any Canadians????

[Canucker]

did anybody see the digital multi meter in this weeks Canadian Tire flyer? Its in there for $10 instead of $40...would it be a good choice for the kind of stuff we're doing here?

I have that one - for 10 loonies it's a steal, but it's kind of the bare minimum I would say.  It also comes as a kit with a case: http://www.canadiantire.ca/AST/browse/6/Tools/2/Electrical/ElectricalTesters/PRDOVR~0520064P/Mastercraft+3+Piece+Multimeter+Kit.jsp?locale=en which I've seen on sale in the past for about $15-20.  My only beef with the little one is that it doesn't measure resistance over 2M.  I've never had any problems with it, but I ended up getting it's bigger brother http://www.canadiantire.ca/AST/browse/6/Tools/2/Electrical/ElectricalTesters/PRDOVR~0520052P/Autoranging+Digital+Multimeter.jsp?locale=en when it went on sale.  Auto-ranging is really nice to have, as is capacitance and transistor testing.  It also has continuity beep, bigger display, backlight and a few other little things.   I only use the other one now when I need two meters at the same time.

I'd say if you don't have a half-decent meter right now go for it as it will always be useful as a backup or second meter.  If you can hold out, wait for one with at least capacitance and transistor testing.

I just got the big one!!!! It looks awesome. It looks like I can understand most of it and even dare I say learn and learn much easier then I would have!!!! Thanks so much for convincing me to hold out for the bigger one...now can I borrow some gas money for the week?

[GGBB]

I just got the big one!!!! It looks awesome. It looks like I can understand most of it and even dare I say learn and learn much easier then I would have!!!! Thanks so much for convincing me to hold out for the bigger one...now can I borrow some gas money for the week?

Sweet!

[rousejeremy]

Heads up Toronto. Creatron now sells Taiwanese 1590B and BB enclosures. Honson has moved a few doors east and the electronics are in the basement, in case it hasn't been mentioned yet.

[Canucker]

Heads up Toronto. Creatron now sells Taiwanese 1590B and BB enclosures. Honson has moved a few doors east and the electronics are in the basement, in case it hasn't been mentioned yet.

how much are the enclosures??? I was gonna ask about Honson a few days ago but it turned out I wasn't going to be heading that way after all.

[kurtlives]

Heads up Toronto. Creatron now sells Taiwanese 1590B and BB enclosures. Honson has moved a few doors east and the electronics are in the basement, in case it hasn't been mentioned yet.

What's Honson's new address?

[davent]

Chris, the Home Hardware moved a half block east from it's old location, well signed easy to see. Either 290 or 306 College. Honson in the basement.

The last batch of Hammonds i bought were tagged Made in Taiwan so maybe those are what Creaton is selling. Digikey sell the Hammonds for ~$6.50 each in a pack of ten.

[Canucker]

Chris, the Home Hardware moved a half block east from it's old location, well signed easy to see. Either 290 or 306 College. Honson in the basement.

The last batch of Hammonds i bought were tagged Made in Taiwan so maybe those are what Creaton is selling. Digikey sell the Hammonds for ~$6.50 each in a pack of ten.

so you can't buy them one at a time? which size were those?

[Canucker]

Interesting read on the enclosures.... http://www.valvolux.com/valvolux-amplifiers-blog/2-the-preston-amp-tech/48-workshop-investigation-01-hammond-1590b-vs-1550b.html

[Canucker]

A1 lists them at $6.75 for one and Digikey says $7.40....according to they're web sites.

[davent]

Chris, the Home Hardware moved a half block east from it's old location, well signed easy to see. Either 290 or 306 College. Honson in the basement.

The last batch of Hammonds i bought were tagged Made in Taiwan so maybe those are what Creaton is selling. Digikey sell the Hammonds for ~$6.50 each in a pack of ten.

so you can't buy them one at a time? which size were those?

Those were B's, buying singly, less then 10, i think they're $7.24 apiece, next price break after 10 is 05 pieces and you save another good chunk of change. http://www.digikey.ca/product-detail/en/1590B/HM151-ND/131015

[nightendday]

I'm in southern ontario, and I regularly order from mouser, smallbear, tayda (now), with no issues at all. 

[davent]

I'm in southern ontario, and I regularly order from mouser, smallbear, tayda (now), with no issues at all.  

I need to place an order with Mouser but am totally unsure about their shipping options. Been spoiled by Digikey, $8 overnight shipping on orders under $200, free shipping for orders over $200. No delivery surprises, additional fees, doorway ransoms, done. Check out Digikey, impossible to beat service. (Have till 8pm to receive next business day delivery.)

Which shipping option is best from Mouser? They show $20 shipping with FED EX or UPS but i get stung big time by the private couriers for international shipments, has Mouser made an arrangement with them so the $20 fee is all you pay or do you pay more on delivery. USPS at $8 looks good but chances are pretty good that i'd get charged $5 customs handling fee plus HST so the $8 could quickly grow to be more then the $20 option of the other companies. And again the private couriers show free shipping for orders over $200. What's your experience with Mouser shipping to Canada?

http://ca.mouser.com/EstimateShipping/EstimateShipping.aspx

Thanks
dave

[nightendday]

I'm in southern ontario, and I regularly order from mouser, smallbear, tayda (now), with no issues at all.  

I need to place an order with Mouser but am totally unsure about their shipping options. Been spoiled by Digikey, $8 overnight shipping on orders under $200, free shipping for orders over $200. No delivery surprises, additional fees, doorway ransoms, done. Check out Digikey, impossible to beat service. (Have till 8pm to receive next business day delivery.)

Which shipping option is best from Mouser? They show $20 shipping with FED EX or UPS but i get stung big time by the private couriers for international shipments, has Mouser made an arrangement with them so the $20 fee is all you pay or do you pay more on delivery. USPS at $8 looks good but chances are pretty good that i'd get charged $5 customs handling fee plus HST so the $8 could quickly grow to be more then the $20 option of the other companies. And again the private couriers show free shipping for orders over $200. What's your experience with Mouser shipping to Canada?

http://ca.mouser.com/EstimateShipping/EstimateShipping.aspx

Thanks
dave

All I've ever used is usps and very rarely get hit with big fees.

[12Bass]

Mouser via USPS seems to be the best option, but pales in comparison to Digi-Key.  Mouser costs more and has much slower delivery.  I only order from them if I can't get the items somewhere else.

[Canucker]

I'm in Toronto.  I get the vast majority of my stuff in-store from either Sayal (I work 5 minutes from their main store) or A1 Parts.  I occasionally resort to Active Tech across the street from Sayal, but they have poor selection for pedal builders and they are expensive.  I mainly frequent these places because they are far easier to get to for me than Honson or Creatron, which I have been to in the past but didn't find a whole lot there that I couldn't find elsewhere.  AA Electronics in Mississauga is also good for some things and they are 2 doors down from Sayal's Mississauga branch in the same strip plaza.  None of the places have everything I want - it's always a little from here, a little from there.  A lot of my hardware - footswitches, jacks - I just get at the guitar store (usually Cosmo).  I like A1 best but I don't know why - the owner is an odd sort that for some reason I don't trust completely - but he answers all my questions, the place is a dump (although they are slowly improving), and their prices are really high for some things (but cheap for others).  I've never ordered pedal parts from anywhere online except Banzai Music, which was quite reasonable and surprisingly fast even though from Germany - their shipping was cheaper than some US outlets.  They have a really great selection of knobs and pots, and have some hard to find stuff like LM308s and BC108s.

What do you actually buy at A1? what do you consider some of they're reasonable items and what would you consider expensive?

[GGBB]

What do you actually buy at A1? what do you consider some of they're reasonable items and what would you consider expensive?

I buy most of my items from Sayal (not A1) because they are easier to get to (5 min from work - I can go on my lunch break).  Neither place is anywhere as cheap as online, but I'm always buying just a couple of things here and there, so shipping charges would add up if I always ordered online.  So what I consider as "cheap" is relative to other brick and mortar stores in the GTA.

At A1, I would say that resistors and caps are cheap and you can by in singles (at Sayal you always have to buy a small pack although the per item cost is less at Sayal).  Hardware (Hammond boxes, pots, knobs, switches etc.) is reasonable and cheaper than Sayal.  Haven't bought ICs or transistors from them so I can't really say what their pricing is like, but they do list their prices online if you're curious.

A word of warning about A1 though.  Since a lot of their stuff appears to be surplus, be careful when you buy.  I recently bought a small handful of 22n box caps that turned out to be all 27n - they were marked as 22n (I mean printed on the cap itself as well as the box on the shelf that held them) but all of them measured very close to 27n.  So I guess they may be buying QA rejects from time to time.  I imagine they would have given me a refund, but I just put them in the parts drawer since I didn't have any 27n caps anyway (may never need them).

[davent]

27n, Rebote Delay, had to get some for that board.

[marcdemersKNG]

This guy, from Kingston Ontario. I order most of my stuff from the states, really its hard not to.. plus I've found better prices and larger selection.  And thats not just for pedals, thats guitars as well.

[Canucker]

Heads up Toronto. Creatron now sells Taiwanese 1590B and BB enclosures. Honson has moved a few doors east and the electronics are in the basement, in case it hasn't been mentioned yet.

I was going to do the missisagua shops yesterday but instead drove into toronto and finally went into Creatron....super well organized, reasonable prices and sometimes two different quality options....I just found it weird how it didn't seem like that had a lot of stuff...so of course I went to Honsons too...each place had some stuff cheaper then the other....I got one of each case size at Creatron.... $7.50 for the B size and $9.65 for the BB size....I asked about a discount if I buy five of each...the guys said I would have to buy twenty of once size and the discount would be ten percent....sure don't need that much right now.

[Devius]

Kelowna Bc here. If your down in Vancouver, check out Mode Electronics down there. They have some good shit. They order direct from Newark so you can save on shipping. Small Bear is a great place to get caps and stuff too.