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Anyone built a pedal?

#21
Built one from scratch, I think I have a post about it somewhere on here. Very fun, scary when you amplify large electrical sizzling sounds. Remember to have a common ground. Nearly all the mistakes and trouble I had were based in bad grounding. ( I had zero electronics experience) probably should have bought a kit.
 
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#23
I've been building them (sporadically) since 1968. I built my first kit a few days ago, a Delay kit that I bought on Ebay from China for less than I could source the parts locally. (A straight rip off of a Rebote Delay from tonepad.com .)

It works well but didn't go 100% smoothly. The board would not fit in the box without moving the in and out jacks to the battery space (and losing the battery which I wouldn't use anyway).

Check out freestompboxes.org as well as the other sites recommended above.
 
#24
I got addicted to pedal builds for a while, the BYOC kits are excellent, truly "paint by numbers" instructions that are hard to screw up, now there are a few other vendors. I built a BYOC Muff, Proco Rat clone, flanger, and a bass chorus. I used a Madbean board to build a Univibe, that one really kicked my a**, but I got it to work. BYOC has an excellent forum with a lot of real tech heads who dispense advice. The art and craft of building the pedal enclosures is half the fun.
Build Your Own Clone Message Board • Index page

madbeanpedals.Shop

You need a decent soldering iron to get good results. The kit sold by BYOC is actually pretty good, a clone of the Weller WLC100 I bought, plenty hot for pedal builds and anything on a guitar:
Weller 40 Watt Soldering Station, WLC100 - Walmart.com
 
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#25
I bought a cheap TTONE distortion kit on Amazon for $20. It's a Chinese company with pretty decent customer service. I haven't finished it yet (lack of instructions, sent different parts than originally stated, etc. has made it slow-going), but I hope to finish it up soon. I have a different distortion kit and a Shin-Ei FY2 fuzz clone to build after this one.
 
#26
I've built several fuzztones, either from scratch or from a mail-order printed circuit board. For scratch builds, I usually use one of those "proto boards" from Radio Shack (R.I.P.). I love doing the electronic bits, but I find drilling the housing to be a big pain, and I've ruined a couple of enclosures from ham-fisted drilling. Getting a professional looking finish on the enclosure can be a pain too, oh you want the knobs labeled and groovy graphics too?
 
#27
Crater said:
I've built several fuzztones, either from scratch or from a mail-order printed circuit board. For scratch builds, I usually use one of those "proto boards" from Radio Shack (R.I.P.). I love doing the electronic bits, but I find drilling the housing to be a big pain, and I've ruined a couple of enclosures from ham-fisted drilling. Getting a professional looking finish on the enclosure can be a pain too, oh you want the knobs labeled and groovy graphics too?
Click to expand...
Drilling and labeling are the worst part.
 
#29
Built a few BYOC's for "fun". Some worked, some didn't, kind of lost interest. Never built one from "scratch" though. Bought a "big box" Big Muff a while back with the thought of modding it to a Rams Head spec circuit, just never got around to doing anything with it.
 
#31
spaz21387 said:
How do you make ric o sound boxes i still want one bad... also i have made a few big muffs and a rat. Pedal building is pretty fun if you ask me. Just make sure to watch your solder joints. Cold solder joints will cause problems.
Click to expand...

I haven't made a Rick-o-sound in over 10 years. But I remember it was easy. There was a schematic drawing online that I followed but it was seriously easy. I took a premade, small box and drilled a hole in top and two on the side. The way I remember it all it took was a stereo Neutrik jack to plug the instrument into and then two regular mono jacks to go out to the two amps. I hand made an instrument cable with stereo plugs, one being a 90 degree bend to plug into the top stereo jack. That way when you walk around the cable pivots and doesn't twist the Rick-O-Sound box around on the floor. I don't remember any other parts other than soldering the Jacks to each other? Did I miss something? ....I wonder where that box is...
 
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#32
I've made a few. I've made a few vero board builds, which have worked really well. I didn't enjoy the enclosure, drilling, or the fault finding...and wiring up the stomp switch and LED was a PITA the first few times. These days I prefer to buy kits and stomp switch boards, it's easier and a lot less hassle in the long run. I particularly like Fuzzdog's offerings. He also offers pre-drilled enclosures if you buy a kit and enclosure from him. It all makes a "one evening" build very achievable.
 
#34
I am completely clueless as to reading schematics or really understanding what's going on with the circuit path, And every one of my builds has fired up first time, total monkey see/monkey do action. If I can pull this off in complete ignorance, anybody can. Go for it! You can get pre- drilled and even pre painted aluminum enclosures, so that shouldn't daunt anyone. Drilling them out can be done easily enough with a drill press or hand drill.
 
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#36
Gilmourisgod said:
I am completely clueless as to reading schematics or really understanding what's going on with the circuit path, And every one of my builds has fired up first time, total monkey see/monkey do action. If I can pull this off in complete ignorance, anybody can. Go for it! You can get pre- drilled and even pre painted aluminum enclosures, so that shouldn't daunt anyone. Drilling them out can be done easily enough with a drill press or hand drill.
Click to expand...
No drill press, so it will be a hand drill. I imagine I can find a template online and just put the case on a piece of junk wood upside down for the top holes and then another block of wood to sit inside while I drill the sides. I haven't drilled metal before so I don't know what to expect with its responsiveness or tendency to bend under pressure. I don't recall off the top of my head what it's made of, but I got it at RadioShack a very long time ago.
 
#37
Duder said:
No drill press, so it will be a hand drill. I imagine I can find a template online and just put the case on a piece of junk wood upside down for the top holes and then another block of wood to sit inside while I drill the sides. I haven't drilled metal before so I don't know what to expect with its responsiveness or tendency to bend under pressure. I don't recall off the top of my head what it's made of, but I got it at RadioShack a very long time ago.
Click to expand...

Get a step drill bit.
 
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