Best budget component supplier?

[nexekho]

I've had a look around but couldn't find anything about actually buying the parts to make pedals - that is, switches and so on.  I'm sure someone must have asked before but I can't spot anything.  I ask because the only place I know of within reasonable distance of Stafford (UK) is Maplin which is horrendously expensive and poorly stocked lacking half the parts I would need.  I've had Rapid Electronics suggested which seems to be about a quarter of the price.  Is there anywhere else?

Thanks.

[Vince_b]

Try Tayda Electronic, the shipping can be slow but it's very cheap.
http://www.taydaelectronics.com/servlet/StoreFront

[frequencycentral]

The best, and cheapest, place to buy components in the UK........is China. 

[quintus]

I use Futurlec good prices for UK but delivery can be 14 days.

http://www.futurlec.com/index.shtml

Quintus

[boogietone]

There should be several threads that discuss suppliers of components. Different suppliers will have different prices at different times. It can be a bit of work to find the "best" deal. Note that switches, pots, and enclosures will be the most expensive parts of a build. Take a look at the following: smallbear electronics, pedal parts, effects connection, mouser, digikey, futurlec.

[Minion]

Try Tayda Electronic, the shipping can be slow but it's very cheap.
http://www.taydaelectronics.com/servlet/StoreFront

These Guys are in Thailand and believe it on not they Don"t sell fake parts and there Prices are absolutly rediculously Low .... they don"t have a Huge selection but what they do have is really cheap and the shipping is really quite Fast , I have gotten my packages in less than 7 days (to canada) which is faster than if it was mailed within my own country .....

Cheers

[artifus]

http://www.bitsbox.co.uk

[jimmybjj]

Try Tayda Electronic, the shipping can be slow but it's very cheap.
http://www.taydaelectronics.com/servlet/StoreFront

These Guys are in Thailand and believe it on not they Don"t sell fake parts and there Prices are absolutly rediculously Low .... they don"t have a Huge selection but what they do have is really cheap and the shipping is really quite Fast , I have gotten my packages in less than 7 days (to canada) which is faster than if it was mailed within my own country .....

Cheers

+1  tayda is fast! I'm in Florida, they are way faster than most American companies. Especially small bear they are the slowest of all the companies in my experience.

[Vince_b]

+1  tayda is fast! I'm in Florida, they are way faster than most American companies. Especially small bear they are the slowest of all the companies in my experience.

I'm pretty confused by the fact that most people are saying that Tayda is fast. I live in Canada and when I order from Tayda it takes 3-4 weeks for my order to arrive. Smallbear takes like 3-4 days.
But I haven't ordered from Tayda since a couple of months, maybe they recently changed their shipping method.

[LucifersTrip]

+1  tayda is fast! I'm in Florida, they are way faster than most American companies. Especially small bear they are the slowest of all the companies in my experience.

I'm pretty confused by the fact that most people are saying that Tayda is fast. I live in Canada and when I order from Tayda it takes 3-4 weeks for my order to arrive. Smallbear takes like 3-4 days.
But I haven't ordered from Tayda since a couple of months, maybe they recently changed their shipping method.

I'm in the US and of recent, I think for many items they are shipping from the US (US return address & postmark). I get stuff in < week usually.  Maybe they've set up in other countries also...

[deadastronaut]

+1 for bitsbox....

good resistor/cap pack deals....

[derevaun]

I've been happy with Tayda for cheap stock-up stuff. Their shipping seems to be based on a reasonably fair calculation of weight/volume. I'm thinking they send many multiple shipments together to a US (NY) location, whereupon individual orders get sent out.

My only complaint about Tayda/Futurlec is that Visa gift/debit cards (which are useful to limit potential damage from credit card hacking) usually blacklist Thailand and Singapore (Hong Kong too) and reject the transaction afte rit's been placed. Places like Mouser suck for debit cards too, because they estimate shipping and then revise the charge to actual shipping cost, which means you can't carefully exhaust a debit card with them.

[EATyourGuitar]

yeah tayda is shipping from the USA now. not sure if they are picking & packing orders in thailand though. its amazing that resistors are a penny when my gut tells me that the labor involved to pick & pack would cost a lot in the usa. I've never had a bad experience with tayda in 3 or 4 orders.

[iccaros]

I use Futurlec good prices for UK but delivery can be 14 days.

http://www.futurlec.com/index.shtml

Quintus

I will never order from Futurlec again, No contact unless I contact them no information on back order or shipping until I asked, and took over a month for my parts to ship. They were back ordering because of a single part, no option to ship a partial shipping, and each time I would ask (give them two to three days more they they said it would take to get the back order) they would change which part was back ordered.)

Mouser and digikey, The Store here http://www.diystompboxes.com/zencart/ , Pedal parts plus and Hofman amps.. and http://tubesandmore.com/ all take about a week to get to me, Hofman is about 3 days. For foot switches, ebay, I just bought 30 for 2.50 each.. They all test nice and look and feel the same as others I have ordered.

[nexekho]

Thanks again for the replies, looked up all the parts on bitsbox and not only do they have the exact parts instead of a near match, their shipping is cheaper, and get this!

Maplin: No CMOS 555 so I would have to build a full astable, stray from the Tiny Trem design and £30 (yes, £30)
Rapid: Stung on delivery and the VAT was pretty deceptive, came to ~£15.
Bitsbox: £6.26 + £1.50 delivery!

YOU GUYS ROCK.

(BTW: it's a bit more than a standard Tiny Trem because I've added a bypass switch and am using two LDRs + stereo jacks because my setup is all stereo at the moment.)

[deadastronaut]

Thanks again for the replies, looked up all the parts on bitsbox and not only do they have the exact parts instead of a near match, their shipping is cheaper, and get this!

Maplin: No CMOS 555 so I would have to build a full astable, stray from the Tiny Trem design and £30 (yes, £30)
Rapid: Stung on delivery and the VAT was pretty deceptive, came to ~£15.
Bitsbox: £6.26 + £1.50 delivery!

YOU GUYS ROCK.

(BTW: it's a bit more than a standard Tiny Trem because I've added a bypass switch and am using two LDRs + stereo jacks because my setup is all stereo at the moment.)

great, i made a stereo panning version too...