Pedal building workshop - Brisbane, December

[mjg]

I'll be running a pedal building workshop at a conference in Brisbane (Australia) in December.  It will be a basic introduction to electronics, and then build a simple distortion or fuzz face on breadboard to take home with you.  Followed by info on where to buy components, enclosures, PCBs, etc, and where to find help from friendly people - i.e. this forum.   

Anyone in Brisbane area might want to check out the conference:  http://auc.edu.au/createworld/sessions/.  It is aimed at creative types.  They've also talked me into running a session on Arduino and music, so time to brush up on my MIDI commands. 

Has anyone here run pedal building workshops before?  I'm interested to see if you think I'm trying to cram too much into an hour and a half.  I've done programming sessions at conferences before, but this will be the first electronics / pedal building one I've tried. 

[Willybomb]

I did one a few years ago with some of my guitar students.  Make no mistake, it was a long process even with pre drilled enclosures, parts divided up into kits (those were sorted and drilled during the previous week) and etched boards ready to go.  Started at 10am, finished at 5pm.

http://www.madbeanpedals.com/forum/index.php?topic=10577.msg94366

[Stomptown]

I assisted Leevibe with a workshop a couple years back and it was also a long process. Irvin we spent 12 hrs over 2 days and they all left with a working boost pedal. To pull it off organization will be paramount. I think you need to decide what you really want them to walk away with and focus on that.  If you want them to walk away with a breadboard boost the I suggest dedicating the entire 1.5 hrs to that. You can throw in some basic knowledge during the process and have resources ready to hand out at the end. If they finish early you will obviously have plenty of stuff in the resource packet to fall back on. 

[chromesphere]

Hi Matt,
Although I have not run a workshop, I have taught many people how to build pedals through modern sources (youtube, pm'ing, facebook, email etc), if you need any assistance please let me know (send me a pm and we can chat).
Cheers
Paul

[mjg]

Thanks people...

I was planning on giving them a choice between single transistor pedal with 2 or 3 diodes to build on bread board, or an NPN fuzz face.  They seem to have small enough part counts.  I'm now thinking I'll just give them the one choice, with parts to make the other when they get home. 

Sounds like preparation will be key.  I'll get all the resources and hints available for them to take away, rather than trying to squeeze it all into the workshop time. 

I'm hoping that the conference organiser can give me an idea of the attendees skill level before hand, that will probably make a difference as to how I pitch it.  No point teaching them what a battery is if they have all already done some electronics. 

Thanks Paul - I'll send a PM.

[Willybomb]

I wouldn't get excited about teaching any theory or anything the components actually do beyond "This is a diode, it lets electricity pass in one direction".  If they've never breadboarded (I never have), you're probably going to spend 30 minutes teaching that.

[mjg]

Haha, yep.  It is basically going to be "This is a resistor.  It resists the flow of electricity.  This is an LED.  It lights up if you put it in the right way.".  I'll try to cover capacitors, diodes and transistors quickly, at a really high level.  Then throw them into building a pedal with minimal components, and give them plenty of time and help. 

I'm not going to go anywhere near teaching them how to wire up a 3PDT switch.  That's for the extended materials.