Why did you start to build?

[nzCdog]

I owed a lot of money due to a serious gambling problem and a streak of bad luck. My attorney was kind of a wild man but we used to hang out quite a bit. We took a crazy drive through the California desert on our way to Las Vegas for a little story I was hired to write. When we got there we somehow landed at a giant law enforcement convention. My attorney was under the influence of various recreational pharmaceuticals (I, myself, did not partake) so we high-tailed it out of there and stayed in lock-down in our hotel for several days. My attorney went a little nuts and tried to stab me so I hid in the bathroom most of the time. That's when I first registered at DIYstompboxes. I had hours to kill until he came to his senses so I got hooked pretty quick on the pedal thing.

Some other stuff happened after that, but that's the gist.

 Fear and Loathing on the Stompbox Trail!

lol

I started electronics about a year ago now, conquering the 'wish I could do that' I got when I saw peoples DIY gear or our tech at work open up my camera and start soldering.  In typical nzCdog fashion I have become completely obsessed and manage to churn out a pedalboard's worth of projects so far, with many more projects half started... Thanks to the internet and cool communities like this, I learn something new everyday...  

[JakeFuzz]

I saw a video that employed that idea, but with an EHX POG and doing the dotted eighth note delay shtick. It was AMAZING

I have to try this now. In fact I see a little mod opportunity in the dbag schematic. An extra cap and an NC jack could work. I don't know if i'm going to be able to cram two extra jacks into the BB I have set aside for this... 

[slimtriggers]

I had Craig Anderton's Electronic Projects for Musicians back in college, and built a couple things, but the "bug" didn't really kick in until maybe 2 or 3 years ago.  I wasn't happy with the sound I was getting from digital modelers and I knew that the solution was a tube amp and analog stomps.  The problem with those things is the inflated economy TGP creates around them.  Most of what I wanted was out of my league financially.

I knew how to solder, so I went looking for DIY alternatives.  Ended up finding Tonepad, GGG, GeoFX, DIYStompboxes, Freestompboxes..etc. etc..  There was such an incredible wealth of info out there it was overwhelming.  It was like discovering the Library of Alexandria behind the shrubbery in your own back yard!

I've been mostly a lurker, trying to soak up as much knowledge as I can.  From that perspective, I have to say that the DIY guitar community is the friendliest, most helpful and generous group on the WWW.  Not only here at the Madbean forums, but universally.  It blows me away-especially when the rest of the 'net is so vile toward noobs   

Someone should look into what makes guitarists so willing to help each other out.  It's a trait the world could really use more of

[Jargo]

I had a regular Russian Big Muff that I was bored with, and went online in search of a way to make it sound better. I think I spent three days awake after stumbling upon GGG and BYOC. Even more amazing was the fact that for less than $4 spent at Radio Shack I was able to make the Big Muff sound a hell of a lot better...the rest is bliss!!  thanks y'all!

Dennis

[TNblueshawk]

Well, it will be hard to top Bean's story but here goes. To get the true essence for me I'd have to type a lot so I'll condense. Last December I "checked out" meaning I was through with politics, sports and negativity in general. I'll leave it at that as that would require another post altogether. So, I had this void. I had picked up and put down the guitar over and over and decided now is the time to really dig in. At the same time I jumped on some blogs of some dudes. Started reading about guitars and amps in general and being a big Gilmour fan I landed on Gilmourish.com. Love that damn blog...anyway, I decided to model my pedalboard after Gilmours, but a poor man's version of course as homey don't make that kind of coin, and I kept reading about a BYOC muff. Had no idea what that was. Well I found out and when I got on that site a light bulb simply went off in my head. I had never picked up a soldering iron. I literally couldn't have told you the difference between a resistor and cap. The rest is history. I've since started building a speaker cab, putting together a Tele from scratch, waiting for the BYOC amp kit to come out soon to begin that...and on and on....

By the way, there is not a day that has gone by that I miss politics and sports  I recommend that path to everyone for peace of mind.

[gtr2]

I was at a book store and found this book in '98, Guitar Player Presents Do-It-Yourself Projects for Guitarists by Craig Anderton

I built a few circuits out of it, poorly I might add...  Then I found a distortion project on the web using radio shack part #'s.  It sounded pretty bad.  I may have kept going but it was hard to find parts, even on the net, expensive too.  I remember looking for a footswitch and it was $30.

I abandoned the DIY route for the next 12 years.  Then I built a computer from parts off Newegg and thought about checking out effects again.

I found BYOC and built a 250+  I started looking into building other pedals and found FSB which led me to MB's and I haven't looked back.

I hate paying people for something I can learn to do myself, in all aspects of life.  Autos, Home DIY, etc.  So it was only a natural step.

Josh

[Jargo]

I also learned to play harmonica around the same time. I have now been stopped in two states for playing while driving, and as it were, there are no laws concerning the playing or a harmonica while driving in NY/CT so after a quick blues lick, I was let go on a bluesy way!

[plesur]

It was a Muff for me too that started it, an NYC Muff. A hissy, bassy piece of shit. After googling around for mods for a while, I stumbled upon Tonepad's muff layout. I sold the NYC Muff to a friend (who seemed to like it) and used the proceeds to buy the Tonepad PCB and the components. The finished product was so much better than the original and I've never looked back ...

[oldhousescott]

I started building amps as a hobby when the 18 watt craze hit. After about a dozen different builds, I realized, dang, amps are expensive. Building pedals is a whole lot cheaper and nearly as much fun.

[greyscales]

I've been into building things myself for most of my life (blame Legos). It first happened when I built a pedalboard out of a skateboard ramp I wasn't using. Then a couple of years went by and I googled how to build a guitar pedal or something like that. Build Your Own Clone came up, and while I didn't get anything then the idea was in my head for a while.

Cut to this summer, when I was working in Washington DC with nothing to do but surf the internet for 9 hours a day. I saw the guitarist in a band I was really into at the moment, Josh Hayward of the Horrors, built some of his own pedals. After a few weeks of researching pedal building, I finally bought a few things from Madbean and BYOC. So while I'm still really new to this, I am probably way further than most people my age. And this is definitely going to be a life-long hobby.

[Mike @ Rawkworks]

My wife made me quit WoW and I needed something to do at 2am since I couldnt turn my amp on. Saw something called a "Big Muff Clone" and it peaked my interest. Found beavisaudio and the rest is history. When I got my noisy cricket working I was hooked!

[nzCdog]

lol some cool stories in this thread

[glowsheep]

Back in 93 or 94 I found an article in a Guitar Player magazine that had a schematic for some sort of an otave fuzz. Not knowing a thing about electronics, I decided to try to make it. I went to Radioshack and bought all the components and tried to make it. I even had my dad try, he ended up taking it to work and having one of his electrical engineer buddies take a look at it. I never saw of it again.
Than the bug hit me again about 10 years later - I was working as a warehouse manager for an electronic component distributor - I had access to plenty of resistors, capacitors, LED's, diodes, IC's and transistors. Unfortunately I wasn't able to find much online to help me, so I lost interest.
Than the bug hit me about a year ago but this time I found a wealth of internet forums with more than helpful DIY'ers. I bought a breadboard, learned to read schematics and built plenty of simple fuzz boxes on it. I took the first plunge to actually build on perfboard and house a pedal 6 months ago. It worked so my second build I etched my own board with success.
I just finished my 4th build, an egodriver, and I'm ready to start my 5th build.
 

[TNblueshawk]

Back in 93 or 94 I found an article in a Guitar Player magazine that had a schematic for some sort of an otave fuzz. Not knowing a thing about electronics, I decided to try to make it. I went to Radioshack and bought all the components and tried to make it. I even had my dad try, he ended up taking it to work and having one of his electrical engineer buddies take a look at it. I never saw of it again.
Than the bug hit me again about 10 years later - I was working as a warehouse manager for an electronic component distributor - I had access to plenty of resistors, capacitors, LED's, diodes, IC's and transistors. Unfortunately I wasn't able to find much online to help me, so I lost interest.
Than the bug hit me about a year ago but this time I found a wealth of internet forums with more than helpful DIY'ers. I bought a breadboard, learned to read schematics and built plenty of simple fuzz boxes on it. I took the first plunge to actually build on perfboard and house a pedal 6 months ago. It worked so my second build I etched my own board with success.
I just finished my 4th build, an egodriver, and I'm ready to start
my 5th build.

Wow you blew by the slow learning curve that I'm on   

[r4ndy]

Similar to TNB I found BYOC through Gilmourish. I started with a few commercial pedal mods via ebay and Monte Allums then graduated to BYOC and finally buying PCB's from Bean and others.

I have been doing basic repairs and hacks on electronics for a long time, but building pedals is especially rewarding because each time I fire a new one up for the first time (kinda like something else...) it is extremely rewarding and inspires me to play more.