New To DIY Pedal Building

[Luke51411]

Fuzzdog is in the UK. Seems like they are spoken well of if I remember correctly... Not sure though as I'm in the US and haven't tried them. Might be something to look into for you though.

[lincolnic]

I don't know about shipping the UK, but Build Your Own Clone (BYOC) is pretty much the gold standard for kits here in the US. I think a great deal of builders started with BYOC kits. I certainly did!

[pogart]

I built reverb kit from modkitsdiy.com as a first build. Amazed it worked first shot, but I psent two days doing it sloooowly. Paul from DIYGP (his link is at the top of the page here) has some great kits as well. His 7 minute fuzz pedal is a great one. The crew in here is super supportive and helpful. Their advice on the audio probe and solder iron and everything is golden. Have fun man!

[Stomptown]

Welcome the forum!  In addition to all the great advice, I would definitely recommend watching a few videos on soldering technique for through hole components on PCBs. One of the most common issues for beginners is overheating pads which is the result of bad technique and/or running a soldering iron at an excessive temperature.  My first build was a BYOC Overdrive 2 and it was way too ambitious.  I melted a bunch of pads and components and wished I started with an easier project.  It still kind of worked so I was pretty stoked!     In addition to watching videos on technique I would recommend practicing that technique before you attempt to solder to the PCB.  Those kits are not cheap and you only have one shot! 

Send me a PM with your address and I'd be more than happy to send you a PCB with a few components for practice.

Jon

[culturejam]

Welcome, Dan!

I would recommend a full kit to get started. BYOC makes the best kits, and while they don't ship internationally (last I checked), they do have affiliates that will. Once such company is Axe and You Shall Receive, based in Canada:
https://www.axeandyoushallreceive.com/brands/byoc-kits

Great company, so order with confidence.

[selfdestroyer]

Send me a PM with your address and I'd be more than happy to send you a PCB with a few components for practice.
Jon

Jon, your awesome!

Perfect example of the awesomeness of this forum.

Cody

[catfud]

I'm in the UK - my first build was from a tube screamer kit bought from shop.pedalparts.co.uk - i'd definitely recommend them.

[catfud]

Back then it was called poodle pedal parts or something, now it's called fuzzdog. Same link though, they just rebranded themselves.

[juansolo]

To save me typing, this was my response to the same question: http://www.thefretboard.co.uk/discussion/comment/532456

Lee from Fuzzdog is a good lad. His PCBs are really good.

[raulduke]

Build Your Own Clone also have a UK distributor:

http://www.vibe-o-tronic.co.uk/products.php?brand=1&type=1

I've bought all the BYOC kits I've built from them and they always ship promptly etc.

I'd recommend starting with something like the 250+ kit.

[KidBrother_Dan]

@juansolo thanks for sharing, there's some really interesting info there


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[samhay]

The kits from das Musikding (in Germany) are also quite good, and they are also relative cheap. Shipping to the UK is cost effective and it usually takes about 1 week.

http://www.musikding.de/guitar-effect-kits

In any case, take a read through the build documents for anything that you are considering buying. If you can follow these, then you will probably be ok.

[Muadzin]

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

If you're going to order online do keep in mind that anything ordered from outside the EU can and will be subjected to a customs check. Which means you can be hit with a hefty surcharge in customs duties and taxes once you get above a certain amount. Especially from American webshops. Anything you buy in the Far East not so much, as unlike their American counterparts they will have no problems whatsoever listing a lower total amount that will help you keep it below the limit that you can legally import without customs/tax duties. Or they'll just label it as a gift. American web stores are very reluctant to do so. Plus American shipping costs are exorbitantly high as well. Certainly compared to that of their Far Eastern counterparts, who sometimes offer free shipping as well. Also keep in mind that when you import stuff from outside the EU, your customs office will cheerfully charge you with customs duties and taxes both over what you bought and shipping costs combined.

Build Your Own Clone also have a UK distributor:

http://www.vibe-o-tronic.co.uk/products.php?brand=1&type=1

I've bought all the BYOC kits I've built from them and they always ship promptly etc.

I'd recommend starting with something like the 250+ kit.

+1 on vibe-o-tronic. I bought most of my BYOC kits from them as well. For some odd reason they were on average €10 cheaper then the BYOC distributor in the Netherlands.

The kits from das Musikding (in Germany) are also quite good, and they are also relative cheap. Shipping to the UK is cost effective and it usually takes about 1 week.

http://www.musikding.de/guitar-effect-kits

In any case, take a read through the build documents for anything that you are considering buying. If you can follow these, then you will probably be ok.

+1 on Musikding kits as well. Another plus on Musikding is that they are one of the few sellers in Europe that sell 125B enclosures as well, which in my opinion are the best and most versatile enclosures you could have for most effects. Only Banzai sells them as well in Europe, but they don't do full kits. Two thing about Musikding kits that you have to keep in mind though is that their build documents are not as good as BYOC, which are pretty much tailored for beginners and basically idiot proof. The other thing is that when you buy a Musikding kit you have to buy the enclosure and knobs separately. With BYOC you pretty much get everything.

Another seller of good pedal kits is General Guitar Gadgets.

http://www.generalguitargadgets.com/

Like BYOC they're from America, but unlike BYOC they do ship to everywhere in the world directly. You might run the risk of getting hit with import duties, but so far I've had good luck not getting hit with them up till now. They also offer a lot of PCB's for projects/pedals beside their kits. Only strange quirk with GGG is that their website basically goes offline on saturdays, for religious reasons. Beware with GGG though, they are responsible for my current OCD that all jacks have to be topmounted.

One final word of advice, be sure to regularly check the Buy/Sell/Trade, Groupbuy and Member Projects & Tutorial subforums here, as a lot of interesting projects and PCB's get offered there by board members, often in limited runs only. You snooze, you lose.

[danwareing]

Hi, I'm also from the UK. My first couple of builds were kits from Bitsbox, they're a good price and only £1.75 shipping, no matter how big the order. The kits are linked with tagboard effects layouts which is really helpful, although this does mean they're on stripboard rather than specialist PCB's. If you'd prefer working on a PCB then I'd recommend fuzzdog. For parts in general, Bitsbox, ESR electronics and Rapid electronics are all good.