Do you always breadboard???

[Bill Mountain]

Then, my Lab (OK - Shed) is only equipped with one of those generic little guitar amps. Unfortunately, mine has a magic mojo response that makes everything sound better than it will on a bigger and better amp

This is my number one problem.  Almost everything sounds decent at bedroom levels.  Only the truly amazing pedals (none that I've ever built) sound truly great at hundreds of watts.

I blame the fletcher-munson curve.

[edy_wheazel]

 I voted "no". I use the bread board only when I'm doing something new or modified.
When I use microcontrollers I always use it.

[Elijah-Baley]

I can't answer, I'm still waiting my breadboard just ordered. 

I wanted a breadboard because I don't want solder circuit berfore try it.
My newbie problem is: I'll be enough able to breadboard something correctly?
I'll breadboard my new easy smokey amp, but how might breadboard a big muff or a little angel? 

[karbomusic]

I'll be enough able to breadboard something correctly?

In my opinion it saves so much time and speeds up swapping things around and testing mistakes so much that you start making less mistakes because you learn so much more in a shorter amount of time. If something is soldered you have to decide how probable it is before you go through the mess of doing so, if on a breadboard you simply lift a wire and plug it in "over there" in about 2 seconds and if that doesn't fix it, you put it back in 2 seconds.

[EATyourGuitar]

I use pre-patterned boards since the effort to lay out a breadboard is about the same and I never really trust the connections on a breadboard.  This is similar to what I use:

Soldering is not really that much slower than breadboarding and you get actual capacitances and coupling rather than something that will come as a surprise when you actually build a final unit.  It is scarcely more effort to unsolder a component to try another one than to pull something out of a breadboard.  The best part - when the experiment is done, you add standoffs, put it in a box and you have a unit you can use - no need to build a second permanent unit.

exactly this. your components have oxidation on the leads. your breadboards often have intermittent connections that are a hassle to track down. why would you test something on a breadboard if there is a chance it will not work on a bread board but it will work in a pedal? the larger the circuit, the more exponential the chance of bread board issues. I use LTspice to sim and eagle to OSH park to build prototypes. I don't waste time drilling and etching. enough time wasted already making eagle layouts for prototypes that go to the bin. lately though I have not had to throw out any prototypes. I'm that good.

[karbomusic]

why would you test something on a breadboard if there is a chance it will not work on a bread board but it will work in a pedal?

To be accurate and fair... Why would you solder it when there is "a chance" it is soldered in the wrong spot or a cold joint?....

In my limited experience it is rare enough and easy enough to test for and mitigate (breadboard deficiencies) that the benefits far outweigh the risk depending. IOW I have surely soldered or bread boarded the wrong hole about a 1000 times more often than the breadboard or solder joint had a connection issue. That obviously changes based on the type of circuit but the vast majority I have built, the deficiencies of the BB have been far, far below the bar in the long run. If a person knows the circuit, they know the circuit, if they don't they don't, I find that much more of a time waster because when something goes wrong, they have no idea where to look regardless of method.

BB can be an annoyance at times with larger and more complex circuits but not a showstopper by any stretch of the imagination. I could just as easily be reflowing solder joints for the exact same reason; and I hate unsoldering and replacing parts, I'm very good at it but it is much too slow comparatively.

However what is most important is that it is YMMV so .... YMMV.  

[midwayfair]

Not even with it's something "new" -- I've actually done at least one pedal where I knew I'd be happy with all except for a couple components, so I socketted them on a perfboard build. However, I do breadboard very often. Just not "always." And there are many PCB projects I'll build almost stock so that I know exactly what it's supposed to sound like. If I need to tweak something in that case, I'll pull out the audio probe and look at the schematic and work out what needs to change.

I've also breadboarded stuff that I knew would work, just because. I breadboard a fuzz face before building it every time, and every time I'm glad I did.

I'll also breadboard a lot of the stuff that's posted around here without a layout from people like Gus, duck_arse, Ray Ring, samhay, etc. Especially Gus, because his stuff is almost always just simulations.

[EATyourGuitar]

I guess after you have built every old design and analyzed every old circuit building block you are left with just filters that need tweaking. much less of a mess to do the filters in software. the software will also tell you exactly what resistor to swap if you don't like the pedal you built. that way if you did skip the breadboard, you have only one or two more parts to try when you are coming up on the finish line. the only thing I think still needs a breadboard is germanium fuzz. but I have mostly grown out of these germanium things. I am now a firm believer in letting the old stuff die off into obscurity. you could build the best pedal and have no supply of parts tomorrow.

as for me installing parts in the wrong place with cold solder joint, I doubt that if the pcb has a nice pretty silk screen and I have been soldering for years with the right tools. this is probably more likely on a breadboard since you need to design the layouts yourself and nothing is labeled or written down. I can go back to the computer and track my mistakes via schematic or layout. I can also cut traces on the pcb if I need to change the layout. I was breadboarding everything when I started and now I breadboard vactrol drive circuits and curve tracers for diodes. this stuff can not be simulated due to manufacturer tolerances or a lack of available data.

[Bill Mountain]

I guess another thing I like about bread boarding everything is that I am still working from the same multi-pack of resistors and capacitors I bought many years ago because when I'm done with the bread board all my parts are reusable.

If I built all the pedals (even the known circuits) just to see if they would work for me, my supplies would have surely run out.

I can't imagine getting an idea for a circuit then having to wait a few days for parts because you ran out of 10k resistors.

[duck_arse]

IOW I have surely soldered or bread boarded the wrong hole about a 1000 times more often than the breadboard or solder joint had a connection issue..... YMMV.  

it gets me every single time I see it, even after being told what it means: what is "IOW", please?

these days, solder, wire, tinned pads look grey on grey, with glaring silver highlights, and all in the dark. I'm soldering by feel more and more, followed by magnifying glass and swearing. bb cuts the grey greatly, less swearing too.

some of my resistors have been used so many times on the bb I know them by sight.

[anotherjim]

Get's me too. I think IOW means "in other words" but could wrong. I always thought GSOH meant "Good state of health" but it could be "Good sense of humour" instead ...
...sorry for going OT.

My main breadboard is getting knackered. Not made better by my laziness in not always cropping off the ends of leads with the bit of carrier tape gum on it!

[deadastronaut]

some of my resistors have been used so many times on the bb I know them by sight.

+1..

i'm in the envious postion where i have 3 large TB BB's empty at the mo.... (+1 with a phaser on, still tinkering with that )

i'm sure they'll be full soon though... 

[StephenGiles]

Some pontification I perceive in some answers

Just as I am blessed with the ability to build direct from circuit to vero with no "layout" (not being from the tech /ipod generation ), I am also blessed with the abilty to build direct from circuit to breadboard - no learning back then, I just did it!

and surely IOW means Isle of Wight

[Bill Mountain]

and surely IOW means Isle of Wight

It is the heaviest of all acronyms!