What's Your Main Motivation For Building Effects

[Mark Hammer]

Sometimes I think it's just to make sure I find a rationale for using up all the crap I bought in electronic outlets before I die.  A bit like planning your menu around that piece of cheese in the fridge that you got at a great price but it has maybe 3 more days before it goes bad and you hate to waste a bargain like that. :lol:

Geez, I sure hope chicks DON'T love it.  My wife'd kill me.

[Paul Marossy]

Sometimes I think it's just to make sure I find a rationale for using up all the crap I bought in electronic outlets before I die.

LOL. I can relate. This guy that owned the coffee shop around the corner from my previous employer used to be an electronics instructor. He found out that I had an interest in electronics and he gave me a whole bunch of stuff out of his garage about two years ago - resistors, capacitors, enclosures, wire, pots, variable capacitors, tubes, all manner of IC chips, breadboards and other misc. stuff. I have been trying real hard to use all this stuff up over the last couple of years! I have almost reached my goal.   :shock: :oops:

For the chicks!

Well, my wife and little girl like the stuff I build, so I guess that's cool, huh?!  

[RDV]

Yep. Nothin' impresses the goils like tellin' em' yer an electronics geek!
Stand back ladies! There's enough fatboy fer all o' ya's!!

Right

RDV

[Paul Marossy]

Well RDV, you never know, you might just might a dynamite girl that loves all of you just the way you are.  And maybe your DIY pedals will be the spark that started the flame... :wink:

[gez]

girls look at my room and are like "what do you do" and im like uh...i build guitar effects...and they're like "whats that?  Do me"

actually, all that, except the do me part

All video evidence I've ever seen suggests that the best way to 'see some action' is to become either a plumber or a pool cleaner...

[Paul Marossy]

All video evidence I've ever seen suggests that the best way to 'see some action' is to become either a plumber or a pool cleaner...

Plumbers?! I dunno about that. How many girls get excited about guys with b.o., a big belly and some butt crack?!  :lol:
OK, not all plumbers fit that description, but a lot of the service guys do!Now pool guys, I could see. They're usually young, tan, etc...

[squidsquad]

Get chIcks?

Simple...play in a popular band.  Ahh...the stories from the 80's...I'll spare you!  Now,  girlfriend says "Come to bed"....I say..."When I finish this stompbox".  But at 3 am...she's sleeping & I'm tired.  At least the other guys in the band think my pedals are cool.  And I still *get some*...once or twice a year...whether I want it or not...HA!  But then...I'm old.... :roll:

[niftydog]

i do it because i want to get really messed up sounding effects, ones that cant be found in stores because no one else wants them.

That's what i'm talkin about. I also started building effects because i needed a good bass distortion and no one makes one. Now i have one

I'm with these guys. The wierder the better I say! Besides, until recently my local music stores had f-all of the good stuff. I got sick to death of just seeing boss and dod lined up next to each other in the display cabinet. Now at least they have EH, MXR and a few others. But they sure as hell don't stock the cool stuff, no sir! No microsynths here, just small stones and big muffs!

Hey, runmikeyrun, what did you build for a bass distortion?

My effects didn't help me get my girl, but together we can bring a talkative bunch of party goers down in about 5-10 seconds. The scenario:

"so, what do you do, Steve"
"I'm an electroincs engineer."

stunned silence...

"...and what do you do, Leisa?"
"I'm a solicitor."

incredibly stunned silence followed by uncomfortable floor gazing and subject changing!

[austin]

Learning, challenge, the prospect of moving to this full time.

[Satch12879]

My effects didn't help me get my girl, but together we can bring a talkative bunch of party goers down in about 5-10 seconds. The scenario:

"so, what do you do, Steve"
"I'm an electroincs engineer."

stunned silence...

"...and what do you do, Leisa?"
"I'm a solicitor."

incredibly stunned silence followed by uncomfortable floor gazing and subject changing!

I got you beat, at least when you tell people what you do they actually know what it is!

"Wow, you went to school there? What do you do?"
"I'm a structural engineer."
"Um...what is that...exactly?"

[captntasty]

Help me!  I can't stop!!!!   :shock:
It really started with Craig Anderton's EPFM...  the rest is history.

[WGTP]

Great Sound at 80db.

[Paul Marossy]

Help me! I can't stop!!!!

I know that feeling!  :shock:  :wink:

"I'm a structural engineer."
"Um...what is that...exactly?"

Yeah, I get that when I tell people that:

"I am a mechnical engineer."
So what do you do exactly?
"Well,  I mostly design HVAC systems for buildings"
What's HVAC?
"Heating, ventila... oh never mind..."

Some people actually find what I do for a living interesting, though.  :wink:

[petemoore]

Since wer'e talking about Microsynths so 'lovingly...are there sound clips of the beast in action or record I'd recognize of it around, or brief description, say block style ? Schematic maybe ?
 I say this because I like SS and BMP !!!

[WGTP]

These days, I just have a breadboard perched on top my practice amp with either a Chaos/BluesBreaker/MuffFuzz type circuit or a Vulcan/Jfet deal.  Constantly tweak as I play.  Don't even use a stompbox.  Guess I need to go to a different forum.   My Jam amp is an all tube PV Bravo.

[niftydog]

"I'm a structural engineer."
"Um...what is that...exactly?"

"Well, I mostly design HVAC systems for buildings"
What's HVAC?

must be some kind of engineer thing coz I know exactly what HVAC is and I dream about being a structural engineer waxing on about my building project on a discovery channel documentary with the word "mega" in the title!

geez we're geeks...

[Paul Marossy]

niftydog-

Geeks?! Maybe so. I happen to work for the "geek" (Brent Wright, PE, SE) that owns the consulting engineering firm (Wright Engineers) here in Las Vegas that designed the 1500 ft Stratosphere tower structural. He is a really cool guy, sharp as a exacto blade, down to earth, and certainly doesn't like like a geek.  He is like the Z. Vex of structural engineering!

[bruce bennett]

I got into it for the chicks at first...
 then, it was for the money... But then, that ran out...

Now I just do it so I can fill up all my extra storage space.  it helps keep the wife from buying more shoes.

[jimbob]

Speaking of Microsynths-damned wierd effect. I bought one nearly new non working for 20$ usd or less and resold for SOOO much more on EBAY! HEHE It just seems like such a non useable effect.

ANyways- Im not sure why I still keep doing this. I stop-buy/fix/re-sell commercial effects. Then after a month or 2 I start to build again with some of that cash- repeat. Also,  Im compulsive- I take 100mg's of ZOLOFT a day. Serious. im not emabrressed as some would be. Makes life much easier! But, I live off of repitition-doing the same( type )thing over and over for long periods and change-but I eventually come back to doing it again.

And chicks? Im a good looking guy and now married. I did allright back in the day. So no biggie there. But I didnt start this addictive hobby until i was married and bored at a dead end job (Sony).

ANd about the HVAC thing- I went to school during highschool to repair those fckning things! Very impressive if you design them- not repair them. Most of those in my class were idiots who inhaled freon r-12 listening to Megadeth. (Megadeth Rocks!)

[Paul Marossy]

ANd about the HVAC thing- I went to school during highschool to repair those fckning things! Very impressive if you design them- not repair them. Most of those in my class were idiots who inhaled freon r-12 listening to Megadeth.

I got it easy. I just draw it on "paper". The guys in the field actually have to install the stuff, which can be a royal pain. Of course, I design the system so that it will fit in the structure and stuff, but it can still be challenging for the guys in the field because of other trades, etc. My goal is to have it go in exactly per plan, which I accomplish most of the time.  

All of this helps me in designing single sided PCBs. I typically can't cross ducts in floor trusses, so everthing has to be laid out in such a fashion that "nothing" crosses. Sometimes it can't be done, so they have to go under the structure in a soffit or something. Not unlike a jumper on a PCB...