads were thin but they worked just fine for my venture into the DIY madness.

Read, read, read! And do not be afraid to ask questions. We all started somewhere and I constantly learning from members new and old one this great forum. Just remember, when you run into an issues its a guaranteed fact that your not the first to face it.

I look forward to see what you get together.

Cody

[dont-tase-me-bro]

I did one byoc kit as my first.  It didn't work initially, but was a perfect way to learn as it had step by step instructions that would have been really hard to figure out on my own.  Once you get the basic mechanics of it, it's pretty easy

[EBRAddict]

4. Try it out with a kit or two before you really dive in/build a simple project first. There are great kit options available out there, and there are lots of great starter projects available from all the PCB suppliers that partner here in on Madbean. These easy builds are a great way to get your feet wet. They're usually more successfully built, and they're usually less expensive. As you get better with your skills, you'll be rewarded with being able to handle larger and more complicated builds.

As a noob from last year: buying a complete pedal kit is a perfect way to start. A complete kit will save you some frustration. Start easy. Don't get the most complicated kit on sale. A fuzz or overdrive is a great first build.

[KidBrother_Dan]

Thanks guys, i feel like this group is going to be very helpful along the way

Is MammothElectronics.com the best place to start for kits? Thinking of starting with the 'MothMan"

again, all answers are much appreciated

[dont-tase-me-bro]

This doesn't really do anything, but is good practice

http://buildyourownclone.com/products/confidence-booster

[dont-tase-me-bro]

And companies like velleman and elenco make solder practice kits. Theyre basically circuit boards that just have holes in them and do nothing, but you can practice soldering resistors and capacitors

[KidBrother_Dan]

Perfect, thanks man,

I should probably let you all know that I'm in the UK, i have a feeling a lot of these sites won't ship to me, are there any sites that do 100% ship to UK and some that 100% don't

Thanks,

Dan

[EBRAddict]

Is MammothElectronics.com the best place to start for kits? Thinking of starting with the 'MothMan"

They are OK. I built three kits from there. They baggie and label every part which makes it easy. Once they missed a part (a PCB ) and substituted on another (two 5mm LED instead of one bicolor LED) so I would double check everything against the parts list when you receive it. They will fix mistakes, usually quickly.

[EBRAddict]

are there any sites that do 100% ship to UK

If you check the International link at BYOC it has stocking distributors in EU and UK. Good luck.

[dont-tase-me-bro]

I think there are places in Europe, I forget what they're called though.  Someone here will know

[Martan]

Don't get frustrated if a build doesn't work the first time. Make an audio probe (http://www.diystompboxes.com/pedals/debug.html) so that you can figure out how far your guitar signal is getting through the circuit. It not only helps you debug, but also lets you hear what the different parts of your circuit are doing. I actually quit building after getting frustrated at first. Then I built a decent test rig and audio probe.

Especially at first consider debugging to be half of your build. Part of the fun is refining the way you do things to get rid of the mistakes. There's a ton to learn, but that is why I like it

And you've found a great forum to help along the way.

Marty