is it cheaper to build your own?

[Marcos - Munky]

Besides the fact that i get so much pleasure from this hobby and from spending time with you all i sincerely feel diy brought me deeper into playing and having control over the instrument.
i fully realize now that i can`t depend on an effect to make my playing better neither does any effect have a deeper effect on my tone then i have myself.
Realizing that(and that took me a while :wink: )i feel more in control and more comfortable then ever since i can devide my contrentrantion over what i can do to make my playing better and what makes my sound nicer.
That is something money can`t buy and i`m sure wouldn`t have come to my mind chasing pedals in stores.
Thank you all very much for that,Ed

Hey Ed, great and beautiful words. I feel the same thing about my playing style. This hobby brought me deeper into a sound style that I like, and now I know how to get sounds really better than the sounds that I got when I started to build effects.

[petemoore]

In a perfect world, you could go to Walgreens and try every effect device [even the ones yet to be invented] through any known type of amp, with your selection of guitars for source.
 Since we don't live anywhere near Perfect, we go to DIY Stompboxes...here you'll find everything you need !!!

[petemoore]

I tried the music stores for decades...Boss, DOD, Dan Electro's etc etc etc etc Ibanez etc
 I never came anywhere near to hearing about a Tonebender....
 Doubt I'd ever have found a thousand FF tones/types/tunings...
 Would never have been able to give many effects enough of a tryout in the store...I tended to go for the effects that imparted a big change in tone, even though I don't remember ever seeing a booster pedal...I use boosters all no ALL the time, even had I seen one it likely would have been passed over for a heavier effect...the closest thing I've even seen used that could be called boost is a GE-7, and that thing was wayy noise compared to the boosters I use these days.
 They always plug me on 'some 'thing, and the telephone sets the master volume type affair or whatever [who ever really knows?] on the unfamiliar effect the amp is having...you can't try pedals out under these circumstances...or 'modern amps' [the ones sold as "the amp you dont need any pedals with"] with built in clean boost channel, and Distortion channel, SS stuff, for certain effects like phaze and chorus I find any old amp [that has decent frequency range] will give you some idea of what phaze pedal A does compared to phaze pedal B. We tried a buncha boosterz and Fuzzes through 'dudes' transistor amp...IMO this model is already quite' boosted'  on the clean channel [the outboard boosters had imparted less 'improvement' than with my tube amps] and also very heavily Distorted on the Distortion channel [outboard Fuzzes had a hard time 'beating' the inboard fuzz through the clean or distortion channels]...by the time you have to switch the SS amp and pedal to get from a usable "tone A" to "tone B"..

[smoguzbenjamin]

I use my bike...

Me too! :mrgreen: Bikes rock!

[Gringo]

I walk... :roll:

[Mark Hammer]

Though this is my second posting to this thread, I have not voted.  Why?  Because "cheaper" depends on what it is you're trying to build.  Why?  because the cost of pedals depends on a lot of different things..

Consider a basic volume pedal.  One pot, two jacks, not even a switch.  About maybe $3 to make from an electronic perspective (maybe even in Brazil, too).  So why don't people make them?  One basic reason - the package.  And there are few ways of getting around it.  You can't use a sardine or Altoids tin.

Okay, now consider a venerable Fuzz Face or Tonebender.  Even if you have to order the transistor set, you're still talking under $25 for parts, right (including switch)?  What do they go for these days on the "vintage" market?  Easily 6-10 times as much.

Okay, now consider a flanger.  Let's take the Toyota Corolla of flangers, the Boss BF-2.  Parts will likely set you back at least $25+, including a stomp switch and jacks.  Of course, you still need a suitable chassis.  Then there is the inevitable troubleshooting, and if you haven't made one before, there will be plenty of it.  So how much can BF-2's be had for 2nd hand?  Quite often they are in the $50 or less category, simply because they are so numerous and increasingly replaced with Zoom, Digitech or other multi-fx units (partly paid for out of the proceeds of selling off pedals).

Okay, now let's take a Foxx Tone Machine.  Just about my favourite octave-up box (and one more reason why I have respect for Adrian Belew).  Buying one vintage will be pricey, as will be buying its nearest boutique relative - the Prescription Electronics Experience pedal.  The parts are available, though, and pretty cheap really.  But wait a sec.  The Danelectro French Toast essentially IS a Tone Machine, albeit in a cost effective and compact package.  The FT is dirt cheap, and Dano pedals are often priced like they were Rocktek, Arion, or Rogue.  It is certainly EASY enough to make one (which is why I made two), but is it cheaper to make your own Tone Machine?  probably not.  On the other hand, if you wanted a sturdier item for gigging, and repackaged a Dano circuit in another machined metal chassis, bought a 3PDT stompswitch and good jacks, plus replaced the glorified trimpots on the Dano board with "real" pots and knobs for adult hands, well, you'd probably have been better off building it yourself.

The long and the short of it is this....

Even after you factor in all of the mental and physical and operational "tooling up" costs that are frequently listed, some things are going to be cheaper to make yourself, simply because the retail cost of the finished item has been seriously inflated through hype, legend, rarity, or whatnot.  At the same time, some things are going to be somewhat cheaper if purchased new from a thoughtful retailer, or if purchased in semi-decent condition from a 2nd-hand place, or at the very least worht the paltry extra few dollars to free up the 20 hrs you would have otherwise spent making it.  Other things, are going to remain safer bets if purchased new or otherwise intact because there is no way a normal mortal could ever bring in the physical item, built from scratch for the same price.

Now this entire preceding discussion is predicated on the relative cost-effectiveness of making things as they exist in the domain of commercially available effects.  Once you start to move into the domain of things you can't really buy yet, or would have to have made special order then, boom!, DIY leaves everything else in the dust.  I've made pedals for about $30 that I know I *still* can't buy anywhere.  Of course, it goes without saying that it took years to acquire the chops to do it, and it also bears noting that when people are generous with their ideas and time, and make it available to others (e.g., Doug and "the Joes" - great band name, incidentally - Jack, Aron, Tim, and RG), entirely new things CAN be made ridiculously cheap by those just starting out.  It may have cost the innovators themselves a small fortune to arrive at the point where they can spend an evening with a breadboard and parts bin and conjure up magic, but that's not the question being addressed here.  If I was smog-Ben, or Munky, or any other kid starting out, would it be worth my time and money to make stuff?  You bet your ass it would.

Okay, time for chapter 3.

Sometimes, there are compromises.  Sometimes, the smart thing to do is to let someone in China do most of the work for you, and then finish the job yourself.  A bit like subcontracting, really.  If you can buy a working 4-stage phaser with case, switching, battery compartment, yadda-yadda-yadda, for $20, does it REALLY make sense to build a Univibe from scratch when you can simply replace a couple of caps and go straight to playing almost immediately, without having to make sure your FETs are matched, etc, etc.?  Nah.  Sometimes, it is cheaper to buy a sow's ear and make a silk purse than to try and grow the silk yourself.

So, again, sometimes it IS cheaper, and sometimes it isn't.  Sometimes, it's cheaper for SOME people, but more expensive for others.  Of course, if I was Jimbob in KC,  I don't know why I would even think of stooping to make anything.  :wink:

[petemoore]

yupp 3rd post on this thread, I forget if I even voted.
 It was a very convoluted, and obstruction laden path, tons of ups and downs, high peaks and low points too...I haven't had such great learning experiences since we had science boxes to open at the cream of the crop American Elementary school I attended in Germany !!! A very inspiring journey so far !!!
 I seriously doubt I would have been able to play with tones Like I did yesterday, and can today, had I not taken the DIY journey. It would have been hit or miss, each try costing around 50$ [average].
 Understanding the insides of these devices is what empowers the experimenting DIYer with the ability to find and highly tweak the tones he/she was going after...or not going after.
 Boutiqueing it would be cool, get cool looking stuff that sounds great...fiddling mostly with like input caps and such...probably would be a good approach for someone who has not strong abstract mental conjuring, or wants to save mental powers for other purposes...I think using the abstract thinking increases mental power myself...lol !!!
 So since we're all pretty much DIYers  here, it's hard to tell if were actullly smarter for it, or whether we just 'feel' smarter because of it. I'll never know the answer to tell for certain, because having taken the chosen path, I'll never know what the other path would show.
 I see no reason that a combination can't be used...I use three commercial efkt units...
 It's all in the path you've chosen...it is appealing partly because it's close and you understand it.
 I just want to say "NOWAY"...for me at least...the improvement I've heard since I started DIYing makes the road I was travelling on seem like a two laner that needs work compared to the Autobahn.