i'm new to pedals, any advice for me?

[bro]

im new to pedals and electronics , someday i want to build my own amp🤘.
i saw some youtube vids on the bazz fuss pedal and im going to try to make it as a first project☺


do you guys have any advice for a newbie just starting out? thnx in advance.👍

[idy]

Welcome. Check out the links at the top of the page.
Wiki
Debugging page
DIY FAQ
Etc.

And Bass Fuzz is a good first project.

[Fancy Lime]

Welcome! And also, BEWARE YE WHO ENTER HERE! It's highly addictive. You will not own your pedals, your pedals will own you.

Kidding aside, yes the Bazz Fuzz is a great starting point. The DOD 250 preamp is also easy, fun and educational. There are many schematics and instructions for that one on the interwebs.

Also: if you don't have a breadboard, get one! Breadboarding various circuits is a great way to learn because it makes debugging much easier than on a soldered circuit. And in the beginning, you'll prolly gon'be debuggin' lots.

Andy

[Ben N]

Hey, bro! I think your going to enjoy this...

My advice, FWIW:

1) Try to pick up a smattering of rudimentary theory. You may want to dive deep into it, or you may not, but you'll never know if you don't try, and you need a minimal understanding of how things like resistors, capacitors, inductors, transistors and opamps work, as well as recognizing certain basic and more or less standard circuit snippets for the things you make to be meaningful to you. Luckily, there are plenty of resources available to you online and in print, so you can be as lazy or ambitious about this as you like, and there's no need to do it all at once--just try to understand whatever you're building. But definitely do the minimum so that you feel you have some idea of what's going on in those little thingamabobs. Some of the discussions around here can also be very enlightening.

2) Learn how to read a schematic. Schematics are how you visualize and comprehend a circuit, and the basis for a group of people to discuss it, which is what this place is for. And layouts are NOT schematics.

3) Have and know how to use a digital multimeter (DMM). In order to build, troubleshoot & experiment with circuits you need to be able to measure things like voltage, current, transistor gain, etc., and these handy and not-necessarily-expensive gadgets can cover a lot of those bases.

4) Get yourself a breadboard so you can try stuff without soldering everything together. This isn't essential, but it does allow you to experiment a little, and that's part of the fun.

5) Definitely use the forum as a resource, but respectfully. There are a lot of smart, knowledgeable people here who are really generous with their help and advice, including troubleshooting. But treat them with respect by coming prepared. Don't ask people to do your detective work for you. Don't ask about a circuit by name without providing a schematic; if someone else can find the schematic, so can you. Don't ask for troubleshooting help without having done some basic investigation on your own, like checking soldering, checking voltages, signal tracing. And use the search function: a lot of inquiries have been asked before; reading them may not answer your question, but it will at least provide some useful background.

6) Don't forget to play your guitar/bass/whatever! Exploring the noises you can make with these gadgets can be addictive and distracting. But it's really about music.

[GibsonGM]

Hi, welcome bro!  Bazz Fuss, right on!   After that, there are many easy boosts you can make, and fuzzes, and...

What Ben and the others said.  And don't forget to grab this entry-level book and the little handbooks he also has written if you can afford to, they're an invaluable beginner resource:  https://www.forrestmims.com/

Youtube 'courses' on introductory electronics are essential too!   ("What is ohm's law?" and so on)

There are no stupid questions; and let your curiosity guide you.

[bluelagoon]

Hi Bro,
Not to say pedal building cannot be enjoyable and building amps cant be enjoyable too, But in the main it is really a distraction from what your heart was likely set upon to begin with, and that is the music, and playing the instrument to make that music. My 2 cents, from a guitar playing enthusiast who got sidetracked, is Run Forest Run.  Save all you can and purchase commercially available pedals , then use those pedals along with your guitar to hone your guitar playing skills, Since the bottom line of most every pedal builder is a  love interest in the instrument and a desire to play well. Pedals usually deny a lot of the main aim when you get interested in playing guitar, they tend to get you so sidetracked that you lose all sight of the original main game ambition.
However not all is lost, if one gets caught up in it all, there is still some joy and a lot of satisfaction found in the creative process.
Just try to keep things balanced and not to anxious to build them all and have them all. Best to make use of the few pedals you find yourself in possession of. After all a lot of the best music came from the years of the 60's and 70's , when pedals were few, and the musicians made the music with meagre access to as much, but still managed a lot of quality creative output.
God Bless, on your quest.

[GibsonGM]

Don't listen to him.   (@bluelagoon   )    It's all lies.  C'mon, man...there's NOTHING addictive about this...you KNOW you want that Bazz Fuss...

[Steben]

Welcome.

I agree with all advice given.
An electra distortion is great as well.
These circuits are not hard to tweak and bias and are standalone effects giving immediate result.
Next would be a booster which is easy but needs a circuit next in line to enjoy. The 250/ dist + is an opamp circuit which is such an important device. Eventually you will fall for a fuzz face build which will introduce biasing issues. Endless options. Enjoy the ride.

[Fancy Lime]

@bluelagoon
Depends on the person, doesn't it? I for one pretty much gave up making music after learning how to build effects because I just like it better for a hobby. No more band mates, no more audiences, no more drunk people telling me that the gig was awesome while clearly being in no position to tell either way, no more chummy fraternizing other bands. Pedal building on the other hand I can do in complete isolation and keep my outside communication to the minimum of forum threads with y'all glorious weirdos. Suits me fine. But yeah, that may not be how well adjusted humans normally function.

Also, about the music of the 60s and 70s: yes it was great (still is) and yes they didn't have fancy gear by modern standards. But they also kinda sucked in terms of playing technique compared to many modern players. Which also had to do with constraints put in place by recording gear, no time for endless takes, little possibility of editing... But also with "just playing" instead of practicing everything to death. To me that is a big part of the charisma of that era.

[Mark Hammer]

My best advice is to be patient.  There will undoubtedly be weeks when it feels like your soldering iron is cursed, because NOTHING seems to work when you fire it up.  And there will be weeks when you have the golden touch, and every little whim results in success.  So, patience will be your friend, while you wait through the cursed period.

[deadastronaut]

step one, make a 'true bypass' breadboard....essential.

breadboard/2 jacks/a 2.1mm dc socket/a 3pdt toggle switch, and led. and you will have a live pedal to tweak as you go..

get some npn transistors, 3904,5088, and some TL072 opamps..

selection of capacitors, and electrolytic capacitors, and selection of 1/4 watt resistors..

and have fun... youve chosen the best pedal forum ever...

[Phend]

Check this out,
Simular to Bazz, Electra, towards the bottom you will see in "red" to download the entire build guide pdf file.

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

And this will help, same stuff as others have advised

https://guitarpcb.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/A-Beginners-Guide-to-Components.pdf

[solarplexus]

Get a good soldering iron station.  Get some good soldering skills.  Get some good lighting.  Get some good coffee.

[Phend]

And I, anyway, use this chart all the time...

[eh la bas ma]

My humble advice as I am a beginner like you : don't wait too long before building a phaser. Two or three simple builds to warm up, and go. An MXR phase 90 clone would be my best suggestion, as a start. Full kit would make it easier.

You have three main paths to build an effect :

- Easiest way is using a real pcb. You just have to carefully populate the thing (check values before soldering), connect some wires as instructed, put it inside a box, and it's all done.

Best website I know for that is musikding.de, with thousands of full kits, very reliable and always good quality parts. Make sure you understand the instructions before buying.

https://www.musikding.de/guitar-effect-kits-amp-kits

You can't make a mistake sourcing parts with full kits, and you don't spend time looking for each and every components.


- The diy way : using a stripboard or veroboard (soldering pads are in line). You need to cut the board according to the project's size specifications, drill a few tiny holes to break continuity at some points, put some jumpers, populate and wire the board and it's all done.

You can find veroboard projects here :
http://tagboardeffects.blogspot.com/

- The fully diy way : using a perfboard (soldering pads are individual eyelets). You need to cut the board to the right size, populate the board and do the wiring, except that in this case the wiring includes the components themselves, using twisted wires and component's legs. This is the most rewarding way in my experience, because it really feels like you are building something from scratch, like an electronic artist.

You can find perfboard projects here :
http://effectslayouts.blogspot.com/

Final advices would be : Iron set around 400°C, and use sockets for ICs and transistors, always. You can take them off the board easily, and you won't risk overheating them if you need to reflow some pads around them. Moreover, you will be able to try various ICs and transistors on your builds.
A multimeter able to read Hz can be useful to calibrate modulation circuits. VC97A is a cheap model and reliable.

[andy-h-h]

Good luck, and enjoy the journey   

This is my list / advice  https://vero-p2p.blogspot.com/2021/04/getting-started.html   

You can get by with a few tools, but in reality it expands quite quickly into a lot of gear.  At least it did for me anyway.

[Kipper4]

  Advice.....
Buckle up and welcome to the Hotel California of forums.
Hope you enjoy your journey. Welcome and have fun.
Rich

[bluelagoon]

Darn Tootin Kipper4, It can be addictive, and quite often not in a good way. But also nice to see some positive end results from all of the creative process.

These days as compared to pre internet days is a breeze to assemble and put together decent effects that rival any of the main game big name pedal building companies, with all the pre-fabbed PCB''s available from likes of Aion etc. which come with decent build notes documentation instructions. And with all the online sources for parts accumulation, and all the online support from other enthusiasts such as here at DIYstomboxes. its so much easier, than when you had to literally scour the countryside in search of components, and etch your own PCB's, after purchasing an electronics mag from the local news agency which if you were lucky had maybe one decent circuit to get into.
Ah the good ol days.

[Transmogrifox]

My #1 advice is have tenacity.  It may not work the first time you build it.  Keep going until you hear the lovely fuzz sound coming off the output jack.

My first build was a fuzz, and it was exhilarating the first time I heard a creamy fuzz tone coming off something I built.  It's gotta be something like what Robert Street (one of the early inventors of the internal combustion engine) must have experienced when he watched a cam shaft rotate for the first time.

There are a broad range of directions you can go:
--Build from kits (easiest and least time consuming)
--Build on vero/stripboard according to pre-made layouts
--Make your own layouts from the schematic
--Invent your own FX
--You can get into doing your own PCB design and order boards

If you search the history of this forum you will find some very gifted artists who make beautiful enclosures (have even seen some really stellar wood-working projects here).  Others are more focused on innovating something that opens musical possibilities not previously explored widely.

All that to say there are resources and help to go as far as you want. You can focus on the mechanical/enclosure & decoration part, or you can focus more on customizing the electronics.  As you can see from the number of replies, there are a lot of regulars in this forum who get joy from helping others on the same path. 

As for whether to run away or give it a go -- I can say from personal experience the potential for development of musicianship has definitely suffered due to focus on building equipment.   I am a "bedroom rockstar" with bad timing & tempo and tend to over-use effects whenever I do get out to perform in public. If your goal is to use hand-built pedals to enhance your musical expression, then take heed and beware - touch this lightly so it doesn't take away valuable practice time needed to advance as a musician.

If you're already a good enough musician to enjoy doing it, and now your goal is to learn a new hobby and develop pedal-making skills, then this is a very rewarding hobby and a worthy skill in its own right.

..and that's where I am right now.  I'm good enough to enjoy getting out to play with others in a low-key environment but I would have to put quite a bit of work into my playing to get into a good band that plays regular gigs.  Mostly I just make weird noises in my man cave 

I'm satisfied with that.

[duck_arse]

do you guys have any advice for a newbie just starting out? thnx in advance.

start every build, at any level of difficulty, with utmost confidence that it will work first time you power it on. but only power on after/because you have run the same standard series of meter checks. every time.