Pedal project for kids?

[Willybomb]

Gudday all.  I'm a full time guitar teacher and was thinking of running a workshop for my students where they get to learn how to solder (for starters), populate a board, box it, and hopefully go home with a working pedal.

The kids are (young) teenagers, and I'd like to find an easy project with common components (and probably a small part count) that they could get a real result from.  I'm thinking a dirt or fuzz (I can't see a clean boost getting them particularly excited) might be within the realms of one day, but something like a chorus might be too much.

If anyone could point me in the right (or any direction) that would be great.

Thanks,
Willy.

[sgmezei]

I would recommend an Mxr distortion plus. They are low part count and are great sounding. Tons of tweaking can be done.

Check out the documentation for the DIST complete kit over at general guitar gadgets. I have built a few and it is a great starter for experimenting. The bonus with them is that you get all your components and a drilled enclosure. Means less work for you as a teacher.

For Madbeans stuff, which is phenomenal, you might want to check out the green bean or the LaVache. They are higher parts count and could lead to more questions with beginners.

Or a fuzz face!! Read up the tutorials on Small Bear's site. It has minimal components and can be made with cheap silicon transistors. They would be loud, which I am sure translates as "fun" to the kidlets.

[JakeFuzz]

An electra based distortion for sure. It is just a single transistor as a gain stage that run into clipping diodes. You can teach them about simple transistor biasing and the clipping and clamping functions of diodes. That was pretty much my intro electronics labs as a freshman in college. Helps to have an o-scope and a function generator handy so you can see the waveforms before and after processing.

Fuzz face would be good but if you want to go for total circuit understanding that emitter to base feedback loop is difficult to visualize. Super simple though and sounds great.

[GermanCdn]

Snarkdoodle or Lavache would both be good starters, low parts count, different clipping sounds when you add the toggle switches, fairly versatile starter pedals.

If you're looking for good prices on complete kits (besides the smallbear kits), check out musikding.de.  Klaus sells good kits for a ridiculously low price (between 20 - 25 Euro (28-35 USD)), and you get everything but the enclosures and knobs (boards, pots, resistors, caps, jacks, switches).  I am pretty sure he ships to the States, so depending on how many you need, they might be feasible.

[gtr2]

I'd advise against a fuzz face unless it's a NPN version, just due to the positive ground aspect.

Josh

[madbean]

Willy, I'd like to help you out with this. I think we could come up with a "special" project just for teaching kids stompbox building. The Uglyface comes to mind. Maybe an auto-wah.

[Willybomb]

Willy, I'd like to help you out with this. I think we could come up with a "special" project just for teaching kids stompbox building. The Uglyface comes to mind. Maybe an auto-wah.

Haha, that's why I'm here!

What's the uglyface?  I can't find it on your projects list.  I take it that it's a fuzzface type affair.

But first - thanks for the feedback guys, but you might just be getting ahead of yourselves a touch.  I don't know how many of you are teachers or have taught, but when starting out you can't make things simple enough.  We have to remember a few things when trying to come up with a candidate:

- The kids are young.  The oldest might be 16, the youngest 11.  Means nothing ultimately, but you have to factor in patience levels and the fact that they'll probably want to see the difference in effected and non-effected signals immediately - nothing subtle.
- They will probably have NO prior soldering experience.
- The kids will get the choice of ONE kit (ie, no choice).  I'm not having one kid making a JO boost, and one making an Aquaboy, and one making a Chunkchunk.
- I will have one day, maybe 2 max, to have 5-10 kids complete their pedals.  As it is, they won't be painting the enclosures.
- Outboard wiring is a PITA personally, so I'm thinking 2 knobs max which keeps cost down too.
- Biasing is not something I want to spend the day doing.
- Standard components please.  Non standard things such as positive ground need not apply.
- Socketed ICs are *probably* ok....
- I want the kids to have a pedal at the end of the day, and things like toggle switches for different clipping options, bass cut, mid humps and the like are outside the scope of what I'm trying to achieve.
- Pre sorted kits such as GGG, BYOC et al are an option, but it's probably cheaper for me to source the PCBs and parts. 

The autowah is an interesting idea.  Most of the kids will have dirt of some sort, but I'm not sure if an autowah will have the instant "yeah!" factor.

I'm not sure that I'm trying to teach them that much about electronics beyond soldering, component recognition and value interpretation.  Pretty much "Lets build a pedal!"

Willy.

[Mike @ Rawkworks]

My first project was the EasyDrive from Joe Davisson! One knob, transistor overdrive with a clipping section to experiment with. Low parts count and sounds pretty good.

The electra distortion was another good simple overdrive with lots of learning opportunities and simple mods available for switches and stuff.

BazzFuss is another good beginner. Homewrecker has lots of good mods and info about this circuit, including a deluxe version.

I think if you aim to have the project completed in about an hour...you might be able to finish it in a day with the kiddos

[timbo_93631]

I'd vote for a Snackshack or Sprout, Coloursound 1 knob fuzz variants.  A lot of fuzz for just a little bit of work and parts. 

[Willybomb]

Without looking at any schematics or partlists, I'm liking the idea of a one-knob fuzz.

[slimtriggers]

What about a Green Ringer?  Not as useful as a fuzz, maybe, but a cool effect that they probably won't already have.  No pots to wire, a fairly low parts count and definitely not subtle. 

[crashguitar]

I would recommend taking a look at the projects that Joe Gore has put together on his website: tonefiend.com. I think they are pretty accessable and he presents them in an instructional manner. There are also kits available through Mammoth for each project.

[Willybomb]

Any more ideas on this?  Probably going to go with a Sprout at this stage.

Willy.

[Scruffie]

You can make a Dirty Boost out of 2 Caps, a transistor, a pot and a resistor... you can make the Bazz Fuss with just an extra diode to that.

Don't get much simpler than that and the Bazz Fuss is a great effect.

My other idea if you want something simple but more complex would be to check any of Tim Escobedos schematics and see what takes your fancy - http://www.jiggawoo.eclipse.co.uk/guitarhq/Circuitsnippets/snippets.html (ask about it first though as some work better than others).

[Willybomb]

Necrothread revival.

Looks like it might be going ahead in the next 3 weeks or so, with the kids building sprouts that I got Haberdasher to etch for me.  Even got a couple of dads interested in building with the kids.  Should be good fun.