Small Bear should carry...

[Dave_B]

..the Thomas Henry booklets on the CA3080 etc.

Paul, that's a great idea!

[The Tone God]

How about a starter kit ? Various resistors, caps, pots, transistors, jacks, ICs, etc. Often here there are posts from newbies asking whats parts they should buy to start out. A simple kit could fill the void.

Andrew

[Mark Hammer]

I've suggested this to Steve several times, and he agrees it's a wonderful thing to do.  It's just one of those things that is time-consuming to do, and difficult to both price and settle on.  I mean, just exactly how many 10k resistors or 1uf caps should such a kit have?

I suspect if someone wanted to do the legwork, and identify the entire contents of a kit-bag (how many resistors/caps of this value, how many op-amps, how many sockets, how many jacks, how much wire, how many switches, etc.) that would see a beginner through a variety of directions and projects, Steve might be grateful.  On the other hand, once such a starter kit becomes more comprehensive, it starts to turn into a $90 order, and how many people want that sort of a commitment as their first step?  Conversely, how much advantage is there in buying such a package, as opposed to simply buying some resistor/capacitor "variety paks" from a local distributor (like the decently-priced Velleman assortments) and ordering the other stuff on an as-needs basis from Small Bear?

I'm not saying it's a bad idea - many is the time I wish I could have said "Order the DIY Starter Pak from Small Bear" in response to those ceaseless "I'm just starting out, what do I need?" threads.  Rather, the longer one thinks about it, the more it starts to turn into a substantially more complicated idea than one first imagined.  It ends up being perhaps far more useful to simply make up baggies with all the parts for project X and tell people "Order the X kit from Small Bear as a good first project".  At least in that case there are clear guidelines on how many and what type of components are "enough". That's good for both Steve and the purchaser.

[Hal]

how about 200 for $1.50 bulk resistor bags...?

you can order from webtronics...$3 buys you 1000 in 200 bags.

[puretube]

me thinx, it`d be a duty for the tonepadders & ggg-ers a.s.o.,
to write kits-parts-lists ("BOM"-s) for those projects they sell the most PCB`s for...
(and send that to SB beforehand).

[Dave_B]

Steve, does your shopping cart support BOM importing, ala Mouser? 

[smallbearelec]

Re importing BOMs to the cart--

I don't know. In theory it should be possible to set up a script that generates a filled cart in response to a button-click, e.g. "Fuzz Face." But I don't know whether StoreSense has the tools for this internally or I gotta have a programmer design it. Can't investigate right now, cause I'm planning shelving...

[phaeton]

small bear should carry.....

.....his own damn weight around here, sheesh!

(j/k)

How about perfboard that's laid out with copper traces like a breadboard....

(is that cheating?)

Or should I just STFU and buy stripboard/veroboard? 

[cmat]

I think Steve should carry: Wah shells for sure that would be awesome I would buy them .  Tantalum caps (PLEASE), 1% resistors and carbon film resistors.  Also a better price on 3PDT switches would be sweet.  Most of us build a few pedals at a time and $10 per switch is high.  I pay $4 a piece for them.  1% resistors, Tantalum caps and 3PDT (because prices) is the only things I dont get from small bear.  Also did I understand that correctly that there wont be FullTone wah pots available anymore.  That is my favorite pot!!!  Also Quicker ship times would be very nice!!!   I understand you are moving though.  I would love to be able to add to my orders that havent shiped.  I have 3 orders that havent shipped now It would be nice to add to the orignal order to save on shipping and to add all of the crap I forget   Oh yea........Thanks Steve!!!!!!!

[PenPen]

Something I just thought about to consider adding to the stock, that nifty contact cleaner that Mark Hammer was raving about a few weeks ago. And perhaps the magic Boss pots, the 16mm alpha's with the non-smooth posts (not sure what the term for this is).

[DavidS]

They're called splined-shaft.

[Dave_B]

Also Quicker ship times would be very nice!!!

Is there a typical turn time on Small Bear orders?  I have a deadline in two weeks and I want to make sure I'm ok.

[cmat]

I placed an order on 10-12 that still hasnt shipped.  It looks like I wont make my deadline either.  I have placed 4 orders since 10-12 that hasnt shipped.  If I could have just added to the original order I would have saved 3 shipping charges.  But I will always use Steve he is great!

[Fp-www.Tonepad.com]

As an online business owner (and by that, I mean www.tonepad.com  ) Shipping orders in time is one of my most difficult tasks, as there are many variables involved, and sometimes some newer orders get shipped sooner than older ones.

All I can say is please keep that in mind when ordering stuff with a deadline and you wiill save on disapointments.

Fp

[PenPen]

Especially with the move happening right now, I can say personally moving is a big pain.

FWIW, I had my order shipped 4 days after placing, recieved 2 days later. This was before Steve anounced the move and everything. Give the guy a bit of slack, I'm pretty sure he's doing all he can to get orders filled and shipped ASAP.

[The Tone God]

Digikey has been carrying sample kits of various parts (caps, resistors, inductors, etc.) for years so they must do well. They usually include 5-10 parts of range of values. Seems to work well.

As for cost, well this may not be the most expensive hobby out there but this is not the cheapest. One should should expect alittle bit of inital cost getting into this. (i.e. boards, soldering equipment, hardware, etc.) I wouldn't attempt a comprehensive kit as different builders would look at different parts (i.e. one build might need Ge transistors while the other only needs opamps). Just basic resistors and caps of common basic values say ten of each. Maybe some pots, a couple of jacks, switches, etc. The person then could augment with the more specialized parts after that. I can't see it costing $90. I could throw together a simple kit and see it's cost pretty easily if needed.

Another item I would like to see are various guitar pots meaning splinned and/or knurled shafts. That would make life easy.

Andrew

[bioroids]

Also Quicker ship times would be very nice!!!

Is there a typical turn time on Small Bear orders?  I have a deadline in two weeks and I want to make sure I'm ok.

Last order (before the moving was anounced) was here in one week. I'm in Argentina, and there's a long path from Brooklyn to Buenos Aires... one week is light speed in that case!

Miguel

[formerMember1]

yeah steve is really fast for me, my order is always under a week, and that is fast for such cheap shipping too. 

[Dave_B]

Give the guy a bit of slack

Agreed. I wasn't implying anything, fwiw.  Maybe I should just ask Steve what his current turn time is.   

[Ben N]

Just want to chime in on Steve's service.  My last order was received in under a week.  I'm sure any delays are due to the move.

Also, I emailed Steve about this, but this thread is here, so WTH: .33 400v caps, for the "Quieting the Beast" Strat mod.

Also, MXR-style rubber knob boots, and extra Hammond case screws.

Ben