here's a loaded question?

[sbgodofmetal]

how many different simple fx can i get with only perfboards, a handfull of OpAmp's, a 100 pack each of diodes, capacitors, & resistors, adding 1/4" jacks and pots as needed, terminals and batteries, and 3PDT switchs???

[LucifersTrip]

how many different simple fx can i get with only perfboards, a handfull of OpAmp's, a 100 pack each of diodes, capacitors, & resistors, adding 1/4" jacks and pots as needed, terminals and batteries, and 3PDT switchs???

as many as you have OpAmps

[sbgodofmetal]

sorry i meant how many ''DIFFERENT TYPES'' of fx

[petemoore]

  As many as can be calculated for.
  Like laying out bricks of various size and shape for size and shape of walls, it's all in the counting...or building for a while...TheN assessing the short-counts.
  Phasers start to eating parts faster than boosters.

[cpm]

how many different simple fx can i get with only perfboards, a handfull of OpAmp's, a 100 pack each of diodes, capacitors, & resistors, adding 1/4" jacks and pots as needed, terminals and batteries, and 3PDT switchs???

17,56

[slacker]

You can built any number of booster, overdrive, distortion and fuzz pedals. There's a few octave up fuzz pedals and envelope filters that use only those parts. Add a couple of transistors, JFETS or LDRs and you could build a few phasers, compressors, tremolos and ring modulators.

Basically with those parts, assuming you've got the right capacitor and resistor values you can build most types of effect apart from anything that is delay based like a delays, reverbs, chorus and flanger pedals.

[sbgodofmetal]

thanks for the help guys i buy all my parts in bulk since its cheaper than buying several individual parts(& really handy if too much heat damages a part during soldering), and needed to know how many things i could make with them so i wasn't stuck building the same effect over &over again

[Mike Burgundy]

how many different simple fx can i get with only perfboards, a handfull of OpAmp's, a 100 pack each of diodes, capacitors, & resistors, adding 1/4" jacks and pots as needed, terminals and batteries, and 3PDT switchs???

17,56

Is that with or without rounding off PI to 3?

[Venusblue]

sorry i meant how many ''DIFFERENT TYPES'' of fx

As many as you can come up with, really. More then can be listed.

[R.G.]

how many different simple fx can i get with only perfboards, a handfull of OpAmp's, a 100 pack each of diodes, capacitors, & resistors, adding 1/4" jacks and pots as needed, terminals and batteries, and 3PDT switchs???

Wrong question.

If you'd read "Effects Economics 101" at geofex, you'd have seen that as far as cost is concerned, the electronics costs almost don't matter. The vast preponderance of the cost in a pedal is the enclosure, jacks, pots, stomp switches, battery clip, etc.

The real question is "how many boxes, jacks, switches and pots can I afford?"

[vendettav]

how many different simple fx can i get with only perfboards, a handfull of OpAmp's, a 100 pack each of diodes, capacitors, & resistors, adding 1/4" jacks and pots as needed, terminals and batteries, and 3PDT switchs???

Wrong question.

If you'd read "Effects Economics 101" at geofex, you'd have seen that as far as cost is concerned, the electronics costs almost don't matter. The vast preponderance of the cost in a pedal is the enclosure, jacks, pots, stomp switches, battery clip, etc.

The real question is "how many boxes, jacks, switches and pots can I afford?"

Bingo

[sbgodofmetal]

the o.p. had nothing to do with monetary cost's what i was saying when i buy parts i buy in bulk and wanted at least an estimate of how many different fx i could build with the rest of the parts i'd have left, and housings not an issue i use electrical boxes for mine and thats $1.79 for box and cover with screws. crude, yes but just as effective.

[R.G.]

the o.p. had nothing to do with monetary cost's what i was saying when i buy parts i buy in bulk and wanted at least an estimate of how many different fx i could build with the rest of the parts i'd have left, and housings not an issue i use electrical boxes for mine and thats $1.79 for box and cover with screws. crude, yes but just as effective.

OK. Money is not an issue, because you buy cheap boxes. That sidesteps the cost of jacks, pots, and switches, but we'll assume they're free because they're bought in bulk too.

The answer is: there is no way to tell. Each effect circuit has its own particular values of resistors and caps. One effect I worked on recently had 31 10K resistors on the PCB. There is also the question of how many opamps fit in your hand, and whether you will use only opamps or also transistors. You can build exactly zero big muffs with a infinity of opamps. Likewise fuzz faces. If you are missing the particular value of cap you need for the effect, you can't build any effect that needs that value. There are 24 5% values per decade in the EIA standard values range for capacitors. That means from, say 10uF down you need 3x24 +1 values to cover them all, so that's 73 different values to buy to be sure you can have every cap value. There are seven decades of resistors between 1 ohm and 1M, so you'd need 7x24 or 168 different values of resistor to be sure you'd have the value you'd need.

But that's limiting the answer to existing effects designs. If you design your own effects, using only the parts in hand, the answer is at least one per opamp. Which is to say, there's no good answer that way either.

Well, there is an answer, if not a good one: 27. You can probably build 27 different effects. Or maybe 13. Or maybe half a dozen really complicated ones. Or...

[sbgodofmetal]

thanks rg to comment on the parts values i usually buy several 100 piece random value grab bags for each part i'll need as to ensure i'll at least have 5 or more of the indicated values by buying at least 3 random 100 piece bags. kind of expencive? not when they cost $6 for a 100pc. bag and a 2 pack of that particular part costs $2 $3 per 2 pack. and i buy no more than a few bags at a time to conserve $$$ so basically in the long run i'll have enough stock parts to build several fx

[sbgodofmetal]

the boxes i use are electrical components boxes and vary in size and shape, the cheapest of those is the single gang lightswitch box where i shop they're $0.77 a piece and the slotless cover panel's w/screws is $0.69 a piece. these are perfect for simple fx like the beginners project and several passive pedal fx as well.

[R.G.]

thanks rg to comment on the parts values i usually buy several 100 piece random value grab bags for each part i'll need as to ensure i'll at least have 5 or more of the indicated values by buying at least 3 random 100 piece bags. kind of expencive? not when they cost $6 for a 100pc. bag and a 2 pack of that particular part costs $2 $3 per 2 pack. and i buy no more than a few bags at a time to conserve $$$ so basically in the long run i'll have enough stock parts to build several fx

Let me present it another way. You have to pay $2-3 for two of a component? Wow.

Mouser sells resistors about $3 per hundred of the same value. You can get box style film capacitors from Mouser for $0.09 each, or less in quantity. Small electro caps (10uF/25V) are $0.04 each in ones. I just looked the prices up.

If you're a buy-in-bulk kind of guy, you might use the scheme that I have typed in here many times. Decide to make one effect. Make up the parts list and order 100-200 of each value of resistor at a few bucks per value. Expensive the first time, but after that, all those values are free. Order capacitors either just the values needed, or at the first quantity price break. If you do that, over time you find that each new effect you build requires one or two part values to be ordered, and you already have all the rest. My experience with random grab bags is that they are that - random. The price per part is not the cost of the bag divided by the number of parts. It's the cost of the bag divided by the number of parts you can actually use. The others are wasted money and time. Buying an excess of what you actually need for this one pedal both gets specific parts cheaper, but get values that are commonly used in the circuits you build.

It's a different way of buying in bulk, and more focused on what you really need.

[Venusblue]

In addition to what others have said, it's also very cost effective to build multiple effects into the same housing, or to put them directly into the guitar/amp.

[LucifersTrip]

There's almost no use in buying a grab bag of 1/4 watt resistors or ceramic caps when they are a penny each at Tayda, so you can choose exactly what you want. Further, common transistors are 2 pennies each & electrolytics are 3 pennies each.

[LucifersTrip]

There are 24 5% values per decade in the EIA standard values range for capacitors. That means from, say 10uF down you need 3x24 +1 values to cover them all, so that's 73 different values to buy to be sure you can have every cap value. There are seven decades of resistors between 1 ohm and 1M, so you'd need 7x24 or 168 different values of resistor to be sure you'd have the value you'd need.

True...and not true...

This brings up a question I've always pondered but never sat down to figure out.  How many different caps and transistors would it take to have every value you need if you can make combinations of 2, 3, 4 etc in series or parallel?  Those ceramic caps and 1/4 watt resistors are so small, I have no problem putting multiple ones together and fitting them in the same spot that one would take up on a perfboard.

[R.G.]

This brings up a question I've always pondered but never sat down to figure out.  How many different caps and transistors would it take to have every value you need if you can make combinations of 2, 3, 4 etc in series or parallel?  Those ceramic caps and 1/4 watt resistors are so small, I have no problem putting multiple ones together and fitting them in the same spot that one would take up on a perfboard.

Well... it depends on what limitations you put on how many resistors/caps you will stand for in combinations. If you have no limit on the number of resistors you'll allow to be series/paralleled, the obvious answer is only one value is needed, and it does not matter what it is. 

The answer is different if you restrict the series/parallel combination to no more than 100 resistors in a clot, no more than 10, no more that 4, etc. All different answers, and the answer varies again if you restrict how closely you have to hit the target value.

It would be an interesting mathematical problem to work out, though, if I was still into first-principles equation writing. 

A semi-standard question in first year EE finals is the infinite-sheet-of-one-ohm-resistors thing. Given an infinite plane of rectangularly connected 1-ohm resistors, what is the resistance between point x and point y?