Making my first pedals

[greekorican]

School gets out on friday, and I have decided I want to make a couple pedals over the summer. I have a very basic ability to solder, and I'm pretty handy when it comes to building things. Before I start building, I need to learn quite a bit. First of all, I need to learn more about reading schematics. I have read the Beavis Audio guide on schematics, but I want something more in depth. I also want to learn about how/why these circuits work. I plan on taking electrical engineering in college, so I think it would be worth it to get started now. If you could point me towards some books or websites where i can read up about this, that would be helpful.

Some pedals I would like to build this summer are:
Fuzz - something like a big muff or woolly mammoth
Envelope Filter - I would like a mutron clone
Maybe a compressor

Which should I start out with?

Also, I'm wondering if i can build these pedals without a PCB board and just wire it instead. What is the advantage of using a PCB board?

One more thing, I'm not sure what to make an enclosure out of. My only idea is using an outlet or switch box. How do you make your pedal enclosures?

Thanks alot.

[Ben N]

If you haven't built anything before, start with a single stage, a boost or possibly a simple overdrive, like the beginners' projects here (highly recommended). They will teach you a lot about the building blocks of these kinds of circuits, build up your confidence with a lot of handholding, and leave you with a pretty cool, useful pedal for not too much time, expense or effort. Then go on to 2-stage projects, like simple fuzzes. Start out with silicon bipolar junction transistors (BJTs) or opamps, then move on to touchier, tweakier kinds of projects involving fets or germanium devices. If you want to learn, DON'T just build stuff from layouts--try to understand the schematics, and read up on stuff that helps you understand them, like the "Technology of..." articles at Geofex, Lab notes a AMZ, and older threads here.

That's my $0.02.

[punkin]

Ditto...my first build was a Grace with the Big-Daddy modification. Cool build, sounds pretty darn tasty. I'd also suggest getting a bread board...assemble a circuit then make some mods while on the bench. You really get to learn a little something that way. I'm a fan of perfboard. I simply don't mind the extra work. Premade boards are nice, they turn out really clean looking projects but I prefer the flexibility to choose parts/forms of my own choosing and make modifications.

[BAARON]

Fuzz - something like a big muff or woolly mammoth
Envelope Filter - I would like a mutron clone
Maybe a compressor

Which should I start out with?

From those three, I would choose a compressor, built from a kit - perhaps the optical compressor from www.buildyourownclone.com because it's fairly transparent-sounding and doesn't do too many wacky things to your tone.  It's what you'll be most likely to use on a regular basis, I'd wager: fuzzes are tricky beasts if you want them to sound right/good/not like nails on a chalk board.

Also, I'm wondering if i can build these pedals without a PCB board and just wire it instead. What is the advantage of using a PCB board?

You can build them on perfboard or veroboard (you can look both up on Wikipedia if you don't know what they are).  The advantage of a PCB (which stands for Printed Circuit Board, hence why you don't need to say PCB board) is that you basically just stick the components into the holes, solder them in, and clip the leads off - you don't have to worry about bending leads around and attaching soldering all the parts to each other.  It's much faster and less prone to error, as long as the PCB doesn't have mistakes in it.

I agree with punkin.  Get yourself a breadboard (again, check Wikipedia if you don't know what it is) and you can mess around with all sorts of circuits and tweak them to your liking without wasting parts.  It's a great way to learn what each component does - if you want to see what effect something has, replace it with a similar part, or just remove it entirely and see what happens!  No harm done (most of the time)!

One more thing, I'm not sure what to make an enclosure out of. My only idea is using an outlet or switch box. How do you make your pedal enclosures?

Most of us buy them.  There are several internet stores that sell Hammond (and Hammond-style) enclosures.  www.SmallBearElec.com is one of them - they'll have most everything you need to build most any stompbox you choose.

[BAARON]

P.S. You asked for reading material, so read this.  It might grant you some insight into how the guts of a pedal do their job.  (It's mostly about overdrive and distortion pedals, but the information in here is applicable to all electronics.)

http://www.generalguitargadgets.com/richardo/distortion/index.html

[Br4d13y]

i would recommend a bazz fuss. it was my first fuzz, and when you socket the caps and diode, it really gives you a good view of how different components sound,   and othere than that it sounds good!!  actually my favorite fuzz, other than my escobedo square wave

[greekorican]

How does the bazz fuss work with bass? On youtube I only see guitar demos.

I saw recommendations for building a boost pedal as a first build, but I don't really have any use for one. I just don't really need or want one. Is a fuzz pedal really too complicated for a first build?

Also, i would really like to have a mutron clone by the end of summer. Is this out of the question? A mutron seems like it is a pretty complicated pedal to build.

[BAARON]

http://www.generalguitargadgets.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=112&Itemid=26
A Mutron isn't simple, but it's certainly possible to build... especially if you order a PCB from General Guitar Gadgets.

Fuzz pedals aren't complicated to build - there's hardly anything to them in terms of the parts count.  They're easy to put together (as long as fussy germanium transistors aren't involved).  The complexities of understanding what's happening in a fuzz circuit, however, are sometimes pretty strange and difficult to understand, and some designs can be really fussy.

Also, more often than not, I find that fuzz pedals aren't as usable in real life/band situations as I wish they would be.  But that's just my opinion of fuzzes.  I do have one, but it took a lot of tweaking and revision to get it to where I was happy.

[geertjacobs]

Have you already checked the Beginner Project?

[greekorican]

Would building a mutron clone be a feasible first project? Thats what I want the most. I really don't have much use for a fuzz pedal. I just want one to use along with my q-tron/future mutron. I have heard that fuzz and envelope filters sound great together. Can anyone hook me up with reading material about exactly how an envelope filter works?

I'm just pretty unhappy with my q-tron plus. It works great with a guitar, but I find that it is not so great for bass. The filter doesn't decay fast enough, I think, so the filter tends to stay open too long and will stay open for several notes at a time, as opposed to doing the full sweep of the filter for each note. Maybe there is a mod I can do to make it work better? I'd still like to try to build a pedal though...

Thanks for all the help so far. I still have about a million questions, and I would love any reading material I can get.

[aron]

>I'm just pretty unhappy with my q-tron plus. It works great with a guitar, but I find that it is not so great for bass. The filter doesn't decay fast enough, I think, so the filter tends to stay open too long and will stay open for several notes at a time, as opposed to doing the full sweep of the filter for each note.

That's the way they all work. They work on the envelope of a entire signal, not one note at a time. You would need a a pickup for each string to get separate triggers going on. No pedal that you can make easily will do anything differently. 

[smallbearelec]

A Mutron is barely feasible as a first project, IF you get a board from GGG. And I can help by sending you a spreadsheet that will help you order some of the obscure parts that that thing used. Even then, there are some land mines because of number of components, need for +/- power supply and associated wiring. Someone also pointed out that the Mutron may not do everything you want.

I'd suggest building something basic that forces you to learn to hand-wire a board, tool a case and de-bug. The Beginner Project here has rightly been suggested, or I sell a lot of kits for the Tweak-O. Welcome to the world of DIY noise-toys.

SD

[greekorican]

I got a book at radio shack today called "Getting Started in Electronics" by Forrest M. Mims III. Anybody know this book? It seems a bit light to me, but atleast its a start. Do you know of any other books that would be more in depth. I don't want to get started building until I somewhat understand what I'm doing.

Also, I noticed that Radio Shack has a crapload of parts. I've never noticed them before. Are there parts that I will need that radio shack does not have? Or can I get everything there?

[Br4d13y]

radioshack works,  about half the time.   there are a lot of specific parts that they do not supply. for small projects(bazz fuss ,  boosters) they will have what you need

[jacobyjd]

For the record, I built the beginner project over a year after I first started building guitar effects--I'd already built some pretty advanced stuff (for me...analog chorus, a couple delays, etc...). I was looking at boosters, and the BP caught my eye. It is by far one of the most useful things I have built. It or something similar is worth a try. just my 2 cents

[greekorican]

After some thought, I think I'm gonna stop being stubborn and take your advice. I want to try to build the boost and bazz fuss. I can find all parts at radio shack, right? I need to find a way to make a better enclosure, radio shack has plastic ones, which i don't really like that much. That might be fine for now though, I will probably order a nice metal one when I get around to making my woolly mammoth and mutron/envelope filter.

Now I would like to go a step further on these projects. I would like to make them both true bypass, though I don't really know how much of a difference it actually makes in your sound. I would also like to add an led to both of them. Is this something I can do easily after the pedal is built and I know that it works? Or would I be better off factoring in LED and true bypass right off the bat?

[Br4d13y]

an LED is an easy addition afterword IF you use a 3pdt switch for bypass. i bent up my own enclosue for my bazz, but get creative!!!!  you should be able to find all the parts, except the switch and probly not a power plug, at the shack. if you order the switch from arons store(i would recommend 3 or 4, he sells them cheaper in packs, and you will use them, A LOT!) get some in line sockets and throw those in your build. they are garunteed to help you find the fuzz/distortion tone that sounds good to you.  and always remember to have fun

[greekorican]

I looked on small bear electronics and there are a ton of different sockets. How do I know which to get?

I plan on building a bazz fuss first. Should I use a pcb or is this something I can just wire?

[Ben N]

I would recommend against a pcb, because the Bazz Fuss in particular has pretty much endless variations, and you may want to fiddle with it a bit, try different options. Do it on perf, don't try to cram everything too close together, socket the transistor and some of the caps (see the article at runoffgroove.com), and have fun. Also, leave a bit of room at the input side of the board, in case you decide to add a booster later (I did--gets rid of the BF's gating effect).It's a great first project, because it's simple, pretty much foolproof, and sounds good. Even mine worked first time out ().

As for sockets, the inline ones that Small Bear and Aron have are great, although you should order at least 20% more than you need, because they sometimes break mid-socket instead of on the score lines. If you are socketing several components, with a little creativity on the layout you could just use an 8-pin IC-DIP socket for all of the interchangeable components.

[Br4d13y]

there is a vero layout in the gallery that has no trace cuts, even easier than perf!!! i would go with that one