Anyone Feel That There Is Just Too Much!??

[stutter]

Since you build a P1 and working on a 36watter, I guess tube tone isn't that special for you. i would recommend leavin the BSIAB(II) and other amp-tone boxes on the future shelf.

I agree to what Mark said: don't refuse a commercially cheap yet respectful pedal. Unless it is a really simple build and you want the educational aspect of it. I guess the diode clippers are in this league: MXR+, OD250, blue clipper,...

Yet the opposite exists too indeed: simple builds - albeit with some tweaking but that's fun ;-) - that costs relative fortunes if you know what's inside.
This is the core starters business of DIY: it's fun, it's economic and it's even often very good. I'm talking about treble boosters, clean boosters and of course the fuzz faces. A couple of parts and you have history at your feet.

The next step is mojo: germanium boulevard, univibe corner, vintage wha's, octave land,...

And before you know it, you lost your playing technique.  

So here you go: make yourself a Fuzz Face first. If you don't, you'll be surprised how fast you will say: hey, why did I forget tha Fuzz Face?!?
At least, with a Fuzz Face, you still need you technique to make magic out of it. If you go for metal distortion, it's lost in 5 minutes.

I love Tube Tone,id hardly say i was a tube snob though.I would never dream about going back to SS amps,but Pedals and transistors do have their place in a rig.I would most likely be running the distortion pedal through a relatively clean p1 extreme so i can switch from clean to distortion on stage at gigs.Its the only practical solution since i cant really be bothered modifying the p1 extreme board 

[Meanderthal]

In that spirit, what are some good suggestions for existing pedals that:
1) you can often buy cheap second hand
2) have some space on the chassis for adding a switch or two or extra pot, and/or some space on the board for doing some mods
3) will do something interesting with a few easy changes
4) have low risk of failure

The one that immediately comes to mind that fits all of this is the BMP. EH stuff in general, but especially that one.

The Rat would also fit the bill...

Morleys would seem to be ideal, but you'd be surprised how much space is wasted inside them with texas sized layouts... harder to add knobs than you'd think. Could be done with some PCB butchery.

Now, if ya don't plan on adding knobs, the DS-1 is super mod friendly, good and cheap even new, and can become a very good sounding distortion(in spite of the anti DS-1 crowd). Tubescreamers(and variants like SD-1, etc.) are ok too. 'Course, you can order mod kits for these(and many more), maybe a good way to start.

[coxter]

Here's my 2 cents.

I've built a metal simplex, a headcase and an EA trem.

They're all pretty wonderful. But I absolutely love the EA Trem, ROG version.
Wonderful sounding, sweet and relatively simple. Period.

Just a starting out DIYer too, after reading a few threads, gona build a Dist+ too! LoL
and the usual reccomended stuffs, like the LPB2 and the Gus NPN boost.


PS:
I've always thought that hardest part about DIYing pedals is the electronics part of it.
However I find that its the drillings and offboard wirings and the debuging thats the
real hassle.

So my advice is that, its Definitely important to start with a simple build(s).

Develop\Learn a system or workprocesses so that building subsequent pedals
would be more exciting and less tedious.  And lastly, this forum is really choked full of goodies and help
already dispensed to many builders before you. A little reading/searching actually opens ups more doors, better than solving the prob itself, e.g, mods, different versions, links to articles or better alternatives to the current fx you wana build.

[petemoore]

  It's sure gotten to be 'alot more' than it once was.
 ive already built a p1 extreme and small HO Combo,working on a 36watter at 18watt just now.
  Cool stuff to work with.
 I use the Easy Face for great sounding FF which hold bias very nicely.
 Fuzz Face Type Fuzz..Rolloff w/guitar volume effect is most profound, very easy to dial in bias on variety of transistors.
 Rocket, 3 transistor Fuzz.
 Tonebender [too much trouble, I broke it down..
 You'll probably get a kick out of the FF's, one little board [with moddable build] provides too many types to mention here...I go for 'moderate' w/great cleanup-ability, then add the third transistor [booster], more like Tonebender.
 Certainly worth the trouble to do up the nice Booster and a FF and try them out with those amps o' yore...you will find the board and components a pittance for the mileage in various distortabilities they afford.
  Sparkleboost.
  FF.
 After you get them figured out, or decide that's what you would like in your first double box after testing out this 'n that...
 Stick 'em in a two circuit box using 3pdt's for TB's and LED's.. be the first one I know to have tried out the 'Distortion reduces booster volume when off' mod.
 My "DRBV" mod.
 using the 'spare' switched ground lug of the distortions switch to introduce resistance to ground across the boosters pot [when the distortion is off], this keeps the distortion driven hard [booster vol UP] and lets you turn the distortion off while preventing the booster from being rediculously loud.
 I recently posted a diagram...
 I'd work up a regular FF using full IC sockets for socketting the transistors and caps, you'll have to make the layout, then it's easy to fasten the components in the sockets later.
 for input and output caps and transistors
 a 16 pin socket, or two 8 pin sockets, leaves two pins open...

[stutter]

Right im getting parts together to build the DOD 250 it has good reviews,very simple and has the least parts count.So its good for a distortion build.Ive found all the parts except for the LM741 IC,could i substitute this for a LM308AH.Is there any site that shows the differences between IC's gain wise,tonal differences etc

[mattpocket]

It is too hard to pick what to build, especially while your just starting out, I'm relatively new (just embarking on my third build) and all these old pro's have a wealth of equipment and parts. I dare say some of them could build 10 or 20 pedals out of what they have in their toolbox! For us just starting out, our first builds are quite pricy because of having to buy certain things, like soldering irons, breadboard, solder, wire strippers, etc... My first pedal cost the best part of £60 including the tools I had to buy, my next one (a booster) will cost about £20, and if I build a couple more and sell them, they will be even cheaper, and I may even break even so that the pedal i built for myself ends up costing nothing!

Cost is a big thing for me, it slows me down. I have about 6 or 7 pedals on my wanted list, I am just goign through picking the one I like most and building that. I can probably afford about 1 or 2 a month now.

Make a list and work through it, it's hard to decide what to put on the list though. I started my list by putting down the type of pedals I wanted. I wanted a lofi pedal, a distortion pedal, etc... then I decided what type I wanted most, and then spent hours on here looking at schem's reading build reports, asking opinions, and listening to samples, to decide which one I want.

Say you want a distortion pedal, go out and look through the layouts gallery, read the comments, build reports on tonepad are good too, earmark a couple you like the look of. Then come on here and make a new topic. Let people know what set-up you have, guitar/pedal chain/amp/etc, and most importantly what kind of sound you are after. Then see if people suggest the same pedals you liked the sound of, that will help a lot. But be specific about your requirements, I mean how many distortion pedals are there, if you say "which distortion pedal is best", then you are going to be disappointed by the diversity of answers. People can only advise if you give them some specifications. It seems if you want anything answering plainly on here, you need to be as specific as possible, and 9 times out of 10 you'll get the answer you want.

Matt

[Meanderthal]

 If you need to build stock, get some resistor and capacitor assortments and grab bags. When you need to order a part, order 10 (or 100 for resistors)instead. You'll soon have enough stuff on hand to build pretty much whatever you want. Cheaper in quantities anyway.

Variety is the spice of life... embrace it. It's a good thing to have choices.

[oldrocker]

There is no such thing as too much.  DIY's to go down in history might be:
Big Muff
Rat
TS 808
Fuzz Face
DOD 250
Although I don't agree with the best or worst or who thinks what about effects builds I think legend builds are the more vintage ones,IMHO.

[petemoore]

Develop\Learn a system or workprocesses so that building subsequent pedals
would be more exciting and less tedious.
  Absolutely true, especially anything that benefits from 'applied experience'.
  Not that I'm anythning super specail in this area, having experienced the same mistake/problem/solution more than once on some occasions.
  Just attempting to form and answer my own dern questions...getting the DMM, a piece of paper and pen, taking notes on 'schtuff'...like where continuities move to when a switch is hit...every little bitty connection must be perfect in this game, or at some point be made to be so.
  "Just getting through is one approach, [..electronic 'ying'], often treaded on.   
  The yang to that ying is asking 'what can I learn from everything I see here?'...and what I can't see.

[lovric]

I have a feeling that the sort of questions such are "what would you recomend...", "what should be my first build" and "which _____ is the best in your opinion" are posed by salespeople acting as newbies in order to you know what. Many here naturaly doubt the usefulnes of such queries for a DIYer, willingly (or accidentaly, bona fide) skipping commenting on possible hidden agenda. In the (most vulgarly possible) outcome, we would simply - vote on those queries. After the vote you would go on to vegetate in a new, pefect(ly cold) III Stompbox Reich.

[mattpocket]

I have a feeling that the sort of questions such are "what would you recomend...", "what should be my first build" and "which _____ is the best in your opinion" are posed by salespeople acting as newbies in order to you know what. Many here naturaly doubt the usefulnes of such queries for a DIYer, willingly (or accidentaly, bona fide) skipping commenting on possible hidden agenda. In the (most vulgarly possible) outcome, we would simply - vote on those queries. After the vote you would go on to vegetate in a new, pefect(ly cold) III Stompbox Reich.

We have a serious conspiracy theorist here...

[Mark Hammer]

I have a feeling that the sort of questions such are "what would you recomend...", "what should be my first build" and "which _____ is the best in your opinion" are posed by salespeople acting as newbies in order to you know what. Many here naturaly doubt the usefulnes of such queries for a DIYer, willingly (or accidentaly, bona fide) skipping commenting on possible hidden agenda. In the (most vulgarly possible) outcome, we would simply - vote on those queries. After the vote you would go on to vegetate in a new, pefect(ly cold) III Stompbox Reich.

I would generally place greater creedence in newbies than in salespeople.  Besides, the salespeople are generally too busy shmoozing with each other at the front counter to find time to come here.

I think people ask the question largely because the search space is immense and people really don't know where to begin.  As well, if they ask "What blues song should I learn first?", there is no dollar value assigned to that.  If they have to make a choice between buying 20 FETs to come up with a matched set of 4 or 6, or buying something else, there IS a dollar value to that decision.  I don't blame them at all for wanting some guidance and basis for making a choice.

[Meanderthal]

 Ya know, I think it might be cool to have a 'build reports' thread or child board, so folks who are overwhelmed with schematics, layouts, kooky names, etc. can check out what people who built the stuff say. The noobs just want to be sure that their choice will be worthwhile, works, etc..., and usually a build report includes a description of what the effect does.(they may need that too).

A lot of them might just be taking a poll, so they can pick what appears to be the most popular one(assumption being popular = better). Problem with that is, just because Harry, Joe, and Frank like the Eludian Q-37 Space Modulator dosen't mean George will...

Salesmen? I doubt it. Not a good sales technique.