Flipster - Easy first build?

[Oh! Henry]

I think the title sais it all. After hearing some clips I want a flipster. I've never built my own pedal, but have at some point done some soldering at some point in my life and didn't totally suck at it. Would this be a good way to start?

I also want to try the GGG Brassmaster clone but have read it's a difficult build. How is it harder than others?

Thanks

[rratajski]

The GGG board has well-spaced out pads, but the wiring is tedious. It's not pretty when it's done b/c there's no way to not have wires running all over. If it doesn't work on the first fire-up, it's a ***** to troubleshoot.

The Flipster build looks like a medium build. You have room to work and the pads aren't all bunched up.

You might want to look into trying an easy build from GGG like the LPB-1 or a Green Ringer orrrrrrr order something from BYOC and try the Confidence Booster that they'll send you for free.

[wilmerflax]

I've never built a flipster, but I know that it has four pots and multiple trimpots. While a beginner certainly can do that, I would maybe recommend getting something like a 250+ kit from Build Your Own Clone. The 250+ has two pots and a low parts count, and your first kit with BYOC comes with their free Confidence Booster circuit, which gives you a chance to get some soldering practice before moving on to your first real project.

If you don't want to go that route, you could still probably pull off a flipster without too much trouble.

Good luck. You're starting an often frustrating, but still very rewarding hobby.

[Oh! Henry]

What are the common mistakes for a beginer?

If I understand correctly the spacing on the board can be troublesome if its too close? I guess you need to be careful with not making big blobs of solder.

Just trying to gat as many pointers before going ahead with my first build.

[wilmerflax]

Some common mistakes for beginners (and veterans) are messing up on your wiring, getting a cold solder joint, and putting in the wrong value of a component or putting one in with improper orientation. Most of this stuff can be avoided by just taking your time and double checking everything you do.

Most of the aspects of pedal building aren't so much hard as they are tedious and time consuming. The best way to mess up a build is to work too fast and do too little planning. Take your time and refer to your diagrams often and you'll probably do just fine.

If you've never soldered before, it would be a really good idea to start with a cheap (or free) circuit that is super simple so you can get the hang of it before you start on a project you intend to use. Make sure to read some tutorials about how to properly solder components and about how to care for your iron. A bit of preparation will make your building experiences much more pleasant.

[stflbn]

It's not necessarily the building of the unit that's difficult. It's the dialing in ( bias'ing?) of the FET's that gets precise and frustrating. In my opinion. Get the setting just a hair off and you get little or no sound out of it.

[Oh! Henry]

Originally Posted by stflbn

It's the dialing in ( bias'ing?) of the FET's that gets precise and frustrating

I don't even know what biasing is let alone know how to do it!!!!!

[rratajski]

Oh! Henry - www.beavisaudio.com just posted a small soldering tutorial. Check it out!

[Oh! Henry]

Thanks for the tips wilmerflax. I'll start reading up on tutorials and stuff, and just take my time. Hopefully I won't be tempted to chuck the project into my pool (you should have seen the horror scene involving an axe when my pedalboard didn't go well)