Pedals - Just Can't Stop Building Them!

[Dirty_Boogie]

In the last month I've found a new hobby - building effects pedals from scratch. And now I can't stop. It's an obsession. I build them - sometimes they work, and sometimes they don't and I get really obsessed (and I rebuild the circuit until it does work.) I finish one, it sounds great, and then I want to build another. And the internet has schematics and build instructions for pretty much every pedal every designed. I mean, how many fuzz pedals does a person need? Apparently, many. I now understand why there are so many "boutique" pedal brands out there - you need a way to get rid of all the pedals you build!

They sound great - kind of like growing your own vegetables, which are always tastier than the ones from the supermarket.

The Fuzz on the left bumped an OD off my board - I use it constantly. The Tremolo on the right makes me want to play Born on the Bayou and How Soon is Now all night. And my next creation is to take an octave-up circuit I just built, and combine it with the fuzz (and add a second footswitch) to give me an octa-fuzz pedal.

Anyone else try their hand at building pedals, and are you as obsessed with building them as I am!?

 

[Rider1260]

I did ! Had some fun , made some pedals , met some cool folks ( and artists )
Tried to make a business of it ( PS - there is very little money in pedals )
I have changed how I get my sound these days so I don't used as many pedals at the moment but like I said I had some fun.

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[url=https://flic.kr/p/2bpDWEQ]IMG_1568 by https://www.flickr.com/photos/152274366@N08/[/url]

 

[Dirty_Boogie]

Very cool! I haven't built anything with that many knobs and switches. Yet.

What did you use for your labels and graphics? Decals, or etched into the enclosures?

No intention of making a business out of them. Purely for my own enjoyment, and to give away to friends and strangers.

 

[Lister]

I've never built one before but I've been eyeing the BYOC website and thinking of asking Santa for the British Blues Overdrive to try, it's supposed to be a Marshall Blues Breaker clone.

 

[WA Paul]

would be cool to try one! But I’m all thumbs on most things involving the word build...

 

[BMiller]

I've built a handful of pedals as well and it is addicting! I prefer building and modding amps though (equally addictive and much more expensive!)

 

[pac90]

Very very cool and creative

You know what I do, I look at old videos on you tube (thatpedalshow) and try and setup pedals and pedal board chains in my moddler. I guess its akinda creating, but somewhat cheating

 

[Dirty_Boogie]

Very very cool and creative

You know what I do, I look at old videos on you tube (thatpedalshow) and try and setup pedals and pedal board chains in my moddler. I guess its akinda creating, but somewhat cheating

Cool - what a good idea!

 

[toothace]

I built a Phase 90 clone...got a crossed solder somewhere so I need to sit down and trouble shoot...

It was fun to build (small fr!ggin' parts!)but disappointing when it didn't work. Someone asked "aren't those pedals pretty cheap?" Yes, they are. But it's not like building one

 

[Dirty_Boogie]

(small fr!ggin' parts!)

Ain't that the truth! Building these circuit boards made me realize it's time to get reading glasses. Ugh!

 

[Lister]

Ain't that the truth! Building these circuit boards made me realize it's time to get reading glasses. Ugh!

I plan on getting a BAMG-Big @ssed Magnifying Glass before I attempt to build a pedal, and a set of helping hands too. Sigh, getting old sucks...

 

[László]

I once built a Dynaco FM tuner when I was still in college. It actually worked the first time I turned it on, which amazed me.

Sounded great, too. Dynaco gear was pretty cool. Radial bought the Hafler brand, and David Hafler was the original guy behind Dynaco, so they’ve reissued an updated ST-70 tube stereo power amplifier, but it’s no longer a kit.

Sorry to digress. From that long-ago experience I can see how pedal building could become a cool hobby for lots of folks.

 

[Lister]

I once built a Dynaco FM tuner when I was still in college. It actually worked the first time I turned it on, which amazed me.

Sounded great, too. Dynaco gear was pretty cool. Radial bought the Hafler brand, and David Hafler was the original guy behind Dynaco, so they’ve reissued an updated ST-70 tube stereo power amplifier, but it’s no longer a kit.

Sorry to digress. From that long-ago experience I can see how pedal building could become a cool hobby for lots of folks.

Show off...I once built a Radio Shack crystal radio kit, so there!

 

[László]

Show off...I once built a Radio Shack crystal radio kit, so there!

Wasn’t hard, seriously. Kind of like building a plastic model, only using solder instead of glue. I suppose I damaged my brain either way from the fumes!

 

[Dirty_Boogie]

Wasn’t hard...

Yes, but you could probably see close up back in college - it's a whole different ball game now, as you try to squint to read resistor color codes and get the leads soldered in the right holes!

 

[Rider1260]

CNC for everything , engraved the cases after painting , made the boards ( traces and holes )
I really thought if I built something special, I (we ) could make a go of it.
We made the circuit boards, engraved and painted the cases and were going to build our own cases if it was an ongoing business.
Even got CRGTR to do some killer demos !!!

https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=tonal+insanity

Very cool! I haven't built anything with that many knobs and switches. Yet.

What did you use for your labels and graphics? Decals, or etched into the enclosures?

No intention of making a business out of them. Purely for my own enjoyment, and to give away to friends and strangers.

 

[Boogie]

I plan on getting a BAMG-Big @ssed Magnifying Glass before I attempt to build a pedal, and a set of helping hands too. Sigh, getting old sucks...

Get the magnifying lens built into a work light. That’s a lifesaver! I love the smell of a hot soldering iron in the morning!!!

Speaking of soldering iron, if you haven’t already, get a quality soldering station that can control the temp and is anti ESD. Life gets way easier with that meager purchase.

 

[László]

Yes, but you could probably see close up back in college - it's a whole different ball game now, as you try to squint to read resistor color codes and get the leads soldered in the right holes!

True. Also, I don’t remember the parts being all that tiny. The most difficult part of that kit was that the tuner knob was attached to a weighted flywheel with a piece of string (serious!) and I had a devil of a time getting the dial property calibrated.

But yeah, no glasses back then.

 

[InTooDeep]

I have enjoyed building some of the BYOC stuff. I built one of their classic compressors and a tube screamer clone. I use them quite a bit and they are solid pedals! I have not built my own effects pedals from scratch though, that does sound like fun!
My most recent creation is a footswitch for controlling my Boogie MK IV. I needed a small switch that could change between the 3 channels and activate the graphic EQ. I just recently figured out how to add LEDs, so that was my project last week. You will probably notice i value function over form for my pedal board! (I have my good looking PRS to make up for my pedal board!) The switch as you can see was mostly built from scraps I had, hence the extra holes in the box!

Functionally it is pretty neat, it uses 2 switches to select the 3 channels, the switch on the left switches between clean and overdrive, and the switch on the right selects which drive (crunch or saturated lead tone). The yellow or red LED is on but dimmed when I am playing on the clean (green LED) channel, so I don't have to remember which overdrive I selected last was. The below pic shows the clean channel selected with the red lead channel "pre-selected" When I select the overdrive side, the appropriate LED comes on full brightness. I am really happy with the clarity this will bring while playing on stage. I also added a "kick switch" for kicking on the graphic EQ, it didn't take any more space up on the top of the switch so it would remain simple to switch channels, but then I can kick on the EQ to add that extra sizzle when needed. The original foot controller for this amp would have taken up more than half of my board.

and a shot of my very DIY looking board, the white and yellow are the BYOC ones (probably obvious!) Man, posting this pic makes me realize what a mess this board is haha!

 

[Dirty_Boogie]

[QUOTE=" You will probably notice i value function over form "[/QUOTE]
Very cool!

And if it don't function, you can't perform.

BTW, you can get little plugs from the pedal parts suppliers to fill in the unused enclosure holes if needed.