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aberdeen-music

DIY effects pedals


Chris

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In a moment of what I'm sure will turn out to be supreme folly I bought a DIY kit for a boost pedal last night. My thinking was "I have a soldering iron" - which I can barely use - "how hard can it be to solder a few transisters to a board and fit it into a box?"

Has anyone else gotten into building their own pedals? Am I set for a world of hot solder induced pain??

The kit I bought was from http://diypedalkits.com/ which seems like a good way to get started. Admittedly not saving a lot of money from there but I guess if I manage it without causing serious injury or burning down the house then I can look to more complex builds and buying my own parts in the future.

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I'm gonna start building a PSU when I get funds together for some decent, isolated transformers. Also found some great schematics for a tubescreamer clone and an orange squeeze compressor somewhere. Lots of fun to be had!

On the distant horizon, I'm hoping to build a tube preamp pedal, too. Get some nice growl!

Those kits seem like an ace starting point. It's fairly important to have a half decent soldering iron though, especially if you're a noob at it. Cheaping out on it means it'll be unreliable (too hot one minute, too cool the next) and it'll all be much harder than it needs to be. That said, you definitely don't need to spend £150 on a weller job either. The one I have only set me back about £20 quid off eBay.

xx

EDIT: Some cracking info here: http://basschat.co.uk/topic/78585-diy-effects/

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Usless info maybe, as i didnt build mine, but i bought a Univox Fuzzrite clone ages ago CHEAP! and its amazing, its a vintage sounding thing that nails The Stooges guitar tone almost perfectly! Heard some online demos of BYOC's - Beaver and it sounded fantastic too, theyre a bit more pricey though.

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Stroopy, Jake, did you guys understand electronics before you starting messing about or were you soldering n00bs as well?

I found some great sites last night but they're bookmarked at home. Will post them later.

I'm an electronics technician. But that doesn't mean building one of these will be simple. I'm getting mine off of poodle's pedal parts. i've also been looking in to how to make pcbs at home. it's all surprisingly simple.

some sites...

http://www.tonepad.com/

http://www.engineersgarage.com/tutorials/how-to-make-a-pcb-at-home?page=1

http://pedalparts.co.uk/

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i've also been looking in to how to make pcbs at home. it's all surprisingly simple.

http://www.engineersgarage.com/tutorials/how-to-make-a-pcb-at-home?page=1

Wow, that is surprisingly simple.

I saw that poodle parts site. Looks good, with a massive selection but I think the site I bought from looked a slightly better bet for a total beginner like me.

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Wow, that is surprisingly simple.

I saw that poodle parts site. Looks good, with a massive selection but I think the site I bought from looked a slightly better bet for a total beginner like me.

yeah. the idea is to find the schematics, then do it all from scratch myself and save money. obviously, when it comes to buying parts, i'll need to build a lot of pedals to make it worth while.

I think i'll go for a set for my first one. i can get the mxr+ pcb, parts and drilled enclosure for under £30. Add on the knobs and delivery and it's significantly less than an actual MXR+. I'd just be doing it at lunches at work. we have all the stuff you'd need. if you're ever having trouble with the electronics just give me a shout and i'll take it to work.

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I'm full of ideas regarding pedals but lack the confidence to just start soldering shit together. I'm really tempted to get this kit. As in certain songs I find myself needing to turn on/off two or three pedals at once which can be tricky. I could set it up to have a glimmering delayed clean tone which uses more than one pedal and turn it off and on just using one then bring in fuzzy filth in without having to muck about too much. I seen somebody selling homemade bypass loops on ebay for just a wee bit more than those kits are selling for though. I think I just need to man up and dig my soldering iron out of the shed.

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