Newbie quistions

[pgprocker]

            Hi all, I am new to the forum, and I have a few quistions.  First off, I am a guy who loves to tinker.  I have always wanted to make my own pedal and finally tried it.  But, no sound.  I have read some books to get a basic grasp of what circuits do and all and use them as a refrence.  But, I am lost.  I want to make my "own" pedal.  Not a plan from the web, or someone else, my own design.  Closure is not a problem, and I have all of the tools, so I am good to go there.  But, today I tried to wire up a pedal.  The only parts I have are a battery, board, a resistor, a LED to tell me I am geting current, and my in and out jacks.  I know the circuit is working because my light comes on, but when I plug in my guitar, nothing, no sound.  So, after doing some research I asume I am missing a transistor or a op amp.  So my quistions is:  Do all pedals take a transistor or a op amp?  I am asuming it depends on what sound you want?  But is that how pedals make a sound?  I haver never of course done this before and I am still new to circuits, but I just don't know now how the pedal is makeing a sound.  Thanks for any help.  I can sure use it.

[Peter Snowberg]

Welcome to the forum.

Engineering an effect is a blend of art and science. You just can't skip over understanding the science and it will take some work.

I would recommend reading everything you can from the GEOFEX and AMZ links above and searching here for posts about learning electronics. There are lots of those as well as zillions more on the web. Keep reading until it makes sense and then you're on your way. 

[delbowski]

Engineering an effect is a blend of art and science. You just can't skip over understanding the science and it will take some work.

i'll agree with that... you're gonna have to put in the hard work if you're gonna get a good understanding of how pedals work.  i'm still very new to this and i can't tell you how many hours i've spent reading, looking at schematics, tinkering, etc.  it takes a lot of work, and maybe that's why relatively few people do this for a hobby, but if you're ambitious and work hard, you'll be rewarded with some great pedals, and you can take pride in knowing that you created them.  learning is always a good thing!

there's always really nice people here to help you along the way too...

welcome, and good luck!
del

[chaddhamilton]

What schematic/layout are you using?

[pgprocker]

  None really, I am using some as refrence, but basicly just trying to get a sound out of some connections.  Nothing major.  If I just knew how a pedal makes the sound I think I would have it all done.  I learn better by hands on, but I am still working hard on understanding the circuits.

[chaddhamilton]

well, here's a very basic fuzz layout that is about as basic as they get.   perhaps this can server as a good resource for your project...

http://aronnelson.com/gallery/album17/BAZZ_FUSS

good luck!

Chadd

[maladorusguitar]

Hello!  i'm new and i've been searching around after receiving GREAT help from the people on this board and i found this great guide to soldering!!

http://www.buildyourownclone.com/soldering.html   it really has helped me out!

[KORGULL]

Most (if not all) people who learn to play an instrument start out by playing other peoples' songs. This helps you learn the basic skills that will enable you to eventually compose your own music. Same thing here - build some known circuits first  - this will help you see how things work. Along with the other suggestions given to you, study the wiring diagrams (and everything else) in the "Beginner's Project" forum. That should help you get some of the basics down and show you how to wire up your in/out jacks so the guitar signal will pass through.

[Transmogrifox]

I agree 100% with KORGULL.  In addition to helping you learn how electronics and circuits work together, building circuits based on other peoples' designs will help you learn what circuits make what sounds, and how you can arrange components to make it sound unique.

Even after having graduated in electrical engineering, it's a challenge to design good sounding circuits.  Timkering is the only way to learn.  It's one thing to be able to look at a circuit diagram and be able to say, "oh, this does that", or to come up with a list of specifications and make a circuit that does something in particular.  The problem is coming up with those specifications.  This is the art of it...the, "what does a circuit that does this sound like?". 

About transistors and op amps:  It's not possible to do anything amazing with a circuit composed of a battery, LED and resistors.  Such a circuit will either
A. Do nothing to effect the audio
B. Make the guitar more quiet or muddy
C. Make the guitar inaudible.

You can add capacitors and make passive filters.  That's what the tone pot in your guitar does.  It varies the degree to which the high frequencies are filtered from the guitar.  With resistors, wires and capaicitors, you can't do much more than what the passive electronics in your guitar do.

Active devices are the means to amplification, active & sweepable filtering, distortion, etc. 

More valuable to me than pure electronics knowledge is understanding of signal processing theory and the supporting mathematics.  Signal processing is more general, like "art".  Electronics is a medium for signal processing, such as "water color".  If you just learn how to do water color, you can make some kind of art by sticking your brush in a few different colors and wiping it on paper.  It may end up looking artistic.   

You are more likely to come up with something more expressive and purposeful if you approach the water color palette with an understanding of how combinations of different shapes, colors and shading create pleasing effects.  From there, it's just a matter of making the paintbrush and color palette do it.

With that analogy in mind, I'll say electronics is like visual art.  Op amps, resistors, capacitors, diodes, wires, pots, etc., are your color palette, and the soldering iron is your paintbrush.  Indiscriminately hooking these up together generally turns out about the same as mixing all the colors in the palette together: ugly brown (not to be confused with the "brown sound").

So...if you want vibrant, interesting guitar effects, then do some reading to learn how all these components work together...and what it is they're doing.  You will first need to learn what an audio signal is and how it is represented by an electrical current/voltage. 

[nunocaldeira]

wow Transmogrifox...

I learnt a lot cloning effects and I think that is the way... I don´t know a Sh$%& but now I know how an opamp works or how to bias a transistor or fet. I Don´t really use my first builds (mxr clones) but I am using slightly modded joe davisson's designs with good results. Just make some circuits that are known to work and play with it.
I don´t think you can make a PRS without knowing a Strat. Every piece of knowledge is built over onother piece of knowledge (yes, luck also exist).

Good luck,

Nuno Caldeira