My 10 commandments.

[Steben]

1. Silicon is not "just bad", nor is solid state
2. Germanium is not "holy", nor are tubes
3. Opamps have complex characteristics, of which only a few are stompbox-important
4. Using low power opamps is often more battery-friendly than using discrete designs.
5. Noise of components gets important in distortion devices or in front of them.
6. Noise is often to be found in bad design rather than in semiconductors.
7. Any Fuzz Face-based effect is a good starting project because of its simplicity and tweak-ability.
8. It's easy to get lost in building only distortion devices, it's ingenious to see they only make a small difference if combined.
9. Some commercial pedals are really good and more expensive to DIY.
10. A DIY'er doesn't buy a vintage TS808, he builds it!

[Steben]

The 11th bonus:
A touch of reverb is the most powerful single effect I've ever experienced or seen.

[bioroids]

I would add:

Using BJT/FET/Mosfet emitter/source followers as buffers have very poor power supply hum rejection.

Also, sometimes you do need a different opamp than the TL072.

Cool 

Miguel

[MartyMart]

Yeah, TLC2262 has just become my "friend" 

MM.

[barret77]

well, despite of my beginnerness, I wish to add something:

"It's better to spend 10 days building and 1 day debugging than the inverse"

just to not to hurry and check every step

[stm]

1. Silicon is not "just bad", nor is solid state
2. Germanium is not "holy", nor are tubes
3. Opamps have complex characteristics, of which only a few are stompbox-important
4. Using low power opamps is often more battery-friendly than using discrete designs.
5. Noise of components gets important in distortion devices or in front of them.
6. Noise is often to be found in bad design rather than in semiconductors.
7. Any Fuzz Face-based effect is a good starting project because of its simplicity and tweak-ability.
8. It's easy to get lost in building only distortion devices, it's ingenious to see they only make a small difference if combined.
9. Some commercial pedals are really good and more expensive to DIY.
10. A DIY'er doesn't buy a vintage TS808, he builds it!

My 2 cents:

1. to 6.  Agreed.

7. I disagree. Fuzz Faces are tricky in terms of getting the right transistors and actually biasing them.  Many posts in this forum indicate they can be very frustrating both to the experienced and the beginner.  A Bazz Fuzz or a Dist+ clone are way more easy as a first build, and equally rewarding.

8. 100% True IMHO.  Nature tends to chaos and disorder, as entropy of the universe only grows.  Good clean sounding efects require more difficult to find parts and with looser specs (in general), such as BBDs, JFETs, LDRs, VACTROLs, etc.

9. True, but don't forget the opposite is also valid:  a well cloned DIY pedal that is modded to your liking and built with quality components can sound much better than the original.

10. ...and then tweaks it!  AMEN!

[Steben]

1. Silicon is not "just bad", nor is solid state
2. Germanium is not "holy", nor are tubes
3. Opamps have complex characteristics, of which only a few are stompbox-important
4. Using low power opamps is often more battery-friendly than using discrete designs.
5. Noise of components gets important in distortion devices or in front of them.
6. Noise is often to be found in bad design rather than in semiconductors.
7. Any Fuzz Face-based effect is a good starting project because of its simplicity and tweak-ability.
8. It's easy to get lost in building only distortion devices, it's ingenious to see they only make a small difference if combined.
9. Some commercial pedals are really good and more expensive to DIY.
10. A DIY'er doesn't buy a vintage TS808, he builds it!

7. I disagree. Fuzz Faces are tricky in terms of getting the right transistors and actually biasing them.  Many posts in this forum indicate they can be very frustrating both to the experienced and the beginner.  A Bazz Fuzz or a Dist+ clone are way more easy as a first build, and equally rewarding.

Well, I softly disagree to your firm disagreement. I find fuzz faces very pleasant circuits and I haven't noticed the tough search for transistors. All transistors work in a way with the right tweaking (They all sound at least as a bazz fuzz ) only some sound superior (both in silicon and germanium land). But secondly a Fuzz Face can sound so different when starting to change caps, Q1, Q2, both Q's, even adding diodes, blablabla...
Bazz Fuzz is very easy, but much less versatile.

[B Tremblay]

I'm not going to proclaim allegiance to any commandments, but I do enjoy the ironic contradiction of Steben's sig.