Best way to test a pedal

[Musok]

Hey guys. I've not come here for a long time. Here is the thing, I'm getting back to the diy and the stompboxes specifically and I was wondering what's the best way to test the pedal?
It's better to get the pedal on the table and hooking the pedal to the guitar then to the amp... well not really that confortable.
What do you think it's the best way to tryout pedals and experiment with different components?

A recording of a guitar? That doesn't seem right since the guitar is not really amplified before getting to the pedal.
Oscilloscope? Well that way I won't have an audio feedback, a guitar feedback.

Ideas?

[aron]

I would think a recording of some kind would be possible.

[Seljer]

A mess of a bread board and a copious amount of allligator clips, with the cable from the guitar and to the amp duct taped to the desk for stability

[Kesh]

My breadboard has input and output jacks, and a 9V supply and battery clip, permanently wired/attached to it. I even have the input jack engaging the -ve battery.

Sometimes a circuit will be half built on vero, with an unfinished part on the breadboard (for instance a tone stack) that I want to get right, with wires running between.

It gets messy.

[Musok]

aron: but... what kind of a recording? an mp3 player going through the guitar jack input will suffice? and the output? can i just connect it to some normal computer speakers or i have to do a pre-amp to do such?

Seijer: that doesn't seem an interesting setup

Kesh: I had an old electronic box around the house that no longer was being used. It had a scart output so... what did I do? Cut out the inside pcb and left the scart. took a scart cable, opened it (easy to do without messing with anything), found myself some free pins and soldered them, same on the pcb that has the scart "female", soldered some wires from the input, output, power supply... now i have some wires coming from the scart cable i just plug them to the breadboard. i guess I just wanted to do something! next step? getting the rest of the usual setup on the box, switch, led... still want to find a way of not using the guitar and even don't use my Marshall amp! A way to easily make pedals on my desk and tryout stuff.

[amptramp]

You have to separate the concepts of "development test" and "production test".  If you are developing a new pedal, you are looking to explore the behaviour of the circuit under all conditions you can expect including low battery or the gamut of input and output impedances and this would include power drain in all modes, frequency response at all settings and a lot of other functional characteristics.

There are also environmental tests like temperature range (fuzz faces have a very limited temp range), acoustic vibration (necessary for something sitting in front of a 100 watt speaker), vibration (sitting in the back of your van going over a bad road) and shock (your roadie just dropped it on the floor).  Functional + environmental testing makes up the development test.

If you are making a production run, all you need to do is enough testing to ensure that all devices work and all connections are made.  This is a much smaller subset of the development tests.  A limited environmental test would be a good production check on workmanship.

You can do any type of test.  You have to decide what it is you want to know.

[petey twofinger]

i have vertical shelve posts on the sides of my desk . i always thought it would be fun to install a string and a pick up , like a Diddly bow thing for testing pedals without hooking up an actual gutar .

for now i have a mini amp i got off craigslist for 10 bucks  , a diy power supply brick , permanently mounted female 1/4 inch jacks / cables and a quick and dirty test oscilator .

i use the osc/ when i a m trouble shooting , and initial testing , then i hook up the guitar . its nice and time savey , compared to the old method . that was " get every thing out " . my wife and kids both play so i have folks here to play as i swap componants if needed . the quick and dirty is a one of my favorite time saver tools though , i use it a lot .

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6X7VrcYwKM4

[electrosonic]

How about building the AMZ pickup simulator (http://www.muzique.com/lab/pickups.htm), get some recordings of clean guitar playing. Then loop the licks through the pickup simulator to the pedal.

I'm not sure if there is a substitute for using a pedal with a band. I like my sans amp GT2 for direct recording, but if I try it through my amp with my band, it doesn't really work for me.

Andrew.