Any DIY pedal builders on TB? Strut your stuff!

[JoeDaddio]

I just placed my first order at PedalPCB. I'm keeping it small for now (OC2 and the Terminal Fuzz with some switch breakout boards) just to try them out and so the wife doesnt put a pillow over my face when I'm sleeping.
I'm planning on ordering more down the road.

I've done three orders with them so far and have built four of their PCBs - all have gone very smoothly (I have three others in progress right now, waiting for various parts). There are some good people on the forums as well if you need help with troubleshooting. But I think that if you're meticulous with the building process you'll likely not have any issues. The first PCB I built from them I tested, but after that I've just gone straight to boxing before doing any testing. I put the protection diode in wrong once but other than that, which was a quick fix, they've been good to go. I'm blown away that this is a one man operation.

 

[disssa]

Hudson Broadcast Clone:

 

[G.Bisson]

Roger Mayer Voodoo Bass
Built on stripboard. Voodoo Bass has a distortion tone similar to a Rat. Had to troubleshoot a output cap leg in the wrong position and a backwards wired gain pot. Aquamarine blue paint doesn't show well on the black primer, like my earlier muff build. Going to use new paints and my backup LM308 on a Rat build next. Then compare them side-by-side to hear if the mojo is all in the IC.

 

[davelowell2]

Boxed up my Wren & Cuff Phat Phuk B on vero. I like this one.

Only one minor problem, I forgot to turn on the power so I racked my brain, changed out the led, thought for awhile and saw my error! Wow.

 

[AudioTaper]

Roger Mayer Voodoo Bass
Built on stripboard. Voodoo Bass has a distortion tone similar to a Rat. Had to troubleshoot a output cap leg in the wrong position and a backwards wired gain pot. Aquamarine blue paint doesn't show well on the black primer, like my earlier muff build. Going to use new paints and my backup LM308 on a Rat build next. Then compare them side-by-side to hear if the mojo is all in the IC.
View attachment 4172825

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Nice. Why sockets on the diodes? Experimental or ...?

 

[G.Bisson]

I was going to experiment with different diodes, but I liked the stock diodes and left them as is.

 

[mdalamond]

So what who was your first inspiration to start building pedals. For me it was Julian from Shalltechnik. The first pedal I attempted to build was the filter Vong. My soldering skills were horrendous and I knew absolutely nothing, zero. Julian was very helpful and offered advice when he didn’t have to. He even sent me some replacement parts that I messed up just for the cost of shipping. I am greatfull for all his help along the way. I stay in contact with him and updated him occasionally on my progress. I recently ordered some goodies from him. I have nothing but good things to say about him. Stop by and check him out if your interested, he’s in Germany but shipments arrive promptly. Schalltechnik_04. So who got you going?

 

[Feral Feline]

So what who was your first inspiration to start building pedals. ...

Guitar & Bass Magazine offered a couple of kits wayyyyy back in the day, in the year of our Gregor mid 2007 or so...
The TwoTimer — phaser/tremolo
The Paranormal — compressor inspired by Richard Thompson

I wanted to order them, particularly the TwoTimer, but couldn't justify the cost as I was unsure if I could do it or not, didn't have any gear — nada.

Later on G&B mag added:
Fuzzmania — '60s "Satisfaction" type
Treblemaster — May / Blackmore / etc

...and still later, 2010-ish:
Bluetube — improved Tubebender from G&B's 2004 kit.


By the time I got the courage to order the TwoTimer, they were all sold out and haven't been offered since.

Fast forward a few years of mustering courage coupled with when I met my friend/mentor/amp-sifu and the dam broke, I got into this thing in earnest.



SO if anyone has the schematics/kits/info for any of the Guitar & Bass Magazine projects, hit me up.

 

[Fuzzonaut]

So what who was your first inspiration to start building pedals.

For me it was Hirofumi Uchino. He's the guy behind Lastgasp Art Laboratories. He was doing an amazing performance as DEFEKTRO, with all these self made "devices", at the 2017 LUFF festival and he also offered a pedal building workshop at the festival.
I went to the the workshop, without having ever soldered before in my life.
We built his LAL86 Oscillo Fuzz, without the expression input.
I needed a lot of help, but in the end, walked away with a functioning pedal.

Here's the pedal:


And here's part of his performance at the LUFF.



After that first pedal, I managed to build a Bazz Fuss all by myself and off I was into the rabbit hole ....

 

[JoeDaddio]

So what who was your first inspiration to start building pedals. For me it was Julian from Shalltechnik. The first pedal I attempted to build was the filter Vong. My soldering skills were horrendous and I knew absolutely nothing, zero. Julian was very helpful and offered advice when he didn’t have to. He even sent me some replacement parts that I messed up just for the cost of shipping. I am greatfull for all his help along the way. I stay in contact with him and updated him occasionally on my progress. I recently ordered some goodies from him. I have nothing but good things to say about him. Stop by and check him out if your interested, he’s in Germany but shipments arrive promptly. Schalltechnik_04. So who got you going?

Very cool - it's great to find people like that who are willing to help and teach and who get something from helping others out. A willingness to help and share is something that I think ought to be inherent in the DIY spirit.

Anyways, I would say that my grandpa has become my inspiration, though I wish I had discovered that I enjoyed doing this kind of thing when I were a kid and while he was still alive. He was an engineer/inventor/problem solver. He retired early and started a company picking up government contracts for prototyping little bits and pieces for airplanes (he was a bombardier in the USAF and *loved* planes). I always remember him tinkering in the garage as a kid, and he always tried to get my cousin and I interested but it never took with me.

I was thinking the other day how much I could have learned from him had I been more open. I bought a book called Vacuum Tube Basics and while reading it I couldn't help but picturing my grandpa standing behind me saying something like "See? Should have listened to me, might have learned something." lol. Now I'm the one in the garage tinkering, but with nowhere near as much knowledge or skill. I think about him a lot while I'm doing it, so that is really nice.

I think that a lot of my motivation to get started came from the fact that I sit behind a desk all day and talk to people but was raised in a family where everyone was some kind of mechanic, engineer, factory assembly person, construction worker, or whatever. I think that the idea that I need to be doing something productive and tangible with my hands has been inherited and it wasn't something I took very seriously until I realized that sitting behind a desk all day would drive me insane if I weren't doing something like that.


joe

 

[disssa]

1st Prototype:
Ampeg B-100R Preamplifier

I used the factory [Invalid or Expired Link Removed] to draw a pcb that fits into a 1590BB.

 

[mdalamond]

1st Prototype:
Ampeg B-100R Preamplifier
View attachment 4174026

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I used the factory [Invalid or Expired Link Removed] to draw a pcb that fits into a 1590BB.

very nice, how does it sound?

 

[Passinwind]

So what who was your first inspiration to start building pedals. For me it was Julian from Shalltechnik. The first pedal I attempted to build was the filter Vong. My soldering skills were horrendous and I knew absolutely nothing, zero. Julian was very helpful and offered advice when he didn’t have to. He even sent me some replacement parts that I messed up just for the cost of shipping. I am greatfull for all his help along the way. I stay in contact with him and updated him occasionally on my progress. I recently ordered some goodies from him. I have nothing but good things to say about him. Stop by and check him out if your interested, he’s in Germany but shipments arrive promptly. Schalltechnik_04. So who got you going?

Craig Anderton's Electronic Projects for Musicians was a big influence on myself and many of my tech inclined musician buddies when it first came out in 1975. Alan R. Pearlman and some of the other people I worked with at ARP a few years later have been a lifelong inspiration as well.

 

[bassbrad]

I have always had an interest in electronics because I was always scrounging stuff that needed fixing. Mr Tarpley the neighborhood TV repair shop was my first teacher. He taught me basic skills, helped to identify problems and instructed on repairs providing parts and rarely charged me. In those years we repaired guitars, wah wah pedals, effects pedals, amplifiers, radios and a huge VTR. I was between going to ITT Tech for electronics but a music scholarship came through and I went that way instead.

Later I worked with Jon Bessent aka Vintage Jon at Tone Craft who built the AusTone Effects and did repairs at Musical Exchange. Jon was a sort of hippie guru with his own take on the world and a very dear friend who is deeply missed every day. I keep him in mind as my builds slowly take shape and make music with his wonderfully crafted pedals.

 

[mdalamond]

Craig Anderton's Electronic Projects for Musicians was a big influence on myself and many of my tech inclined musician buddies when it first came out in 1975. Alan R. Pearlman and some of the other people I worked with at ARP a few years later have been a lifelong inspiration as well.

You Sir have have also played a part in my journey. I very often come across your words of wisdom in my quest for knowledge. There are a lot of great and knowledgeable people right here on TB alone. It never ceases to amaze me at how helpful , positive and uplifting these people are. For them I am truly grateful. I’m also amazed at the willingness to help by the many pedal builders out there. I wish I would have started long ago .

 

[SubHuman]

Craig Anderton's Electronic Projects for Musicians was a big influence on myself and many of my tech inclined musician buddies when it first came out in 1975. Alan R. Pearlman and some of the other people I worked with at ARP a few years later have been a lifelong inspiration as well.

I also built quite a few of Craig Anderton's Electronic Projects for Musicians projects! Great stuff!

 

[mdalamond]

Finished a couple DI boxes last week:
View attachment 3932830
First up is a Bo Hansen active DI, made with the original PCB and OEP transformer:
View attachment 3932831 The other one is a passive prototype I made to compare with the active box. Based on Jensen and OEP datasheets:
View attachment 3932832

Curious about how your testing went with the passive DI. I need to build a DI for my board but not sure if I should go active or passive. We use an X18 and can send 48v phantom power. Is yours done on stripboard or is that p2p?

 

[mdalamond]

Have you folks A/B'ed your clones next to the real deal and if so, how do they fair? Can't tell in a blind taste test or similar but not quite?

The only pedal I have the original of and have built a clone of is the Prunes N Custard. In a AB test I think the clone actually sounds better. The clone I built could sound almost exactly like the original but it also had more gain. It was like taking the original to 11.

 

[mdalamond]

View attachment 4144661 View attachment 4144662
The GGG Stratoblaster and Moody Sounds Hjart Muller Overdrive kits are here soon my building courage & patience will arrive too.

I have built the stripboard version of the Hjart Muller Overdrive with a blend pot. It’s a great sounding overdrive.

 

[mdalamond]

Ok, well, I now have a RPi with 3.5" touchscreen controlled 7x7 matrix effects switcher. GUI for building and changing loop order. Next is adding saving and recalling presets.

Do you have any build pics. This sounds very interesting. I’m trying to figure out arduino. I’m just trying to build a simple midi controller that can send PC and CC messages using a momentary foot switch. Sounds easy , huh? NOT. I am arduino illiterate. It got me so frustrated that I just put it all away. This build your doing would probably put me in an institution but I would like to see it anyway, lol.