Best Way to Acquire Parts/Components When Starting Out

[bartimaeus]

You can build a lot of pedals using passive components from Tayda and using hardware and chips from Smallbear. Especially since both of them offer a fair number of pedal PCBs.

I really recommend Smallbear for pots, switches, jacks, and knobs. Those are the parts of a pedal that break first so better to get the good ones from Smallbear. Their knobs are also great. Lovemyswitches has good knobs too.

Tayda have definitely upped the quality on their passive components in the past year or so, and added a ton of new stuff including a bunch of smd. Their old resistor leads bugged me but the current ones aren't shabby at all, and the film caps seem solid. Tayda knobs are terrible, but if you don't care about aesthetics they are cheap.

Ebay is alright, but it can really throw you for a loop sometimes. At least with Tayda you can sort the good and bad stuff they sell based on user experiences posted here. But with ebay you're really rolling the dice.

[amptramp]

We have it pretty good where I am (just west of Toronto).  We have a strip mall with several electronics parts stores on Matheson Road:

Sayal carries a fair bit of stuff and although their prices are not that great, their selection is good and if I need something to complete my build, I can be there and back in half an hour.  I use their patterned prototyping boards a lot because it works better than vero but avoids the nuisance factor of etching your own.  Sayal expanded into space that was used by Future/Active but nobody misses those crooks.

AA Electronics is good for speakers, batteries and certain IC's that have gone extinct elsewhere.  They carry a lot of sound equipment for PA systems and musicians and switches and connectors of various types.

RTL Electronics is more for completed assemblies and test equipment.

Across the street (Dixie Road) is Arrow, a place for more completed assemblies and stuff.  Not that useful for DIY but if your computer mouse goes bad, they are competition for AA Electronics.

A bit northwest of these is Component Electronics which largely supplies the digital and telecom market, but I did find one switch that I couldn't find anywhere else.

But the prize of them all is A-1 Electronics in Toronto just north of Sherway mall.  This started as my candy store and has evolved to become my crack house.  Surplus stuff of every description and whereas Sayal carries Hammond enclosures and transformers at list price, A-1 has a discount.  There are racks of components, old tubes, instruments, motors and everything that would show up in my dreams and my wife's nightmares.

[bloxstompboxes]

Across the street (Dixie Road) is Arrow, a place for more completed assemblies and stuff.  Not that useful for DIY but if your computer mouse goes bad, they are competition for AA Electronics.

You don't mean this arrow do you? I would assume not based on your opinion of them.
https://www.arrow.com/
I tried registering so I could order some parts for a project and had trouble doing so. I tried contacting them about the issue with registration and couldn't even get someone to email me. Very unprofessional and questionable business in my opinion.

[Bunkey]

I started out by de-soldering old VCR circuitboard, fire alarm and a dodgy Marantz hifi designated for spares - had a few guitar pots and switches kicking about too - There's probably tonnes of electronics equipment cast aside in skips and things if you're feeling adventurous. Don't be too proud 
I imagine trimmed leads might be hard to work with though if you're using perfboard and such.



This is a great free option for playing around with ideas then you can commit functioning designs to better new components when ready - Like others have said: buy twice (or x10!) what you need, when the time comes, plus a variation of values you might want to try. Eventually you'll accumulate a lot.


Digikey is my go-to for passives as long as I'm buying more than £33 for the free shipping - I live in the UK but their service is amazing-quick. The packaging is top class too. They're not so great for stocking 24mm log pots though.

Neutriks NYS229 & NYS230 jacks are really good if you can find them - I prefer these to switchcraft outright and they're about a fifth of the price here.


Anyone in the UK:

I recommend soundtronics.co.uk for Neutrik jacks.

thonk.co.uk is good for 25-turn trimpots, vactrols and other diy-audio related stuff (they're a diy-synth shop).

hifi-collective.co.uk is good for all sorts of audio-specific pots.

RS-Components are also great for general passives but their stock isn't as vast as Digikey's. Great if you're ordering less than £33 of stuff though!


Try to support the little guys who share the passion - A lot of the manufacturing and component supply industry is dominated by huge corporations and unrealistic MOQ's that price individuals and start-ups out of contention - it's something to be aware of else the availability might eventually disappear - like commercially available log pots seem to be doing.

As a consumer you have a lot of power in where you choose to make purchases

[Electron Tornado]

I started out by de-soldering old VCR circuitboard, fire alarm and a dodgy Marantz hifi designated for spares - had a few guitar pots and switches kicking about too - There's probably tonnes of electronics equipment cast aside in skips and things if you're feeling adventurous. Don't be too proud 

I'll second this for an additional reason. If you are starting out, desoldering parts from old, broken electronics will give you some good practice with a soldering iron and the freedom to make mistakes without mangling something you're trying to build.

Also, get yourself a decent sized breadboard so you can experiment with things you want to build without having to solder.

[amptramp]

Across the street (Dixie Road) is Arrow, a place for more completed assemblies and stuff.  Not that useful for DIY but if your computer mouse goes bad, they are competition for AA Electronics.

You don't mean this arrow do you? I would assume not based on your opinion of them.
https://www.arrow.com/
I tried registering so I could order some parts for a project and had trouble doing so. I tried contacting them about the issue with registration and couldn't even get someone to email me. Very unprofessional and questionable business in my opinion.

Sorry, I got that wrong - I went by there today and it was Angel Electronics, not Arrow.  They don't really have much for DIY.

[davent]

Placed a Digikey order last night at 7:35.

Package left their facility in Grand Forks ND @ 8:50pm (local?)
1:06am - Memphis TN
6:22am - Mississauga ON Canada
9:32am - FedEx facility Burlington ON
9:39am  - on delivery truck
10:41am - at my door Hamilton ON, (western tip of Lake Ontario)

No separate shipping or handling fees, no brokerage fees, no special club fees, no ransom at the door to be paid... Mouser has a similar pricing, pay structure but deliveries take 10-14 days.

dave

[Bunkey]

Placed a Digikey order last night at 7:35.

10:41am - at my door Hamilton ON, (western tip of Lake Ontario)

I get Digikey parcels delivered here in the UK faster than our 1st class Royal Mail. It's awesome placing orders at 3am and seeing it reach East Midlands airport by 10am whilst everyone else sleeps