Guitar Gear Forum

So I haven't been on here much because of general life stuff, but I thought I'd share my push towards some good ol DIY stuff.

I've been talking with my friend Nick from Dunwich Amps and he's been helping me put together a general parts list for building pedals. So far I've got almost all the resistors and capacitors I should need for quite a few builds. I've got jacks, knobs and some enclosures on the way.

I have 3 PCBs I will be putting together over the next few weeks, and I'll update them here.

My first post will be my newly forming workshop in my basement. I bought a couple small parts organizers (for all the pedal parts), a decent work bench along with some proper lighting. I have a bunch of stuff on my "want" list for this, but I'm hoping this will be a solid start to a fun, rewarding hobby. I plan to make a bunch of pedals first, hopefully getting familiar enough to design a few of my own. Then in the long run, I'd love to build a kit amp, like a Weber or something...

Anyway, heres my new workspace;



I'll keep you guys updated on my builds and what I'm up to. I really hope I can put in some hours and make this a lot of fun!

Looks dope. Better than my converted kitchen table complete with towel and plank of wood

looks cool so far...I'm doing the same thing, in my basement (my Wife calls it "the Dungeon" ). Keep us updated.

Care to post your parts list? I'd love to get into building pedals too.

facefirst wrote:Care to post your parts list? I'd love to get into building pedals too.

IMO, what I did was buy the resistor and capacitor kits from smallbear.

The resistors are almost every value you would need
The capacitors offer a good selection to start with.
Get a number of stereo jacks, and mono jacks.
An assortment of pots...These can get really expensive, I'd start by looking at some designs you want to build and go from there.
9v jacks for power
LED bezels
LEDs
Selection of diodes...again, check build sheets/schematics. You'll see a lot of 1n4001, but 1n914, 1n34a, BAT41, BAT46 are all a good start.
Transistors...there really is no way you could build up as many as builds need...Each build is going to require certain ones, however a lot of them can be swapped around if you don't have the exact one. Understand pinouts, because some trannies have their pins reversed from other trannies in that family. Silicon, Germanium, FET, etc...What I do is when I need trannies for a project, I'll buy multiples of that, so that I have extras.
IC's...see above...Exact same scenario, minus the silicon, germanium stuff
4PDT switches...These are the switches used for true bypass...can add up quickly at 3-5 bucks a pop.
WIRE...you will need lots of wire...Get several different colors to help in your first few builds.
Enclosures...self explanatory.

You will also need various sizes of screw drivers.
Good wire strippers
Good wire snips
Assorted needle nose plyers (I use these to bend my leads)
Good soldering iron (I prefer a soldering station...Weller for me)
Desoldering braid
Desoldering pump

I highly suggest building yourself a test box so you can hook your circuit up and test it before boxing it. THE BIGGEST advice I can give is testing before boxing.

I have built many circuits, and it's a rush. I started by buying a couple Madbeanpedals boards, which are awesome by the way...And what I thought would be a hobby where I could drop 30 bucks here 40 bucks there...ended up with me dropping over 1k to get all the stuff I needed for multiple projects I don't care though, I hate waiting on parts or tools...and since I'm limited on time, when I want to build a pedal, I want to make sure I can just sit down and do it, without going online and ordering what I'd need because I piecemealed it That's just me though, and I'm neurotic

Great hobby, and tons of fun.

If you really want to go into a very dark hole of nothingness...click on this website and thank me later: http://tagboardeffects.blogspot.com

god the LAST thing i need is part-to-build-pedal gas. fuuuu

facefirst wrote:Care to post your parts list? I'd love to get into building pedals too.

Honestly, I just looked through the BOMs for the PCBs I bought and just went off those. I used a mouser for all my resistors (they're cheaper there in bulk) LEDs and some of the capacitors. I also picked up stuff from Mammoth for anything that was cheaper and/or not available from Mouser. I bought all my jacks and bezels and switches from BLMS.

I haven't got anything from small ear, but I've heard good things about their resistor and cap "kits".

Nice woodworker's bench.

Bob Savage wrote:Nice woodworker's bench.

It's my guitar repair/electronics/woodworking bench.

Believe it or not, I got it at Harbor Freight. It's actually OK quality, although I added wood glue to the assembly process. For lightweight type of work I'll be using it for,it's perfect.

More up your alley, I'm planning on building myself a little rack mount case for my computer interface/hard drive etc... I hope to get that started in the next couple weeks.

oh man, i've been looking at that work bench.

Good for the money?

Looks sweet man. Great space to dedicate to it

homestar_kevin wrote:oh man, i've been looking at that work bench.

Good for the money?

Looks sweet man. Great space to dedicate to it

It is better constructed than I thought. The drawers are a weak point, but I don't plan on putting anything too heavy in them anyway. I used some wood glue when assembling it and it seems sturdy to me.

I started on my diy rack case for my recording gear. Nothing too fancy yet, just some pine and butt joints, glued and screwed. I'm going to sand it today...

once the glue sets up - back out the screws - drill out the holes - and drive in some appropriately sized (glued) dowels.
Then you can round over/sand/stain/paint to your hearts content.

mamberg wrote:once the glue sets up - back out the screws - drill out the holes - and drive in some appropriately sized (glued) dowels.
Then you can round over/sand/stain/paint to your hearts content.

Too late. I countersink my screws and wood fill them...

So I had to scrap the last rack case because I made it the wrong height... But I made another one, and it's been stained and poly'd. I have come to the realization that I kibda stink at staining and finishing stuff in general. I think it's because I lack patience when it comes to finishing.. Anyway, here's a pic of the progress..

Finished up the rack today! Should I add handles?

Worked on a couple pedals over the weekend. One is a Klon clone and one is a CE2 clone. Both are from MadBeans.

Finished my test rig today. Can't wait to test it out. I plan on adding the test probe once I have a need for it.

Finished up my MadBeans Pork Barrel PCB. I'm just waiting on the enclosure from PPP and one last IC (MN3101) and I can box it up!

Diocide wrote:Finished up my MadBeans Pork Barrel PCB. I'm just waiting on the enclosure from PPP and one last IC (MN3101) and I can box it up!

I love my Pork Barrel. Did you do the Depth/LED mod? (Can't see pics at work) I suggest that mod because it adds more crazy on the top end of the pots sweep, but you can still set it to low-moderate levels.

I did leave the resistor out in preparation for that mod.

I've gotten in the IC's and the enclosure. Next week ill drill it out and then it will start making some noise!

I started to work on a modified Atari Punk Console (tone generator) for a friend of mine. It makes weird sounds. the pots are a rate for an LFO, two wave controls and a volume control. I got done drilling out the enclosure (from PPP) when I realized I didn't have a 1m B pot for the rate! Anywho. I'll finish it up when I get the pot in a couple days.

I also have a second PCB which I'm going to use with a joystick to control the two wave controls. It should be pretty damn cool when it's done.

So I finished up my Pork Barrel from MadBeans.

I had to trouble shoot a bit because it didn't work properly out of the gate. I check my voltages at all my ICS to start and noticed that IC2, the TLO62 which acts as the LFO, wasn't powered properly. I swapped the IC and had the same result.

It ended up that I hadn't soldered one row of th IC socket (D'Oh). Once I remidied that, it worked like a charm! Here she is!





I did the LFO/LED mod which shows the rate of the LFO theough the LED (makes it blink in time with it). Pretty neat overall and is definitely comparable to my CE-2 unit. I can do a side by side comparison if anyone's interested.

RyanDistortion wrote:Looks dope. Better than my converted kitchen table complete with towel and plank of wood

Wow, you've got a table

So I've been working on a Madbeans Sunking 2, which is a Klon clone... Heres a couple pics. Finished it up today. I'll take a quick video sooner or later..