pedal building education

[mhein68]

Hi all,
   what are good suggestions for lessons about components (trans, ic, caps, etc), circuits pertaining to pedal building? I am rather lacking in the technical side.. I need to learn which components to choose for a project and how they work together.. Any links, tips or suggestions would be great.

[Steben]

Greetings.
I think Brian Wampler might be a good start.

[GibsonGM]

Hi, some stuff here (particularly the 'analysis' articles): https://www.electrosmash.com/

Don't forget the links at the top of the main forum index page - AMZ, Geofex, Ampage!!

[mhein68]

Thanks for the ideas..

[FiveseveN]

I'd always recommend a systematic approach when you're starting out because it's hard to look for something when you don't know what you don't know.
Step one: Electronic Projects For Musicians
Step two: Small Signal Audio Design
(Both can be found floating around the tubes as PDFs)

[ElectricDruid]

Small Signal Audio Design is definitely a bible for audio designers, and there's a lot of useful stuff in it, but it's mostly aimed at higher-end applications than the sort of stuff we're doing or looking at. That is to say, Douglas Self would probably run screaming from the room if he took a look at the schematics of some pedals! There's no BBDs in his book, for example, and allpass filters get only a brief mention, and there's no mention of phase shifters. Distortion is talked about a lot, but generally as something we're trying to *remove*!

[Ripthorn]

I've been doing a video series aimed at helping pedal builders get familiar with schematics and common building blocks used in guitar pedals is meant to be mid-level, but I walk through common pedal circuits, explaining what's going on. Very experienced builders aren't likely to gain much from it, but that isn't my target audience. Here's the first in the series on transistor gain stages.

[Mark Hammer]

1) Let's differentiate between "pedal building" and circuit design.  The latter is primarily electronic, and the former involves a lot of pragmatics and spatial logic.

2) Anderton's EPFM is a great teaching device.  During the "golden era" of electronics magazines with frequent audio projects, a common aspect was to step through the circuit, and explain what did what.  That stuff is invaluable.  EPFM had that, but is not the only source of it.  Pretty much anything with Robert Penfold's or Paul Williams' name attached to it did the same thing.  Look through both E & MM ( http://www.muzines.co.uk/mags/emm ) and Polyphony ( http://www.muzines.co.uk/mags/pl ) for great examples.

[antonis]

Assuming an elementary knowledge of passive and active items/devices..
https://vdoc.pub/documents/electronics-for-guitarists-548pn714k9k0

A more in depth insight..
https://www.quillby.nl/vindigo/phocadownload/userupload/Electronic%20circuits.pdf

[matopotato]

I really enjoyed Jack Orman's books. Especially https://www.amazon.com/Guitar-Effects-Explained-Jack-Orman-ebook/dp/B074SWPK96. Also the other focusing on Distortion although they overlap quite a bit.
Wampler was good read although I quickly ended up in his mod designs of existing pedals. That is one way to get deeper into pedal building and understanding, but I preferred his more general descriptions.
He has made some YT videos about how to design a circuit that I found very useful and based my first "own" build pedal on. His foundation and then I added a rotary for diode variations.
My second "own" was built on the MXR Distortion + as described by Jack Orman on his site, with lots of tweaks.
http://www.muzique.com/lab/sat.htm
http://www.muzique.com/lab/sat2.htm
http://www.muzique.com/lab/warp.htm
Again with a rotary for diode selections.
It helped me to breadboard either of these and then trying out different suggestions and listening to what was affected and how.
For the second of these I also got great help in this forum (thanks again @Mark Hammer and @antonis and @ElectricDruid!)

My very first build was a kit (Rift Octave Fuzz) from Das Musikding, and a friend I could ask. So if you have some idea of what you would like to build, start from there.
Some recommend building a Fuzz Face or Treble Booster because they are relatively basic circuits, but I think it is equally important to have something that you want do make. (But perhaps not too complex for first case though...)

[Box_Stuffer]

I am just starting out as well. So far I have watched a lot of Youtube videos - especially DIY Guitar Pedals  https://www.youtube.com/@DiyguitarpedalsAu

Also, I got a very useful book from Amazon called Build Your Own Guitar Effects Pedals - A Beginners Guide by Sascha Suhr V1WNOOGC4&keywords=build+your+own+guitar+effects+pedals+book&qid=1685493150&sprefix=build+your+own+guitar+effects%2Caps%2C448&sr=8-1

Although the book is lacking in the troubleshooting area - it is very informative.

[GibsonGM]

May I also suggest that someone starting out learn how to properly use their DMM?  For measuring resistance, voltage, and current at minimum.  It is a little *boring* to take the time doing this basic thing, but it's VERY likely to pay off big time later!    Youtube has many videos you can find.   

I won't give a link - I could easily get tripped up in closing parentheses since it's early and I haven't had my coffee yet!

[ElectricDruid]

May I also suggest that someone starting out learn how to properly use their DMM?  For measuring resistance, voltage, and current at minimum.  It is a little *boring* to take the time doing this basic thing, but it's VERY likely to pay off big time later!

+1 agree, good point. Getting comfortable using the DMM, so that you can trust that you know what you're looking at, and that readings you're getting are reliable, is vital if you're going to debug anything. And debugging is an unavoidable part of building stuff that works.

[antonis]

I am just starting out as well. So far I have watched a lot of Youtube videos

Just bear in mind that there are, unfortunatelly a lot of, misleading videos, like the one below:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Ioqe8T_NMo
(either from bias resistor valuew or input HPF point of view..)

[Mark Hammer]

May I also suggest that someone starting out learn how to properly use their DMM?  For measuring resistance, voltage, and current at minimum.  It is a little *boring* to take the time doing this basic thing, but it's VERY likely to pay off big time later!    Youtube has many videos you can find.

And make yourself an audio probe.  This is just a regular guitar cable, but the phone plug is removed at one end.  An alligator clip is connected to the ground lead, and a capacitor with a nice stiff lead is connected to the other end.

What's it for?  You can plug some audio source into the pedal circuit board, connect the cable alligator clip to a suitable ground connection and then use the free end of the capacitor to probe different informative parts of the audio path to hear if there is signal passing.  The capacitor block any DC from reaching your amplifier.

It's not the be-all and end-all of troubleshooting, and is not a replacement for things like using your meter to measure voltages at critical locations, or continuity (both of which can be applied after a preliminary probe).  But it can be VERY helpful to know you have signal at this point, at that point as well, but it stops at THIS point in the circuit.

[FSFX]

I publish a document called 'Where to get everything' on a couple of the guitar pedal FB groups.
As well as links to useful component suppliers, it has loads of links to learning resources for pedal builders.
I have made the latest version available for download on my website.

The file is at www.fleetingspider.com/files/wtge23.pdf

[Phend]

What's it for?  You can plug some audio source into the pedal circuit board, connect the cable alligator clip to a suitable ground connection and then use the free end of the capacitor to probe different informative parts of the audio path to hear if there is signal passing.  The capacitor block any DC from reaching your amplifier.

What type(s) of sound might you hear. Of course if you hear no sound then there is a problem ?
Let's say the source is a picked guitar string and the circuit is a simple 2 trany fuzz.

[GibsonGM]

* Depending on where you probe!  If you know or can ask how should the signal flow (which you will figure out in time after seeing these building blocks over and over), you can use the probe the right way.  There are points such as power and ground where you won't have a signal, which may throw a newbie for a loop.

[FSFX]

Here is the typical types of places you would most likely probe to follow the signal through the circuit with an audio probe.

[mhein68]

I really enjoyed Jack Orman's books. Especially https://www.amazon.com/Guitar-Effects-Explained-Jack-Orman-ebook/dp/B074SWPK96.

I cannt find this book except in Kindle form... Hate to ask but is there a place to find a pdf copy? Of cousre pay for?