Being Cost Effective?

[MikeSaye]

Hi!

I've just finished by first pedal (a Shin-ei Companion Fuzz clone from GGG). It worked first time I plugged it up, which was extremely gratifying given my bad soldering. . .

I'd like to build several more pedals and I'm wondering how much I can reasonably expect to pay. In other words, about how much money do you guys have in the average pedal?

Saw a guy on youtube who says he can build most pedals he wants for 20-30 bucks. Is that about right?

Best,

Mike

[iccaros]

I find I spend about $30 on pedals I have built before, If I am modifying or designing it can cost over $100. counting Screw up, bad paint, and buying 10 of things I seam to not use again.

Also I try to build two pedals at a time, one to give away and one to keep. IT no fun if you don't share.

RG wrote on geflex --> http://www.geofex.com/effxfaq/bldfx.htm $31 - $51...

[darron]

Around $30-$50 per pedal sounds very reasonable. it depends if you put in all the expensive mojo parts which cost much and gain little. if you wanted to build with only ceramic caps and cheap enclosures etc. you could still have a great enclosure that looks fantastic and sounds the same.

i save cash by having trade accounts with distributors and buying in bulk when i have to order stuff from overseas. if you're in the states then you could build even cheaper too!


this doesn't take into account the cost of running my light and soldering iron.

i have a doco which goes over parts quality a bit: http://www.dazatronyx.com/support/quality/

[glops]

Depends on how you do it.  If you want to make something that looks professional and slick you will probably pay more in the end for supplies and consumables.  If you are making things for yourself.  I recently built a pedal that cost 10 bucks for the PCB and maybe 5 for the parts and hardware. Really depends what you want in the end.  I recently ran out of footswitches and was dreading making an order that would cost 25 bucks just for 5 switches plus shipping costs.   Since I knew these pedals were things I just wanted to tryout I ended up using DPDT toggles that I got for pennies at an estate sale.  That and the 75 cent switchcraft jacks I get from the local surplus house make the cost go way down.  And if you find any type of enclosure that you can put a circuit in, you could in the end, make something almost for free.   

[azrael]

i think i spend the most money on enclosures (4-10 dollars), switches (2-5 dollars) and finishing supplies. decals, vinyl, spray paint....it adds up.

[darron]

i made an excel sheet for all the pedals i make a couple of years ago. back then it cost me more, but a simple booster with all the nice finishing cost about $40. I live in australia too so some stuff needed to be posted.

i tired to factor ever cent i could think of.

[petemoore]

  Find or make a couple jacks, 1 pot, and also make the box costs about = 0.00.
   Raco box is a bux sixty three here, but then the JB weld needed makes the total per RACO conversion enclosure about 1.75, with real jacks more like 5 buxx, figure 10 with a good 3pdt.
   If you have a battery snap, a freeboost could maybe be cobbled from salvaged CRT PCB parts, especially if it has an identifiable usable transistor on it. It's not really free because it is long ugly job, starting with mostly new parts is worth every penny ime.
  But once up to enough+extra 'wrapper boxes' are attained, the least desirable wrapper can be used as a 'swap-circuit house', because most circuit features require similar or identical wrappers [give or take a pothole or two] with supply/connectivity/bypass switching, swapping circuits can be a cost saving method even though the chances are [based on personal experience] the 'bumped out' circuits will end up lost/forgotten or shelved indefinitely.
   By housing a number of circuits in one 'wrapper', you can expect fairly substantial savings on jacks and connector cables, my jacks often cost RS prices, so that and another cable [for me] would be 20 buxx already.
   The test-jig is recommended at all times. Take your perf or breadboard circuit to the box w/jacks and insulated tray on top, clip the test-clips to the appropriate circuit points [input to input jack tip, output to output jack tip, gnd to both jacks]...set it up and test/tweek it, find the placement in or out of the chain [while modding, determine if you actually would like it in the chain.
 
     

[Electron Tornado]

Buying in quantity will help keep costs down. Also consider the time it sometimes takes to source parts. I also keep packing slips from parts suppliers so I can remember where I bought certain parts, and their respective catalog numbers, which makes it faster to find them when I need to make another order.

You can also use parts removed from broken electronics (clock radios, etc). Here's an article: http://guitarkitbuilder.com/content/spare-parts-save-more-money

[Mark Hammer]

Your costs will descend over time, as you:
- start to gain cofidence in your abilities and buy supplies in greater volume
- figure out where to get what the cheapest (including remembering what you need right now when you happen to stumble onto some potential bargains)
- get certain overarching costs out of the way (e.g., tools, wire, etchant)
- start making your own boards efficiently
- stop making mistakes and frying components
- figure out cheap workarounds

Heck, over time, you can start finding that the most expensive part of your pedal is the damn knobs!

[therecordingart]

$20 to $60 on parts usually. Over the years I've spent a fortune on tools and supplies. DIY to save money seems foolish because I don't think I've saved anything. When you build a pedal you don't like it usually isn't resold or doesn't have resale value. I'm coming to the realization that commercial pedals under $100 are probably worth buying and anything over that is worth DIY'ing considering you'll probably spend the same $20 to $60 on parts for either one.

[wavley]

Yeah, I'm right in that $20 to $60 range for most stuff too.  I don't really build to be cost effective and I certainly don't build to sell. I just want to have complete control over my guitar sound and understand why everything sounds the way it does.

[therecordingart]

Yeah, I'm right in that $20 to $60 range for most stuff too.  I don't really build to be cost effective and I certainly don't build to sell. I just want to have complete control over my guitar sound and understand why everything sounds the way it does.

Definitely agree.

[Hides-His-Eyes]

a reliable and ugly pedal you could built for maybe $20 depending what's inside. The big money goes on making it look pretty (inside and out)

[Paul Marossy]

Heck, over time, you can start finding that the most expensive part of your pedal is the damn knobs!

And the bypass switch. 

[EATyourGuitar]

before the price increase, I was getting 10 packs of 4site 1590B shipped for $54. so $5.40  I'm in the USA. the EH footswitches are $4 at pedal parts plus, not including shipping. the pots and knobs are $1 + $1 each. cheap jacks are $0.80. I'm now using neutrik open jacks for $1.15 each from pedal parts plus.

$6.40 - 1590B
$2.30 - jacks
$0.95 - power jack
$4.00 - footswitch
$4.00 - two pots with knobs
$0.01 - red LED no bezel
$0.40 - perfboard
$0.40 - wire & solder
$1.00 - resistors, caps, diodes, transistors
-----------------------
$19.46

not including shipping. shipping can be $8 total or $0.50 per pedal if you cost average it on a big order.

[BoxOfSnoo]

before the price increase, I was getting 10 packs of 4site 1590B shipped for $54. so $5.40  I'm in the USA. the EH footswitches are $4 at pedal parts plus, not including shipping. the pots and knobs are $1 + $1 each. cheap jacks are $0.80. I'm now using neutrik open jacks for $1.15 each from pedal parts plus.
...
not including shipping. shipping can be $8 total or $0.50 per pedal if you cost average it on a big order.

1 single switch at PPP to Canada: $22 shipping alone.  I'm sold on buying switches (and a couple of other things) from here, tested, fast and reasonable!

[CynicalMan]

PPP's shipping calculator to Canada doesn't work properly and it usually overcharges. They just figure out the correct shipping amount and they refund you the difference. For example, I usually make orders with around $20 of parts from them, including an enclosure, and shipping is around $11 to Southern Ontario.

I'm in Canada, and I find that I usually spend around $50 for a normal 1590B effect. However, around $20 of that is shipping. There aren't any Canadian pedal electronics dealers AFAIK. You USAers are lucky.  

[MikeSaye]

Hey! This site is excellent. Thank you very much for all the feedback!

[joegagan]

i have heard of people getting lucky and finding old broken audio mixers for free or next to nothing broken. that would be a whole lotta 1/4" jacks very cheap.

there are lots of free TVs on the curbs these days, if you have time you could strip them down. budget some $ for dremel saw blades as they come in handy for cutting stuff aprt to quickly get at the good stuff.

don't fall for dremel's scam called EZ whatever - the sawblades do not stay on the crap arbor worth a damn. just stick with the std old style.

the good one:


if you want diamond edge metal blades, harbor freight has them at about one tenth the cost of dremel blades at home depot.

wear good eye protection unless the searing whitehot pain of getting crap dug out of your cornea is your idea of a good time.

if you find someone who has truebypass modded alot of wahs, get their bag of used SPDT switches and fashion a way to switch two at once for a very cheap dpdt.

[petemoore]

  "JUst couldn't get anything out of it"...''just take it'' this was a super digital effector rack unit, amazing...nothing wrong with it, patch cable error I suspected.
   Just stowed a big PA400 mixer/amp/box thing...jacks and pots 'n usable stuff for months or years there. Dude asked 'can it be fixed?', I sedd ''well yea, but your bang for buxx is much more sure-fire with new, inexpensively produced working units w/warranties''. That's been my experience...I like new or newish mixing boards, period.
   I'm sure there's a huge power supply iron in there...