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Anyone built a pedal?

#41
Just finished building my first pedal this past weekend. I built the Bazz Fuss from scratch. Hardest part was getting all of the parts and components to fit in the pedal box (then of course it doesn't work and you have to open it back up). I drilled all the holes by hand and it wasn't too difficult. Like others have said, just start with a small hole and work your way up to the right size drill bit. All in all it was an enjoyable project and I'm enjoying the results.
 
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#42
nshuman said:
Get a step drill bit.[/QU
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SlightlyDeviant said:
Just finished building my first pedal this past weekend. I built the Bazz Fuss from scratch. Hardest part was getting all of the parts and components to fit in the pedal box (then of course it doesn't work and you have to open it back up). I drilled all the holes by hand and it wasn't too difficult. Like others have said, just start with a small hole and work your way up to the right size drill bit. All in all it was an enjoyable project and I'm enjoying the results.
Click to expand...
Any pics?
 
#43
I did about a year ago and it fell to the back burner and I never finished it. Got the enclosure painted and decal applied. Never touched a wire.
10808459_938064336223252_2142283730_n.jpg
 
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#46
They have a half decent step drill for cheap at Harbor Freight if you don't mind supporting those Godless Communists. I think the RadioShack project boxes are plastic, which won't stand up to a good stomp. The prefab aluminum ones are pretty cheap, they can pre-drill them for you too. Just get one of these and call it good!
Hammond Mfg. - Painted "Stomp Box" - Diecast Aluminum Enclosures (1590 Series)
 
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#52
I've never actually soldered anything before, but as much as I love building things I'm not great with manipulating tiny objects in small spaces. Knowing my speed, I'd literally wirenut all the components together and have enclosures the size of lunchboxes. Ah, I see it now: "Lunchbox pedals - where ALL your pedals come in boxes!"

(ok, I am trying not to support the pedal box jokes any more, but it's an easy funny thing!)
 
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#55
My eyesight sucks, so I have a giant lit magnifier I use when doing pedals, makes resistors look as big as hot dogs. I got a "pencil" tip for the Weller that works well for tiny PCB pads, the big chisel tip standard on most cheap irons and soldering guns is useless for this kind of soldering.
 
#56
I tried my hand at pedal building last year, after successfully building the Adamu preamp kit from GGG
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After finding the tagboard effects page, I was inspired and confident that I could be successful at building my own clones. I mean, it was just following directions, right? I did a fair bit of research, bought a bunch of components, and I was ready to start my new hobby.

Well...

5 attempted builds and only 1.5 successes later (one build makes noise but it doesn't sound like it should), I realized that electronics can get really frustrating if you don't know what the hell you're doing. If you lack troubleshooting knowledge, you're dead in the water (which is where my failure was). I really was lost as to why the pedals weren't working when the layouts looked correct and solder joints looked decent. I think my problem boiled down to faulty electronics (crummy components that were dead on arrival), or incorrect off board wiring. Either way, I didn't know how to test either and ended up making more of a mess trying to solve it, and ultimately got frustrated to the point of quitting.

It's hard to enjoy a hobby you fail so consistently at. :meh:

I'd love to try to get back into it one of these days, since I love playing with pedals and it WAS really fun before so many failures, but I would need to pretty much start from scratch again and come at it with more knowledge.
 
#58
nshuman said:
OMG the drilling is the worst. Hate the drilling.
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What's worse is that I don't have a drill press, just an old Craftsman drill. Got the step bits from harbor freight and they work just fine.

I've had my share of frustrations too, but when it succeeds it's like building the most complicated puzzle or Lego.
 
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#60
I've built a lot of kits over the years, mostly from PAiA. Most of them are still around and used on occasion.

I made a bunch of their kits based on Anderton's "Electronic Projects for Musicians" but put them initially into a rack box as a sort of two channel instrument preamp for Stcik, bass and guitar. Now a few of them are in separate boxes, namely a compressor and super tone control. I have a thread here about them. None are in pedal form.

I made three of their actual pedals, a compressor, a fuzz and an octave. The latter two are still used sometimes. I wasn't thrilled by the compressor, so I yanked the circuit out and used the enclosure and switch to make an A-B switch. Actually, I never really liked this octave much on bass, but it's pretty cool on guitar, especially with an Ebow.

Otto
 
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