First Time Builder- What do I "Need"

[THRobinson]

Joined here years ago... then sadly stuff happened and I have yet to build my first pedal. 

I currently own no pedals at all. Just started getting back into playing after 25yrs. I have a nice Vox VT40X modelling amp, and last week I finished cleaning up an old Peavey Bandit 112 (Silverstripe) which is a nice big old amp with nice reverb, but could use a few pedals.

So... looking for some suggestions/schematics of 2-3 "essential" pedals. Probably distortion, a tube screamer, and Definitely basic pedals for a beginner like me, but again, useful because I have none. Thinking 2-3 so I can buy some parts all at once and save on shipping versus 3 separate orders.

I like 70/80's Rock, Metal... Boston, Ozzy, Guns'n'Roses, Deep Purple, Queen, Scorpions, etc...

Any suggestions?

[music_circuits]

Ide recommend a pre fabbed board, there are no shortages of suppliers these days, pick your projects and get the bill of materials and order all the values needed for them. Any projects requiring old BBD's ide recommend a reputable seller such as smallbear.

I sold quite a selection of boards not too long ago, I've just recently opened a new store for UK customers and building it back up slowly

https://www.ebay.co.uk/sch/music.c36/m.html?_trksid=p3692

Formally DFX now Music Circuits

Some places in the US where you can get boards are:

Madbeanpedals
Aion Electronics
PedalPCB

[antonis]

What do I "Need"

Peace of Mind..

[idy]

If we only built things we needed this would be a very dull place....
This is a relatively inexpensive way to indulge our desires and acquire things on a whim after a few hours of interesting labor... and educational trouble-shooting.

Pre made PCBs really make it like paint by numbers. Strip board allows you spontaneity.

Circuits like MXR distortion + (almost the same as DOD 250) are good because they are simple and let you change a few things to hear how that affects you. The big advantage of building yourself is the chance to tinker and tailor. Different size caps for different tonal emphasis. A chance to put a bunch of diodes on a rotary switch and find out which ones sound good to you. (Hint: main thing IMO is not "cork sniffing" for tiny distinctions but hearing how low forward voltage like germanium sounds vs higher fv like LED, and how assymetry sounds.) Also this circuit lets you (with sockets!) switch out different opamps and hear how that kind of clipping sounds. Best to try with no diodes for this experiment.

Breadboarding is the "best practice" for these things, but there are lots of other ways to try things out.
Sockets: always good for ICs, not so reliable for gigging pedals when it comes to other components.
Switches: I have coffee cans with rotary switches and various capacitors, and rotaries with "favorite" clipping diode combos.)

You may love lots of switches on your boxes, or find that really all you want is one or two possibilities on the finished thing. When a change is really big, maybe its better to build another pedal. Two different senses of utility and aesthetic; do you want a Swiss army knife or a really ergonomic steak knife and a separate screw driver?

One interesting thing is that more complicated pedals don't always sound "better" than simpler ones. Distortion +, Tube Screamer and Klon are three points on a scale of complexity. Different strokes. The simple one can really light you up, you may feel it is less processed, more natural... Its definitely a better place to start learning. It was good enough in its original state for great players to use. Back in the day we didn't ask what was inside, just plugged it in and smiled...or not.

Trouble shooting a Klon is ridiculous. Try searching some of the threads that start "My first pedal is a Klon clone. It doesn't work..." Round and round and round....

[eh la bas ma]

You can also buy full kits, that's how it started for me. I guess it's the easiest way to go.

You won't need to worry about paying several shipment's fee, about finding the correct parts, etc.

The only downsides i can see are that you won't learn as much as if you were designing your own circuit and all, and, as I said, all the choices about parts are made by someone else, so you don't have as much freedom...

If you are in Europe, musikding is a good reference, with a great variety of choice and interesting prices. There are also other online shops, like uk-electronics, who are very good too.

https://www.uk-electronic.de/onlineshop/index.php
https://www.musikding.de/

Always check the building docs to make sure you have all the details necessary. Sometime you can have some bad surprise...like no building docs at all. Pedalpcb gives almost no details compared to Aion or Lectric Fx, these two circuit designers always do a serious work on their build documents, allowing you to add some useful mods, and to understand a bit more about what you are building.

If you don't have any stompboxes, i guess you 'll have to discover at least one circuit from each family : 1 phaser, 1 chorus, 1 delay, 1 fuzz, 1 distortion, compressor, octaver, flanger, EQ, reverb...

A loop pedal is also a corner stone, at least for many players. I can't find a diy project about these because it would cost more to build it yourself than buying a mass produced unit (internal memory, i guess). Caution : loop pedal which allows you to record a tune and play over it (loop station), aren't the same as "effect loop" pedals,  allowing you to select and activate other stompboxes connected to it.

I would suggest to go at first with the good old classics in each family (even more if you like the 70's- 80's) : phase 90, a tubescreamer type of circuit, rat, tonebender...
Good modulations are always much more complex, requiring more parts and calibration. Not very hard but I wouldn't start with these on my own. Although Electric Druid's Flangelicious  for exemple isn't very complex and sounds amazing, there are some exceptions...

You will need steady hands, a reliable soldering iron with a fine tip, a cheap multimeter (with Hz readings if possible, to calibrate modulations, VC97A for exemple), pliers and a fan, so you won't breath the smokes while soldering.

[Banjan73]

I honestly think that my beano project is a nice beginners project. It would work almost as a tube screamer (removing bass frequencies), and it is an easy build. The only thing is that you need a decent germanium transistor, though. But that should be solveable..

[THRobinson]

Well, I do own 1 pre-fab board... almost forgot but last night found it while poking about my parts box. It's a nicely organized Plano 30-104 organizer, not some box with loose stuff inside.

One Knob Fuzz, it was called. Looked small and simple.

But, as far as @idy comment, well, plan is build what I need first because I have nothing, then start building the fancy stuff. Someone on here got me the clone schematics for Satchel's "Pu**y Melter" pedal which is on my list for sure... but then I looked at the diagram and moved it down the list a few steps. Well... only a few. Didn't look as bad as I thought it would be given that I never took an electronics course. For the most part, the diagrams are pretty easy to read and figure out.

[strungout]

Welcome back!

My first project was a fuzz. Worked. Sounded horrible. Used some old salvaged parts whose values were probably off... Those are usually simple to build, though it takes some time to get them sounding right.

Here's some relatively simple projects:

- Any Booster
- Distortion +, Rat, Tube Screamer
- Green Ringer Octaver
- Orange Squeezer Compressor
- Dr. Quack / Nurse Quaky Envelope Filter
- Phase 45 Phaser

There's a lot of info about these pedals, low parts count, and how to get them working and how to mod them. That should get you started nicely...

[Ripthorn]

After an OD or fuzz, something like the Shoot the Moon tremolo is a simple, non-dirt effect that is lots of fun. I don't really do simple projects much anymore, but I distinctly remember being there. Lots of time at RunOffGroove was spent .

[Phend]

 I really like this article. You will too. In the end you will have a working pedal and learn a lot along the way.
PS, Don't forget to download the pdf file to get the full instructions.  Look for it in the following link...

https://www.premierguitar.com/diy/pedal-projects/build-your-own-guitar-pedal

[deadastronaut]

whiskey, and lots of it....

for 80's metal i would go for a 386 based distortion.

nice and simple build but very useful...

delay...lots of them around.  rebote 2.5 is a classic. and simple but useful too..


i cant seem to get into the gallery for links, for some reason...

[antonis]

i cant seem to get into the gallery for links, for some reason...

Whiskey dearth, perhaps..??

[THRobinson]

I really like this article. You will too. In the end you will have a working pedal and learn a lot along the way.
PS, Don't forget to download the pdf file to get the full instructions.  Look for it in the following link...

https://www.premierguitar.com/diy/pedal-projects/build-your-own-guitar-pedal

"Anyone of average intelligence with functional hands and eyes can complete this project."

Dammit... 

[antonis]

"Anyone of average intelligence with functional hands and eyes can complete this project."
Dammit... 

Says nothing about ears..

[Phend]

I have AI but my hands don't function like they use to and I wear trifocals. What did you say about ears ?  Other things don't function and I never mentioned I ever completed that project. I jumped right to two transistors. 

[GibsonGM]

^  That looks like near where I live, Phend.  Saw one swim by the other day foraging.   Rangeley isn't far...

[Phend]

Sticking to the "What do I Need" theme, you need 10 guitars, and Littleton NH is a good place to go.
Northern lights up there. Check out the web, who would have thunk of all places.

[GibsonGM]

We get them here as well, they're a great excuse to go outside late at night when it's freezing cold and look at the sky

As for needed pedals....not really DIY for most, but don't forget AN EQ PEDAL of some sort!  You can use it to see what makes your builds sound better, and then mod the build, or just stand alone. I always have one post-fx.   One before and after your effect would be top-notch, to see what changing the EQ does to the input and output 'stuff', and maybe get clues as to you can do to make an effect sound better. 

Can take a bland tone and make it interesting...

[Phend]

Probably not suppose to advertise but check out the guitars in this Littleton NH store from Maine and others. Got an amp and a couple of guitars there.
https://northernlightsmusic.com/

[GibsonGM]

Wow, some BEAUTIFUL stuff there!  Surprised given the small size of the town, but 'send out' is probably their biggest method of purchase, I'd bet.
My town has a hardware and 1 general store, and that's it, lol.