Where to Begin? Help needed+appreciated

[gabezylo]

Hey all, how's it going.
I just registered on this site as I was directed by a friend who said that I would be able to find help here.
Basically, I am extremely interested in making my own pedals and effects, yet I am literally not even on square one.
I have no previous experience with electronics, and I am looking for a way to get my feet wet and begin a learning process to eventually make my own pedal.
If anyone could direct me to a book, website, service, reference, etc. where I could get started, I would greatly appreciate it.
As well, if you could tell me how you got started making your own pedals that could also assist.
(if this is in the wrong section, I apologize).
Thank you,

Gabe

[gcme93]

Hi Gabe,

First of all welcome, you've been directed to the right forum I've found loads of great advice and tips here for basics and complex stuff alike.

The most useful thing for guitar pedals is some basic understanding of electronics which you shouldn't be embarrassed to look for in college textbooks and things titled "basics of electronics".

Get comfortable with how resistance works, then move on to diodes, capacitors and eventually silicon stuff like transistors and op amps. You should find loads of resources online, so try and get comfortable with the basics of what voltageand current actually mean as a starting point.

You'll find that the schematics and layouts all over pages like this are basically electronics recipes. If you follow them exactly, it should technically work, but most of the time it doesn't work first time and is a bit useless to try and fix it with no idea about electronics. Having said that, to whet your appetite, try a simple fuzz circuit with as little parts as possible as this will be the best chance to make a cool pedal without it going wrong there's lots of fuzz kits online that have all the parts you'll need (minus a soldering iron, solder, a few tools and some patience)

George

[rutabaga bob]

Welcome aboard!

[garcho]

Beavis Audio is great, make sure and read this

you really want a breadboard, even if you don't know it yet, so make sure and read this about schematics

Nicolas Collins has a great book, highly recommended. Worth every penny.

all about circuits, read that stuff for sure.

as you get more into pedals, check out AMZ, guitar oriented effects, fuzz central, run off groove, general guitar gadgets, small bear, for schematics, how-tos, etc. There's a lot of other sites, too, but you'll find them all the more you poke around this forum. Get a breadboard! Enjoy

[R O Tiree]

Probably one of the best places to go to get your feet wet is "Build Your Own Clone". Don't be tempted to go for a complex build first time out - they have a circuit for complete beginners called the Confidence Booster which, as its name suggests, is a simple little booster circuit to introduce some of the concepts.  You'll need to visit youTube or somewhere to get some tuition on soldering.

The BYOC kits are quite expensive, but you get everything you need in there (except tools, obviously), the boards are high quality and the instruction pdf files are pretty comprehensive.

Another good place to go is to get hold of a kid's electronic kit - again, you get everything you need and there'll be a booklet explaining how things work, how to recognise the various components, etc.

[chromesphere]

Sorry to 'self-promote' but my channel is very much new builder friendly and i feel it could be a good place to start.  To get you up to speed, i would direct you to the 'how to build a guitar pedal' playlist.  watch whichever steps you need to for a basic run down on building a guitar pedal.  I also have many other videos on a variety of topics (clone demos, build reports, a bit of theorical stuff, fault diagnosing, etc etc). 
Cheers and welcome to this awesome hobby
Paul

How to build a guitar pedal playlist:
http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL2A7CCC21EBD2AEB9

My Channel:
http://www.youtube.com/user/chromespherecom

[Oatmeal]

+1 on the beginners kit from BYOC. I read Electronics for Dummies a long time ago and that kind of got the ball rolling for me. My dad taught me how to solder years ago but Youtube could probably handle that in a few minutes. Good luck. Don't do what I did and start with an amp. It took forever just because I was uncertain of myself. I wish I had built a bunch of pedals first.

[gabezylo]

Thank you everyone!
All this is extremely helpful, I can't wait to get started.
How if I may ask did you all start?

[timd]

I never thought I would ever make my own pedals....or had the knowledge that "homebrew" pedals were so big. I stumbled upon the Atari Punk Console layout online got hooked with building, even that build was a complete disaster and it never did work. I have built more since though. Keep an open mind and be ready to fail. More builds only make you better. After the APC fail, I started circuit bending as I viewed that as easier than traditional builds. But that didn't get me guitar pedals, which is what I really wanted. Then I gave traditional builds another try and it worked. After I had that knowledge, I found I could actually make circuit bent stuff into guitar pedals and now just kind of screw around being a hack. There are great people on this forum that have more knowledge than I'll ever have with electronics and people are always willing to help. Have fun and welcome aboard!

[jymaze]

First easy but highly rewarding build : a SHO!!!

[J0K3RX]

First easy but highly rewarding build : a SHO!!!

Agreed!

How if I may ask did you all start?

Opened up one of my over priced stomp boxes and laughed... Then I said, I can do this!

[chromesphere]

Opened up one of my over priced stomp boxes and laughed... Then I said, I can do this!
[/quote]

^this. 

A friend of mine had a 'boost n buff' pedal.  he told me it cost him...150+...or something like that.  Anyway, looking at the circuit i was AMAZED it cost so much for what was inside.  A small pcb...approx 15 components...Theres obviously more to a build then the sum of its parts, but the aspiring pedal builder that i was, knew nothing of 'reliability' and 'build quality' back then.  So i googled for 'diy guitar pedals' as i had so many times in the past.

I found this forum and more specifically, the beginner project (npn booster).  It took me weeks to get that pedal going, like i've said many times in the past, your first build is probably your hardest.  And even when it was finished, it was a little NQR but it did work (and 6 years later, STILL WORKS!).  I remember when i finished it i thought i had struck gold.  So my original motiviation was purely $$$ related.  it was after about 5-10 pedals did i start to realise, you dont really get into this hobby to save money.  There are so many expenses.

My motivation now has shifted.  I've realised that the exciting part of pedal building is in the construction and the design / modification of circuits and all the challengers you face on the way. Theres always something to learn!  Even after 6 years of building on the point of obsession, i feel like i have MORE to learn now then when i began.

Its one of hte most rewarding hobbies i have taken up in my lifetime.  And its made possible in most part to this and other diy guitar pedal forum communities where people share information freely.

All the best in your adventures in guitar pedals

Paul

[MmmPedals]

My first build was a tweak-o from smallbear http://www.smallbearelec.com/servlet/Detail?no=4
I chose it because it came in a kit (ie easy to order) was cheap and has a full tutorial.
Looking back I dont know if purf board was a smart place to start as a PCB is easier.

[jimilee]

I was looking for a good compressor that wasn't 300.00 I had recently gotten into modifying guitars and notice byoc. Well a kit seemed easy enough, after that I started building bean pedals and etched boards. I've only built about 15 pedals so far, but one of my latest I built was an auto wah. Back in the day they were called twahs and I had wanted one since the early 80's and now I have one. It was monetarily motivated early on, but now it's the satisfaction of knowing I built it.

[EATyourGuitar]

Teach Yourself Electricity and Electronics

the nick collins book is good but it is more of a hacker-space avant-garde art project noise making kind of book than a guitar projects or general electronics knowledge kind of book. the craig anderton book is good for the 70's but there are so many things that have changed. for example, no one uses AC power supplies or two 9v batteries in guitar FX if they can avoid it. it is also not required to etch your own boards and build them into studio racks or other large pedals.

I started when I asked someone to build me a pedal and they just said "no but here is the schematic". I emailed the schematic to a builder who said "$300 pay up sucka" and I was like hmm maybe I can do this. I'm not sure if this is a good thing but 3 years later and I'm still here building pedals like a little elf. the time investment was huge so consider this fair warning.

[Jdansti]

Welcome to the forum and one of the most addictive hobbies!!'

I've been fortunate to have a father who is an electrical engineer, so I've been twiddling with electronics since I was a kid.  My first real guitar project was the Gaines Noise Gate a couple of years ago: http://hammer.ampage.org/files/GainesNoiseGate.PDF

I highly recommend this soldering video to everyone, beginner or pro:

[chromesphere]

Nice video John!  I wish i had of seen that years ago
Paul

[gcme93]

Yepp that video taught me a lot!

I started soldering at my secondary school (not sure what the US equivalent is), just easy little circuits. Then got a free keyboard off a friend and found out about lots of cool ways to "circuit bend" it properly: http://www.getlofi.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/01/sa-x.jpg

I then had a go with some other keyboards with about a 2/3 success rate of not breaking it.

Next I built a guitar from a kit, and learnt all about Telecaster wiring (the kit gave me no instructions!)

Finally I somehow got into quite a well known University in the UK and I'm doing an Engineering Course (electronics is about a fifth of it).

Being a guitarist the whole time, the DIY pedal thing was pretty inevitable, but I've only built one so far. Rick Holt's Little Angel Chorus as a 21st present to my cousin. So desperate to get home now and build the hundreds of ideas I've collected from this forum!

[deadastronaut]

'how did you start'

i was sick of digital pedalboards and the constant need for a noise gate on high gain stuff, and the lack of 'real' control, , so i bought a breadboard and a few chips/transistors and started messing about with it.....made a video..

and some guys on this forum invited me to join there discussion about my experiments, ...i never heard of diystomp before then....now i'm addicted, and have several projects in my head at any one time..

arghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh my head!!!!....


welcome to late nights, and endless tinkering....

[bluebunny]

^^^ what they said...

Welcome to the madhouse forum, Gabe!     Read Geofex.com - all of it (there's a handy link at the top of every page on this site).