just curious: so what's your DIY success percentage?

[Mugshot]

just curious guys, what's your DIY success percentage? when i first started building my own pedals using stuff from the internet and backed by the full support of DIYstomps, i was a total electronics noob back then (but as RG rightfully said, this was not a recipe for success  ) but the constant pestering i did in the forum yielded positive results as far as my pedal building skills is concerned (plus im still an electronics noob btw  )

lately ive noticed that except for some minor debugging, i seem to get most of my pedals to work although i must admit that my build experience is not yet that comprehensive or anything and considering my fairly limited understanding of electronics (plus i have no access to some of the parts needed, so yeah, my experience is kinda limited). for the last 20+ or so circuits i have built, only 3 i think forced me to ask you guys what could the problem with my build was (no, the TS808 i didnt build it  ) so i guess my build:success ratio is, say, +/-75%?

what about you guys? just throwing a bone. 

[Renegadrian]

I think I had 2 or 3 circuits that never done it...One of my first builds was the BSIAB, I didn't know how to debug it back then, and got desoldered...Also recently I got some strange things from a micro amp that never "amped" in the way it should...
So I finally gave up...
But hey, the percentage is quite low, so I'm a happy dog...

[newfish]

Apart from a Green Ringer couldn't get going, pretty much everything has worked first or second time.

To be fair, I do a walk-through of what goes where (and pinouts!) before powering up.

It's usually the really simple issues that get me, but then I've only built simple things so far.

Percentage is probably in the upper 80s as I've not built much...

Neovibe may well be on next year's list...

[MarcoMike]

I am a noob too and would be lost without DIYStompBoxes... I think 90 % of what I know comes from here!! (so thanks everyone)
the only pedal I couldn't get to work is the vanishing point. actually only the random mode doesn't work... uh...and I forgot that FSH1... also that one never worked... it seems I am cursed on what relates to randomness...
should I try a random number generator next???

apart from that I made like 15 stomp effects, 1 tube amp and modded several guitars and basses for myself and friends... so I could say the success to failure rate is pretty good!! 

[the recluse]

Of the dozens of projects I've done over the last few years, only Craig Anderton's Rocktave has eluded me.  I think my soldering skills weren't up to snuff when I attempted it, and my various revists to the PCB have fouled it up beyond repair I'm afraid.  I was actually considering buying another pcb from gtg and giving it another go...

[earthtonesaudio]

In the beginning I worked off of verified schematics and had a good success rate.  These days I try out weird, outlandish ideas and my success rate is rapidly approaching zero. 

[Morocotopo]

Pretty good, I have to say. About 20 pedals, 1 tube amp and assorted stuff since I´ve begun to build things, The most notable failures have been a EH Polyphase (the LFO part worked well, but the envelope part never did) and the Dean Hazelwater pitch shifter (I believe more of a "awful chip " problem). Of course, many worked but didn´t sound good, or at least good to me, and the tube amp took about 6 months of work to sound the way I wanted and to eliminate oscillations, hum, bad pots, Netherland radio stations, etc.

All this without taking into account the thingies I made when a teenager, I think none of them really worked. At that age I believed a Fuzz Face actually sounded like an elephant with intestinal problems...

[petemoore]

  100% ready for show !
  I guess...when counting everything I have a working example of !
  I tend to just count 'em this way, otherwise it's so rediculous, thinking of the time that went into trash-pickin' and filling a trash bag etc.
  When attempting to be counting or even calculating the amazing # of salvage-DIY's in the pile of board trash, various circuits of now unknown topology or condition...if you count those...ones that failed to stay on the PB, got thrown out of their box for not competing against their clone-brother good enough, ones that never worked right too..about a 1 to 3 ratio is probably way too forgiving, so I guess 1 to 4 or worse, as I recall the large garbage bags full of junk that actually went outta the electronic-dungeon, that's just actual boards.
  The monitors and other salvage-for-good-parts-junk-board-units hauled outta here would fill a small dumpster, huge boxes, large bags dragged out...re-frequin-diculous.

[Paul Marossy]

I'd say that I have a 90% success rate on things working when I test them for the first time after completing a build. It's the other 10% of stuff that doesn't work that makes me crazy.

Out of that 10%, I would say that I get 50% of those straightened out eventually. That last 5% is stuff that I abandoned because it simply just would not work no matter what I tried doing. Those are really frustrating, especially when you hear about how it works for other people, but not for you. 

[Strategy]

I don't know if I could calculate a percentage...finishing projects in general is harder than finishing them correctly! That is to say I have many more pcbs stuffed/started part way than I have taken all the way to completion. I'll reach a glitch or hang up, procrastinate on tracking down a specific part, be low on money, or something will come up. I've had two projects go dead in the water out of 12 things built. One was the Coron DS-8 drum synth clone by a French synth DIY designer. I spent hours trouble shooting it. The other thing strangely was a Green Ringer. My guess is that there was a bad part because I could not identify any errors in spite of the low parts count and simple circuit. But I see that this project is in others' "fail" pile too.

- Strategy

[bigchasbroon]

im a noob as well. still dont understand things properly and basically just follow a pattern. But ive built 2 rebote 2.5s a ts9 rangemaster 2 rats dynacomp big muff octavia and only the ts9 didnt work so im about 90%. Im currently building an ibanez 301 flanger so my percentage might drop. my other current projects are soul preacher orange squeezer big muff dynacomp tsn   

[ibodog]

I'm about 90% success rate.  Unverified schematics and anything with GE transistors seem to be my main source of fails.  With two GE fuzzes I tried lately they were unbiased sounding no matter what I tried.  Right now I'm blaming the transistors!

[boog]

when i've got a verified schematic or layout, im up above 85% or so; but since the electricity part of all this still seems kinda elusive to me (electricity is a magical force that comes from a jellybean field), when i try my own thing to further understand everything my success rate dropes to about 25% or less

[JKowalski]

I've been hanging out with LTspice and textbooks lately, learning about electronics above all else, and not making many projects. Can't really judge my success rate like that...

But the few projects I do every now and then ALWAYS (90%) have some weird problem that crops up. I've always managed to find it and fix it on the first round of troubleshooting, however.

I think I'm just prone to stupid mistakes from lack of attention or moments of brain loss... 

[frequencycentral]

Everything I build works, usually fires up first time. Except this project. I get it out and have a go at debugging it every couple of months, but still no joy, I think there may be an error somewhere in the schematic, which is a real bummer because some of those parts were the devil to source. Lesson: don't belive everything you read on the interweb, in fact don't believe anything you read on the interweb. Except this post of course.

[AudioMime]

eh. I only attempted three times. 33%. I failed at the easiest project of all time (A/B switch) , and I messed up on my first APC. But I got it right the second time, and now I have a working APC and no A/B switch.

[Ripthorn]

I'm not sure of the percentage, but I would say 90% or better.  The one that has given me the most trouble is the Maestro FSH-1.  It works, but I couldn't get the tonepad mods to work properly.  Other than that, most are just minor issues (like a stray strand of wire).

[Strategy]

Everything I build works, usually fires up first time. Except this project.

that page you link to- the info/blurb at bottom of the page ends with "Happy April 1st," do you think it's a "decoy" or joke schematic?!? - for 'april fool's day'? eeegh. ()
- Strategy

[frequencycentral]

Everything I build works, usually fires up first time. Except this project.

that page you link to- the info/blurb at bottom of the page ends with "Happy April 1st," do you think it's a "decoy" or joke schematic?!? - for 'april fool's day'? eeegh. ()
- Strategy

Damn! You're right. 3 and a half years I've wasted on that thing. Damn!

[Strategy]

Everything I build works, usually fires up first time. Except this project.

that page you link to- the info/blurb at bottom of the page ends with "Happy April 1st," do you think it's a "decoy" or joke schematic?!? - for 'april fool's day'? eeegh. ()
- Strategy

Damn! You're right. 3 and a half years I've wasted on that thing. Damn!

Oh BUMMER -- EEEEEGGGGG Sorry to be the bringer of that observation, clarity I suppose but at such a price