your first DIY effect, what did you do with it?

[birt]

Mine was a big box with a fuzzface and a rangemaster in it. both modded with a rotary input cap selector. that was almost 4 years ago.

so i decided to open it up again and rebuild both effects in seperate enclosures and a bit more reliable. It was a MESS in there, i couldn't believe this thing worked properly all that time. The tape, pastic, way too much wire, way too much solder... in there was unbelievable. So i decided to measure gain and leakage of the transistors. i never bothered to do that when i build it, i just picked some transistors i had. to my surprise i got these results: AC128 (Q1) Hfe 96 leakage 0.11mA, AC128 (Q2) Hfe 104 leakage 0.15, OC44 Hfe 76 leakage 0.0! lucky guess huh? :p

What did you do with yours??




oh this is what they look like now (excuse me for the crappy paintjobs):

[MikeH]

It just so happens I just cracked open one of my first builds a couple weeks ago.  It was a mosfet boost that I had actually been using on my live rig for the last 2 years because it sounded so great; but recently it had developed some problems.  Unfortunately, I forgot how poorly I made pedals 2 years ago.  It was like a house of horrors in there; I had used solid core wire, and too much of it, budget jacks, too much solder, electrical tape all over everything- it was a total rat's nest.  I also realized that one of the connections on the switch wasn't even soldered!  I had stuck it through the post and wrapped it around but forgot to solder it.  And I'd used it on my live rig for nearly 2 years without any problems.  Which just boggles my mind, honestly.

[Paul Marossy]

My first was a Black Cat OD-1 clone, built on perfboard in 2001. I redid it about a year ago - etched a PCB for it and cleaned up the messy wiring. I still use it now and then.

[MartyMart]

My first was a Bazz Fuzz  .... looks like crap inside and shorts out now and then ...but I'm leaving it that way for prosperity !!
Second - Tube reamer ( still works fine )
Third - BSIAB II also still works fine ( all from 2003 )
MM

[axg20202]

Mine was a Distortion +. Looks bad. I painted it yellow (for obvious reasons) and the paint must have taken 2 weeks to dry. Used it meanwhile, of course. Fingerprints and paint flaws all over the place. Still sounds great though, so at least the contents were put together properly. Maybe I'll refinish the enclosure one day, but life's too short and I can't be arsed.

[Barcode80]

my first was the gus smalley clean boost, and it has long since been dismantled for the few parts (at the time i was starting, i had few parts and less money). oldest one i still have is yun's rocket boost, which was still working when i opened it up the other day. what a mess.

[hendrix2489]

With lots of help from the people on this site and about a truckload of coffee, my frist build was a ts-808 clone, Still in my pedalboard today(Man was the a B**ch to paint because it was my first pedal and the first time i multi-colored anything).  Three months ago i put a flip switch in to switch between the stock .047uf and .47uf(AMZ Fat Bass Mod)  Sounds awesome still. i'll never take it out.

[frankclarke]

It was a Don Tilman preamp inside my state-of-the-art Kramer metal-neck guitar. I remember the black and white round FET. Probably in an Irish landfill now.

[$uperpuma]

my first was a tonepad Distortion +...  I learned to etch boards right away. I still have the nasty mess of a circuit around here somewhere, but its not in a box.

[anchovie]

I was foolhardy and threw myself in at the deep end by building a Dr Boogie, on perf, with no pre-planned layout! Only took about 10 hours to debug...

[Papa_lazerous]

My first build was a Bigg Muff, I built it on Vero with my own layout took me 3 attempts to get it working.  As it wouldnt work and I couldnt find the fault.  I had forgotten to cut a track.  I use it lots still.  Second was a rangemaster using an OC44 and I use that lots too, nice tones with that one.  After that I learnt to etch pcbs and enclosures.  Plenty of Fuzz faces since then and a nice compressor too.  PLus some other bits

[ambulancevoice]

well, i made several attempts at building some effects before i actually got one working
my FIRST working build was a buzz box with no germ diode and much higher gain transistors on perfboard
it was a chaotic bratchny real horrorshow, housed in a plastic food container of some sort.
lots of baddiwad back ground noise and the dc jack wasnt even mounted on the enclosure, i taped it down to the inside of it and used batteries :S

second was a bazz fuss that actually worked properly at first, when it was housed in a malenky plastic food containter
then i got an aluminium enclosure, drilled it at school and re housed it
then it stopped working properely, became a dirty boost of some sort
well, that one is gutted now, i recently remodeled the enclosure (wet sanded, new cool paintjob, satin finish) for my next effect

[96ecss]

My first build was an AMZ Mini-Booster that is still on my pedal board. My second build was a BSIAB2 that is still on my pedalboard. I've built about 20 pedals since then and I use them all at different times, but my main OD is still the BSIAB2 and my main Booster is still my Mini-Booster.

Dave

[DougH]

My Anderton "Optimum Fuzz Adapter" from 1974 was cannibalized many decades ago. Its parts were mixed in with other old parts from that time period in a paper bag. I think I saw the pcb in there a few months ago. Still had the diodes on it.

[RedHouse]

Mine was also a Fuzz, and way back in the early 70's, if I recall it was in one of the rags back then maybe Popular Electronics, and of course the first thing I did with it was use it to play in a band, we were crap but nobody cared. I don't know what ever became of it, come to think of it, I don't think I have anything from way back then.

[DougH]

Yeah, I used mine for jamming in a garage with another guitar player and drummer. I don't know if we were a 'band' per se but it was my first musical collaboration with a drummer.

[raulgrell]

My first was a Bazz Fuss, all parts socketed... Fit everything into a 1.5cm^2 piece of perf. Very quick debug, my tranny was the wrong way round.

I'll post a pic if I can find it...

[~arph]

My first build was a about two years before I seriously started building, in the meantime I built no pedals at all. The first one was a GGG Tycobrahe Octavia. Ordered the pcb from GGG and the transformer from mouser. The rest of the stuff I got from a local electronics shop.
It never worked and I gave up after like 1 h our of debugging. I still have it laying around, now I can easily see why it doesn't work.. cold joints.. nothing but. I might redo it one day, but I do not like octave pedals at all so it's probably destined for destruction.
When I picked it up again I did a SHO and then a Vanishing point and Idiot wah combi.

[RedHouse]

Mine was also a Fuzz, and way back in the early 70's, if I recall it was in one of the rags back then maybe Popular Electronics, and of course the first thing I did with it was use it to play in a band, we were crap but nobody cared. I don't know what ever became of it, come to think of it, I don't think I have anything from way back then.

I don't beleive it, I just came across this website from another thread, it has that VERY article that was my 1st DIY pedal. Guess it was longer ago than I remembered it being (Feb '68), dang I feel old now!

I can't remember if it sounded good or not, I was a kid back then and only had a crap (Lyle) guitar.

[R.G.]

As I remember it was the "98 cent fuzz box", all of two diodes across your volume control. I later did the Anthony Leo fuzz, which is why I recognized it as the swell section of the "Experience Pedal". Don't know where those went.

I still have my first Univox Superfuzz clone though. I talked a guy into letting me trace out his brand new superfuzz when they were new. Designed a laughably crude PCB, etched it in my dorm room - that's how I learned not to etch in aluminum pans - and actually got the thing to work.