Suggested reading list for beginners?

[tclegg36]

Hi there, and thanks for having me in the forum. I apologize in advance if this has been discussed before or if Im posting in the wrong place. This is my very first time on the forums and after a bit of digging, I couldn't find exactly what I'm looking for.

So for background: Im a seasoned guitar player and am familiar with terminology, but know very little about how pedals are built or why they function the way they do. But at the end of the day Im definitely a tinkerer (and Im also cheap) so I really want to learn how to build DIY pedals.

Im wondering if anyone has any books they'd recommend on the very basics of electrical engineering as it relates to pedals. Id also be happy to read online content, but would much prefer something in the style of a 101 textbook.

Thanks in advance!

[grumpy_gnome]

Hey tclegg36,

I've spent years trying to find suitable reading material as a primer.  Most books I see are either ONLY about the fundamentals of EE and difficult to apply to guitar building, or discuss modding specific pedals.  Neither are very helpful for a beginner, but in different ways.  Information useful for beginners building pedals comes from a variety of smaller sources:  this forum, other forums, articles posted by enthusiasts, materials posted by product suppliers can often be great, etc.  You're going to be learning piecemeal but takes notes and make sense of things in the areas you're interested in. 

I taught myself by getting an idea of what I wanted, then reading everything I could find online about doing exactly that.  "DIY distortion pedal"?  Okay, start searching for posts/materials on that.  If you're willing to put in the time reading, you can develop a good understanding of how a circuit works, even if you have to frequently reference more academic sources to understand fundamentals (and honestly, if you're building or tweaking existing designs a deep understanding of the fundamentals is not necessary).  Most of what I know I learned from reading mods of various pedals and understanding their effects on the circuit.  An excellent way to start is to read circuit analyses of various pedals.  You can find a list of links from the Coda Effects tips page https://www.coda-effects.com/p/tips.html (scroll down for the links, but there's other excellent info there, too).  Start with overdrive/distortion as they're the most straightforward.  The Electrosmash TubeScreamer analysis https://www.electrosmash.com/tube-screamer-analysis is an excellent place to start:  Read it, take notes, follow up with google on what ever is in your current area of interest or simply don't understand.

-the Grumpy Gnome

[MaxPower]

I haven't seen any books dedicated to guitar pedals that will educate you enough to be able to design and build your own pedals. Electronic Principles and Transistor Circuit Approximations, both by Malvino are highly recommended.

Texas Instruments and Analog Devices have some PDFs worth reading on op amps, noise, etc

Online: geofex is a great site. Search for the "technology of" articles to get an idea of how/why certain pedals work (fuzz face, tubescreamer).

[grumpy_gnome]

Yeah, Geofex has a good selection. Here are a couple of other links too:  http://sound.whsites.net/articles.htm and http://www.muzique.com/lab/main.htm

[PRR]

Welcome.

Your path has two forks. Musical Gizmos; and enough electronics to understand.

Craig Anderton was THE guru in the beginning. You need to read the book. Some of it is behind the times, but then again so are many of our favorite records.
https://www.amazon.com/Electronic-Projects-Musicians-Craig-Anderton/dp/0825695023

For how-electronics-work: I specifically like THIS edition of Malvino:
https://www.amazon.com/Transistor-Circuit-Approximations-Albert-Malvino/dp/007039878X

Also The Art of Electronics by Horowitz and Hill. Old and new editions-- probably no great difference for a beginner working in "old tech" (most g-pedals). Paperback of the 2nd edition can be found like $35, which is a fantastic bargain for the meat.

[nation]

New to this also. Have built a number of pedals but I'm really just painting by numbers without understanding what is actually going on.

The old Beavis site had some good info. It's down now but I have a couple of docs that I saved that's worth reading:

Booster, How it works - https://drive.google.com/open?id=1m6_j9VaDz0tj1edXI0B8MYCSXtKks-w2

From Schematic to Reality - https://drive.google.com/open?id=1i3PO2fy1PAkccMxQzTb_w2FYwf_UfJPa

Also, here's a some Beavis info on components I had saved:

Capacitors - https://drive.google.com/open?id=1HfoH1_2SUx_yKVB1XBQjxYOmPclUq1qJ
Potentiometers - https://drive.google.com/open?id=1-iUAtute91pi9X_RF-BKiXRpzLYlJu6J
Switches - https://drive.google.com/open?id=1iSQXMEcdjJGw5fwHnqs53dccTXMkxIi4


Also try googling two pdfs written by Brian Wampler "How To build Your Own Effect Pedals - A Step By Step Guide" and "How To Modify Guitar Pedals...To Get Great Tone!". The latter can be found online and supposed to be a bit more advanced, the first I have been trying to search for and can't find online.

[nation]

Just came across this thread a few posts below yours which can help:

https://www.diystompboxes.com/smfforum/index.php?topic=121496.0

[bluebunny]

Here's one that I've recommended a few times.  It's not aimed at guitar pedals, but it's a great read (IMHO).  It's one of only two non-fiction books I can recall reading recently cover-to-cover.  This is quite an achievement for me because I'm easily distr ... oh look!  A squirrel!

    "Small Signal Audio Design", by Doug Self

You might be able to pick up a cheap(er) first edition if you don't want to splash out on the second edition.