Introduction and annoying noob questions

[Mister_Niles]

 Hi. Just wanted to introduce myself. I've been messing with electronics since I got my first 50 in 1 electronics kit from Radio Shack in the 1970's. Now that I'm nearly 50 years old, I guess it's time to get serious. 
I've built a few things over the years. I started on a PAIA 5700 synth almost a decade ago ago but got sidetracked by the birth of my son, and the fact that only the LFO on my filter module worked. I'm finally ready to admit defeat and mail it back to PAIA for them to fix it. I just don't have the experience to debug such a complex circuit. At least my Midi to CV (sort of) works and my oscillator works perfectly. Just need to build the VCA now.

Recently I've built some pedals. A BYOC 250+, which worked and sounded great until I replaced the battery. Probably stopped working due to the fact that I used solid core wire. I plan on rewiring it soon. Need to build a test rig. Wish I'd known about them before I got started. I built a BYOC DS-1 clone, which I love due to the mods, especially the variable pre-gain for less distortion. I built a GGG Foxx Tone Machine and an Orange Squeezer. I love the FTM. Nasty and wonderful. Full on Fripp. I love finding intervals that work, or don't work in a cool way with the octave on. Nice. I think I wired it incorrectly. The octave won't engage by itself, but works when the fuzz is on. I'll get around to fixing it. I choose see all of my mistakes as an opportunity to learn instead of getting frustrated. I'm sure there's plenty of that to come.
Now I'm ready to move on to buying parts and boards, instead of kits. I'm excited about eventually etching my own boards (and enclosures).

I plan to build a couple of fuzz face clones. A germanium and a silicon, and a Zombii. I have a fantasy about putting 2 of those in one box. It will probably sound like Merzbow trying to learn guitar, but I approach effects as if they are musical instruments. Whenever I hear the term unusable, it just makes me want to bend the box to my will. I plan on buying many boards from ChromeSpereCom. His yootoob vids have been an incredible inspiration to me. He's so generous with his information. Seems like he must be a great guy.

I also want to build some more complex stuff. Including:
Stage Fright Phaser (if not 2. That Maestro is my favorite)
Lowrider
1776 Multiplex Delay
Musicpcb Meat Sphere

Some drone synths based on 555 chips and eventually some MFOS products and some more esoteric electromechanical stuff, but that's down the road. I just need to start in the best way.

Here are a couple of questions. questions you've heard before, I'm sure, but probably a little different. I am selling a couple of pieces of gear to finance this hobby and I'll have a budget of around $500 for parts, tools and PCBs. I have some basic tools, including a Tektronix 465M scope that a client gave to me. I know for sure that part of my budget is going to a Hakko soldering station and a new dmm. I have 4 of multimeters. None of which have a continuity or diode mode. I'd like a transistor tester too. So, after that I'll probably have $350 left.
My question is this: Should I buy part assortment kits to stock up on the stuff I'll always need, or should I buy parts for one project at a time?

Another question that will probably have eyes rolling all over the planet: I know that LEDs can be used for clipping. Can the LEDs in 7 segment LED's be used in the same way?

Thanks for reading this long post. I look forward to being a productive member of your community.

[stevie1556]

Welcome to the forum buddy!

Sounds like you have a good amount of experience in electronics

Paul (Chromesphere) is a great guy, and he has a webstore with a good amount of boards, gemaniun diodes, etc, and the prices are really really cheap. I've ordered several times from him, and I'll be ordering more soon.

You have an awesome budget to get started with, and I would recommend going through some build docs for the next 3-5 pedals you want to build, order those parts, and slowly build up your stash levels through that. I would recommend Tayda for resistors, caps and pots though. Not the greatest quality parts, but they are dirt cheap and I've never had an issue with them.

[selfdestroyer]

Welcome to the forum. Sounds like you have a good direction setup already and you have a good list of projects/goals. This is pretty much how I started out also, I had a few builds that I really wanted and the 1776 Multiplex was one of them. I decided to do a few smaller builds and I learned on vero boards from Marks amazing blog.

http://tagboardeffects.blogspot.co.uk/

I liken working with vero like learning guitar on a fat neck classical guitar. When you get a hold of a nice electric you feel like you can do anything on it. Vero taught me patience and troubleshooting skills.

I started with a resistor kit like this one:
http://mklec.com/components/component-assortments/resistor-assortments/600-piece-0.25-watt-metal-film-resistor-assortment

and it served me well for quite some time. Capacitors were always hard for me since I never had the capital to buy 100 each of all the common values. I ended up getting 2 or three builds I wanted to do and order all the needed caps/ics/transistors from places like Mouser, Tayda & Mklec.

Spend some time looking at the "Build Reports" section here and look how other build. Look for small details like wire management, part placement and artwork. There are tons of great builds here and all forum members have something to contribute. I can honestly say that there is no forum like this one. So much knowledge available at every corner. Everyone is willing to teach and learn form others here and share ideas.

Look forward to seeing your builds.

Expect mistakes and learn by them. Its almost a guarantee we have all done any mistake you may make along the way. :]

Cody

[cooder]

Welcome and yes, great plans ahead, looking forward to seeing those becoming reality over time. Fun fun fun!