prior builds

[cox]

i've been kind of excited with the idea of making my own effects, and after i build successfully the beginner's project i've started to think in my next builds.
so, i'm now into a eletra distortion, planning doing a little gem and then try to continue the good work!!
what i want, it's your advice on what should be building next. keep in mind, i'm a beginner, so i want simple projects... help me choose!!

thanks in advance

by the way: i'm into vintage sounds, and dig the playing of frusciante e matt bellamy (the last is freakin' awesome!! major influence)

[cox]

hey!!
no one?
come on!..

[demonstar]

I found the mosfet boost was a really nice project. (that's the only effect I use on any regular basis. Even the commercial ones mostly remain packed away in the corner.) Really brings that classic rock tone out of my marshall all valve amp when using thinner pickups. In my opinion it has more use with stacked humbuckers and singlecoils than with straight humbuckers.

Anyway when I was in your situation I wanted something a bit more challenging but nothing too extreme. I decided to buid a phase 90 which was great fun too build and worked straight off but. Despite sounding really good (although not a dramatic effect at all. It's more of a chorus type shimmer) it sits away under my amp and doesn't get used much. Nails pink floyd phaser sounds.

I Haven't made the little gem but did make a noisey cricket head. I built that more as a project that required some wood word etc., not just electrnoics. I ocassionally use that if the right time comes up. If I had made it cabinet it would have been a lot more useful. My noisey cricket sounds good clean and can coax a crunch out of it. The gain control doesn't do a lot. Most gain comes from the master volume. the tone control isn't great either. Going back I wish i'd breadboarded it first to then I could have tweaked it. Well it was one of my first projects so I couldn't expect it to be great. (Through my marshall cab it produces a lot more volume than one might think for 0.5W or whatever it's rated at.

Well I hope some of my ramblings above have given you some ideas about what I did in your situation when looking for builds. Don't be put off when I say a pedal is great but I don't use it. Thats just the nature of the music I'm into. I got pedals but 99% if not more of the time I just love the raw sound of the guitar. 

[grolschie]

Something from runoffgroove.com? Plenty of sound samples. If you find something you like, you could use the search engine here to find some other layouts and tips. 

[cpnyc23]

+1 for runoffgroove projects.  They have an amazing list of amp emulations in pedal form and everything on the site is very well laid out.  The projects have a brief history and explanation which I find pretty valuable.  And, assuming that you are not etching PCB's at this point, their projects are almost all on perfboard.  You can print out the schematic and layout and get to work.

they are also very useful for learning how a schematic is translated to perfboard.

Also, if you want to work from a PCB but don't want to etch it yourself, check out Jack Orman's site (http://www.muzique.com).  Jack has boards for sale of the Mini-Booster, which is really a key circuit in the world of DIY pedals.  Great to know how it works and you can modify it extensively (tons of info on how to do so on this site).

Plus, Jack is great guy who has contributed a staggering amount to this community.  Anything that helps support his efforts is well worth it.

-chris

[grolschie]

olcircuits.com is another great place to start. They sell kits of some of the RunOffGroove (ROG) pedals and others. Nice kits.