What are some quintessential DIY pedals?

[artifus]

only if it has a really cool name and a funky enclosure.

*edit*   

[Beo]

Looking back on 2+ years of building and a ton of research, pedals I think anyone new to the sport should try:

PT2399 delay
Big Muff Pi variant (I did a violet ram's head)
Tube Screamer variant (play with various diodes and opamps)
Orange Squeeze compressor

[petey twofinger]

+1 on the dod 250 . i like mine , i use it too . also , i believe i was an easy build ut it does use a chip . for a first build i would recomend something with a max of 2 transistors . one is even better , just in case things get hairy . so the beginer project here , amz mosfett boost , or a sho , or an lpb-1 . even if you dont box it up , you will use it later for something . my first box up was an amz mosfet boost , its in a 1590a and i didnt really sweat it . later on , dynacomp , fuzz face or any germ box . just my 2 cents , have fun and welcome to the loony bin .

[Kipper4]

SHO , Son Of Screamers a great place to try your hand at a tube screamer, treble booseter, fuzz face, DOD 250 i like the yjm308 version.
amz boosters and buffers theres just too many and i've only been building 5 months too.
welcome aboard the good ship HMS Chaos.

[woody alien]

Well, quintessential or not, but lately I've managed to build (at least few) working devices, like Ares tube drive Ver.1, headphone amp, Blue clipper, and Azabache.
Also got my dead Zoom 9002 revived. Fortunately it wasn't the charge pump, but just one cap, that needed to be replaced. I'm not too eager to desolder or replace any of those tiny SMD IC's anyways. 

As it can be seen, no top ten type stuff from me .

After all that, I've been experimenting with single 4046 pll(inspired by Schumann PLL), and some rude op-amp based comparator, to get it to track guitar notes. Still WIP(work in process).
That signal conditioning just beats me, so I ordered some dedicated LM393 comparator chips, to (possibly)make a decent zero cross detector.

Re-inventing the wheel, no matter what, as it goes.

[nocentelli]

I think anyone new to the sport should try:

PT2399 delay...

!

[Strategy]

Red Llama: insanely cheap to build compared to buying an original, and useable for everything - "swiss army knife" and easy first build if there ever was one.
Strategy

[artifus]

love the pedal but a cool name in a funky enclosure. how about tube sound fuzz? or application note slauXXX?

[glops]

Shin ei fy2. First circuit I built that I was totally blown away with...

That's if you like FUZZZZZ

[Jdansti]

I think just about everyone on the forum has had a stab at the Valvecaster or one if its variations.

[chromesphere]

I think a good one for a beginner to start out with is a Maestro FSH 1.  Really easy.  Not too many variables, and a non specific sort of effect.

Seriously though, to learn, LPB1 or Electra or bazz fuss.  To build something 'because it costs less' tubescreamer, fuzz face, sho, fuzz factory etc

Paul

[CodeMonk]

Jordan Bosstone

[duck_arse]

drive yourself crazy, build a harmonic percolator. simple circuit, weird circuit.

drive everyone else crazy and build an ea tremolo. others really like them, me not so much. plenty debugging fun.

many boxes I end up bulding are based on the fuzz face circuit. the squarewave, punch-in-the-face, plain old fuzz face. silliface!


[edit] don't forget a fuzzrite of some description.

[rousejeremy]

I think a good one for a beginner to start out with is a Maestro FSH 1.  Really easy.  Not too many variables, and a non specific sort of effect.

You beat me to it. There's also the Ludwig Phase II Synth.

[Jazznoise]

I think a good one for a beginner to start out with is a Maestro FSH 1.  Really easy.  Not too many variables, and a non specific sort of effect.

You beat me to it. There's also the Ludwig Phase II Synth.

[Jopn]

I think a good one for a beginner to start out with is a Maestro FSH 1.  Really easy.  Not too many variables, and a non specific sort of effect.

You beat me to it. There's also the Ludwig Phase II Synth.

Lol, yeah, I'm just going to hold off until someone crams two of those into a 1590b.

[digi2t]

I guess I might be a bit of an oddball on this one, but I've never been one to build something that "everyone" has built. No snobbery intended, I strictly took up the craft to build stuff that could give me a particular sound I was chasing. My first build was actually a Gristleizer, based on Taylor's board. Not exactly "quintessential", but it served my needs.

On the other hand, considering that many have build it, and for all the Tubescreamer versions out there, I've never built one, and have no incentive to. It's just not a circuit that blows my skirt up. Although many would consider it quintessential, it would contribute nothing to my set up.

In short; "quintessential" should be considered as what you might consider to be useful to your sound. Yeah, having a clone of a Ludwig Phase II is great, but will building it really contribute something to your sound, or just end up being a paper weight?

[kurtlives]

Valvecaster
Echobase
SHO
Range Master
LPB
Big Muff
Fuzz Face
Tube Screamer
DOD 250/Dist+
EA Tremolo
Temulos Lune
Tone Bender
Wah
Fuzz Factory
Bazz Fuss (or however you spell it)
Neovibe

I dunno, those are some that come to mind.

[rousejeremy]

I think a good one for a beginner to start out with is a Maestro FSH 1.  Really easy.  Not too many variables, and a non specific sort of effect.

You beat me to it. There's also the Ludwig Phase II Synth.

Lol, yeah, I'm just going to hold off until someone crams two of those into a 1590b.

I wouldn't be surprised if Solderman has 1590A layouts. 

[wavley]

please tell me we are not constructing some kind of top ten type list. please.

Nope, just thought it would be an interesting topic.  I'm more interested in people's actual opinions, rather than someone's opinion of what they thing someone else's opinion would be.

Actually, another interesting way to approach this topic would be the following:

Scenario: All your pedals are gone (Gasp!).  What would be YOUR first few builds?

Ludwig Phase II, Big Muff, Phase 45, Fuzz Face, Dyna Comp, R.G.'s Hum Free ABY, Distortion +, AMZ Mini Booster