in decline

[drog_trog]

Is it me or does anyone else feel that DIY pedal building is kinda dropping off. Don't get me wrong there are still quite a few of us hardcore guys at it all the time but I am seeing less builds and less chatter about builds across all the forums.
What are your thoughts?

[cooder]

Well I just had an almost three year break with very little building and stuff and being absent, just got back into it.
It feels similar to me, compared to what I remember. I don't know much about other forums, I'm just mainly active here.
Would be interested to hear other peeps opinions too.

[drog_trog]

Well I just had an almost three year break with very little building and stuff and being absent, just got back into it.
It feels similar to me, compared to what I remember. I don't know much about other forums, I'm just mainly active here.
Would be interested to hear other peeps opinions too.

Welcome back to the building. I think the ability to make vintage pedals, well known pedals and the obscure is just mind blowing really. Pedals I've just not had the cash to get years ago I have been able to make and to me it's a rewarding thing.

[jimilee]

I don't think there's a decline, just a shift. Guys like myself have built a ton of pedals and there isn't anything new or exciting in analog. The shift has moved to fv-1 stuff.  For a while it was smd.


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[matmosphere]

I think it's pretty active, maybe more so than before. I suspect it's a bigger community than we think. For each of us that's active here or some other forum there's probably several that are just building and not active online.

I think there is such a wealth of knowledge available these days that people don't have to dig hard for.

[flanagan0718]

I don't think there's a decline, just a shift. Guys like myself have built a ton of pedals and there isn't anything new or exciting in analog. The shift has moved to fv-1 stuff.  For a while it was smd.


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This is pretty much what i have noticed too. I expressed my distaste for the FV-1 many times. I fell like it makes the hobby seem cheap or easy. Don't get me wrong people do some amazing stuff with the FV-1 (for example drolo), I just think it lessens the experience when you can solder a chip onto a PCB and program it with what ever effect you want. but that may just be me.

[chromesphere]

Yeah I would actually say the opposite.  I also find that I sort of create my own atmosphere, in down times I think perhaps everything is slowing down in the diy world.  But its not, its just my own input to it. 

At the moment im pretty active, I have tonnes of new stuff coming up, everything gets busier, so to me, at the moment, it feels the opposite. 

What is actually happening in the diy community I don't know.  I don't detect a slower pace though, community wise, there still seems to be just as much interest as always.

[thesmokingman]

I'd say that there's a different vibe elsewhere ... go join a diy pedal or amp group on fb and its "look at me! look what I can do!" whereas I'd say its a little more subdued on forums.

[alanp]

It always goes through slow phases. Plus people's interests diverge after awhile (how many overdrives you need, anyway?)

[oip]

weird but as a newcomer (only been at it for a year or so) i feel like FV-1 has been massively unexplored and is quite dormant for how much potential is there.  compared to things like belton brick and PT2399.

[cooder]

I don't think there's a decline, just a shift. Guys like myself have built a ton of pedals and there isn't anything new or exciting in analog. The shift has moved to fv-1 stuff.  For a while it was smd.


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I have seen and built some FV-1 projects from pedal pcb, but where is the rest of that development there (since I missed that being out of the building...).

I think it's pretty active, maybe more so than before. I suspect it's a bigger community than we think. For each of us that's active here or some other forum there's probably several that are just building and not active online.

I think there is such a wealth of knowledge available these days that people don't have to dig hard for.

Yes it seems there's a bunch of guest on the forum site but fewer active members and fewer build reports and new design things happening?! At least my feeling...
Is it more a consumer attitude rather than participating and joining actively?

I'd say that there's a different vibe elsewhere ... go join a diy pedal or amp group on fb and its "look at me! look what I can do!" whereas I'd say its a little more subdued on forums.

Seems that is a bit of the effect of less committed realm like facebook versus shaping and taking an active part in a forum.

[stringsthings]

If it feels like pedal DIY is in decline, my guess is it's just a temporary slowdown.
There's no shortage of pedal demos on youtube or new pedal companies popping up.
As long as pedals are being sold, there'll be a healthy DIY scene.

For me personally, I've been building synth things and I've just started a kit guitar build.  Very excited about that.
I'll post some pics in the guitar building section when I've got some news.  There'll be a big gap though between
clear coating and assembly.  I don't want to buff out the clear lacquer until it's nice and dry.

[Willybomb]

I'm sorta feeling like there isn't really that much left I'm interested in doing.  Like some one said - how many ODs do you want (all of them is the answer), and once you've built the classic effects (CE-2, some sort of delay, whatever), I feel like there's not that much more for me personally.

Even the output at tagboard and the associated forums has slowed down.

I've got 3 FV-1 pcbs for my next multi, and a couple more dirts to build, and or box, but I feel like I'm coming to the end of the road.  At least building other peoples stuff.  Maybe it'll lead to me finally putting together the ultimate OD and becoming famous while everyone else clones the pcb or builds a vero of it, but I doubt it.

[pickdropper]

There have been a number of threads about this in the past couple of years.

I think DIY is still active, but a lot of the long term members (myself included) have simply built so much over the years that there's a nature ebb and flow to the building.  I build less for myself than I used to because the need isn't really there as much anymore.  I do still enjoy building for myself for the fun of it, though.

I also think that, in the past, some folks got into DIY in the first place in an attempt to save money vs. buying new pedals.  These days, there are so many inexpensive pedals coming out of China that it isn't really necessary to build them if you are on a budget.  I still think there's value in building, but the financial push that helps people get into it isn't there as much.  I suspect that the key to a healthy community in the future is finding a way to cultivate new builders that haven't reached that taper off point of building like a bunch of us old timers have.

[GermanCdn]

(from the guy who hasn't made a single pedal building comment in a couple of years)

I would also vote that it's a shift.  When I started in this, err, 7 (?) years ago, it was build everything.  Hell, I didn't even know if I liked BMPs (turns out not really a huge fan), but I'm pretty certain I built every single perfboard and fabboard variant thereof (didn't box them all, but that's strictly an economics decision).  If I had to guess, I'd say I've boxed somewhere between 100 - 150 pedals, of which when I was playing I probably used 20 in rotation.

I've been on a break for a couple of years now, moreso because of things outside of the music related world.  I still intend to get back into it, I still have at least 70 boards to complete.  It will probably get done in time, but there's no rush, it's a hobby.