Very new builder, need help designing a pedal!

[alex.e]

Hi everyone,

This is my first post, I'm very new to pedal building and I need some help figuring out how to go about designing and executing a pedal I want to make. That said, I already feel pretty comfortable with soldering etc.

What I lack is the fundamental knowledge of electronics that I would utilize to design and build a design of my own.

Basically, I want to build a pedal for my friend who recently had his board stolen from him. It would be a pretty simple two part pedal, the first section would be a distortion, maybe like a ProCo rat clone or something. The second part would be a delay, I'm thinking an analog delay based off a BBD chip.

I want the pedal to be in one enclosure, one power source, with separate switches and knobs for each effect. How easy is it to blend effects like this? Is it possible to use a generic pcb for this?

Now obviously, I don't just want you guys to design my pedal for me, but I would love links and resources that will lead me in the right direction.

Thanks!

[idy]

Welcome!
The fuzz or OD is a great first project. Analog BBD, not so much. Look at how complicated those are! Maybe you and your friend could be happy with a PT2399 chip delay, simpler by far. A lot of nice sounding pedals out there use them. Wampler faux tape is one... but you would start with a super simple one like

Some of the places to look for PCBs are

Madbean (didn't see their PT2399...)
Tonepad http://www.tonepad.com/project.asp?id=27
Guitar PCB https://guitarpcb.com/product-category/reverb/
Aion https://aionfx.com/project/vector-ambient-delay/

there are a bunch more, but some cater more esoteric, also depends where you live.
PCB is much easier than strip board or vero. Its like paint by numbers.

Kits are nice the first time around, easier than shopping for all those little parts. But more money.

The fuzz/OD side: so many to choose from. Something close to any dream drive is probably accessible. Is your pal a tube screamer guy or a fuzz face guy? Stay away from Germanium for your first time unless you really want an extra challenge and less reliability (hot stage/cold studio). Hendrix started using silicon after the first record and no guitar player has ever complained that he lost his sound when he strayed from germanium!

Fitting two into one box: get them to work separately first!!!!
And think about the biggest possible box, again unless you are a masochist who has tired of the challenge if your ship-in-a-bottle hobby. Even fitting two inside a 1590BB would require careful planning. Those monster 1590 xx would be easier to work with:https://www.taydaelectronics.com/hardware/enclosures/1590xx-style.html

[Jdansti]

Everything that IDY said. I'll just expand on the "two in one box" wiring. Find, build, and confirm operation of your two effects. When you go to place them in the box, wire them together the same as you would as if they were in two separate boxes. Run your power to both boards and connect the output of the first board to the input of the second board's bypass switch. You basically eliminate the need for an output jack on the first board, the patch cable between effects, and the input jack of the second pedal. Hope this makes sense. I've done five circuits in one box using the above wiring scheme and it worked great.

[Electron Tornado]

Welcome aboard!

If you are new to pedal building, I will also suggest going with a kit first. There are a couple of places that make good kits:

http://www.generalguitargadgets.com/

https://buildyourownclone.com/

You can find Rat kits and delay kits at both of those sites.

+1 for the advice already given on putting both in one box.

[GibsonGM]

Welcome!

You'll want the pdf you download from HERE for general switching applications:  http://www.tonepad.com/project.asp?id=35

And save this pic for if you want to do 2 in 1 box. There are a few different ways to do this, this is the basic one: 

[Vivek]

My interest in Electronics started as a teen, when a neighbor allowed me to borrow a book "National Semiconductor Audio Handbook"

It piqued my interest !!!

Last year, I found that book online

http://bitsavers.trailing-edge.com/components/national/_dataBooks/1976_National_Audio_Handbook.pdf
http://bitsavers.trailing-edge.com/components/national/_dataBooks/1980_National_Audio_Radio_Handbook.pdf
https://usermanual.wiki/Document/1976NationalAudioHandbook.2082164334/view


I would recommend that book wholeheartedly.

Another eBook at an advanced level is by our very own Teemu K : http://www.thatraymond.com/downloads/solidstate_guitar_amplifiers_teemu_kyttala_v1.0.pdf

[alex.e]

Thank's everyone so much for the responses! These really helped answer my questions and confirmed some of my intuitions about how this project might be executed.

My interest in Electronics started as a teen, when a neighbor allowed me to borrow a book "National Semiconductor Audio Handbook"

It piqued my interest !!!

Last year, I found that book online

http://bitsavers.trailing-edge.com/components/national/_dataBooks/1976_National_Audio_Handbook.pdf
http://bitsavers.trailing-edge.com/components/national/_dataBooks/1980_National_Audio_Radio_Handbook.pdf
https://usermanual.wiki/Document/1976NationalAudioHandbook.2082164334/view


I would recommend that book wholeheartedly.

Another eBook at an advanced level is by our very own Teemu K : http://www.thatraymond.com/downloads/solidstate_guitar_amplifiers_teemu_kyttala_v1.0.pdf

Thank you, I'll check out those links!

Everything that IDY said. I'll just expand on the "two in one box" wiring. Find, build, and confirm operation of your two effects. When you go to place them in the box, wire them together the same as you would as if they were in two separate boxes. Run your power to both boards and connect the output of the first board to the input of the second board's bypass switch. You basically eliminate the need for an output jack on the first board, the patch cable between effects, and the input jack of the second pedal. Hope this makes sense. I've done five circuits in one box using the above wiring scheme and it worked great.

I appreciate the advice! If I used this method would each board still need its own power source? Is there a way to power both effects with one 9v input? I'm also not quite sure what you mean when you say to wire the output of board one to the input of board 2's bypass switch. Do you men to wire it to where the input jack would be on the second effect?

Welcome!
The fuzz or OD is a great first project. Analog BBD, not so much. Look at how complicated those are! Maybe you and your friend could be happy with a PT2399 chip delay, simpler by far. A lot of nice sounding pedals out there use them. Wampler faux tape is one... but you would start with a super simple one like

Some of the places to look for PCBs are

Madbean (didn't see their PT2399...)
Tonepad http://www.tonepad.com/project.asp?id=27
Guitar PCB https://guitarpcb.com/product-category/reverb/
Aion https://aionfx.com/project/vector-ambient-delay/

there are a bunch more, but some cater more esoteric, also depends where you live.
PCB is much easier than strip board or vero. Its like paint by numbers.

Kits are nice the first time around, easier than shopping for all those little parts. But more money.

The fuzz/OD side: so many to choose from. Something close to any dream drive is probably accessible. Is your pal a tube screamer guy or a fuzz face guy? Stay away from Germanium for your first time unless you really want an extra challenge and less reliability (hot stage/cold studio). Hendrix started using silicon after the first record and no guitar player has ever complained that he lost his sound when he strayed from germanium!

Fitting two into one box: get them to work separately first!!!!
And think about the biggest possible box, again unless you are a masochist who has tired of the challenge if your ship-in-a-bottle hobby. Even fitting two inside a 1590BB would require careful planning. Those monster 1590 xx would be easier to work with:https://www.taydaelectronics.com/hardware/enclosures/1590xx-style.html

Thanks for the advice idy, I'll keep all of this in mind when I decide which route to go.

[Digital Larry]

My interest in Electronics started as a teen, when a neighbor allowed me to borrow a book "National Semiconductor Audio Handbook"

It piqued my interest !!!

Last year, I found that book online

http://bitsavers.trailing-edge.com/components/national/_dataBooks/1976_National_Audio_Handbook.pdf

OMG I had that one!  "Floobydust!"  LOL  I'm not sure I have it any more.

[GibsonGM]

I cut my teeth on ARRL's ham radio handbooks, from many different years/eras...and Navy personnel manuals. That is why my intimate knowledge of certain properties of semiconductors and whatnot is still lacking, ha ha       The old Forrest Mimms electronics books put out by Radio Shack were great, good overview of opamps and so on. I still use them for things like 555 circuits.

[Jdansti]

" I appreciate the advice! If I used this method would each board still need its own power source? Is there a way to power both effects with one 9v input? I'm also not quite sure what you mean when you say to wire the output of board one to the input of board 2's bypass switch. Do you men to wire it to where the input jack would be on the second effect?"
———————————————————
You'll need to wire the 9V input to the places on BOTH boards where their 9V input is. Also ground both boards to the common ground on the input jack or battery lead.

Yes about the audio input/output. GibsonGM's drawing should work fine.

One way to think about putting two or more boards in one box is you're making one bigger circuit than the individual circuits. The same can be said about a pedal board with multiple effects on it. All the effects can share the same power supply and they're chained together based on the order in which you chose.

[PRR]

....my friend who recently had his board stolen...

Next time: Tracking Tag.

https://www.apple.com/airtag/

"AirTag can be put into Lost Mode. Then, when it's detected by a device in the network, you'll automatically get a notification."

There are massive issues with these devices, particularly for stalkers. And you may not like it sounding-off in the thief's swag-bag. And if thief throws it in my woods the BluTooth will never reach "the cloud". But it may be better than "gone forever".

[GibsonGM]

Each board will get its 9V power from the jack (and/or battery), easy-peasy.  Each board should have appropriate filtering on it, right where the power comes in...as simple as a 100R resistor followed by a 47u or 100u cap to ground.   If there is an LFO (trem, phaser...) on one of the boards, one might have to go a little more wild and up that cap, perhaps, but for distortions, boosts, etc - that should do I'd think...(I have used what's available, maybe 10u or 22u with no ill effects on non-LFO effects).

That 100R/100u cap prevents the OTHER board from interacting with the one that is active at that moment by decoupling it...it acts like a reservoir so that if the other board draws a spike of current, the cap will supply it momentarily rather than manifest as noise in the active effect...remember, they will both be 'on' when power is applied, you just select which is 'active' when you want.