There's a thread going about how often we build. I thought another interesting question is how often do you play guitar after you started building? I know it is a bit frustrating to me that my actual playing time has gone way down.
I haven't played at all when I started building pedals (started building on a dare and was pretty handy with a soldering iron already) and then I thought sheesh as long as I'm building the blasted things I may as well try to learn how to use them. ::)
So in that context my playing actually went up from nonexistent to utterly horrible. I do have my moments though, once in a blue moon my wife actually sits quite calmly through a five-minute flub fest that is my current repertoire.
Improved immensely. I hate to admit it, but I don't think I could honestly stay interested in guitar playing for this long without access to so many different sounds.
I try to keep building and playing in equal states. But already, building (and learning electronics) brought my guitar playing way down. Maybe it's that I don't play in a band anymore. Don't know!
Hector
I bought a guitar 5 or so years ago with a idea of learning to play in my spare time. I made a tube screamer not long after and essentially never got beyond AC/DC / Sabbath riffs and what have you. Turns out I really enjoy building stuff and I'm not particularly talented when it comes to the playing side.
I dare say I have a tiny bit more talent as a player than as a builder, but that doesn't mean much, see below.
Since the band broke up my playing has gone to almost zero. Building, I'm afraid, is kind of like telling myself that I'm still musically active, these days.
There is another thread going about being through with building out of frustration. Yesterday I finished two PCBs and both don't work.
So yeah. I'll soon stop building because I can only get half of my builds to work, it seems, and start playing more again. No really, surely, I will. Really.
My playing has deteriorated quite a lot since I've caught the bug for building. I've never really been a practice-scales kind of guy, but I did try to cover some songs at least. Now it's just pointless yanking. Still, i have 3 bands at the moment, and somehow I get by. But I cannot stop thinking all of those would be better bands if I were just to sit and practice for an hour or two a day.
bought my first guitar about 2 years ago.. I haven't improved much which is also why I don't do demos :)
i don't play so much anymore, i don't have time and when i'm home i'm usually so tired that i just wanna hear silence. but i was pretty good. i play guitar since i'm a kid and i can do even some famous solo, but now i've lost a lot. i like building pedal and stuff but i like playing much more. and i have too many pedals that i don't use anymore. and even a few amps..
Yeah, my playing abilities have taken a serious nose dive since building. Building pedals also puts less strain on my marriage than guitar playing.
I've only recently started building and it has helped to increase my playing time. I have played guitar for around 25 years, been in multiple bands and gone on tours. Took a few years off not long ago, but I'm playing again and back in a band. Building has only increased my desire to play. New sounds inspire new riffs and songs. Plus, I love having a really cool looking pedal board! I love music and I love constructive activities. I built a lot of models as a kid, and I have a project car. I just grew up building things, so building pedals really compliments my musical hobby as well as scratches a constructive itch.
I could be better, but at 42, my playing is at it's best. I've built 2 bass guitars so that's an inspiration. Also just traded for a strat so I'm looking to learn to play guitar better also.
yeah my playing time has dramatically dropped....all i wanna do is build pedals lol
Some things have gotten better, but it's still a time sink away from practicing, so who knows if I would have improved more just by playing more rather than building. I am much better now at understanding the sound as a whole than I used to be, so I think what I play has improved. I just think a little more deeply about sound than I used to.
Quote from: midwayfair on January 31, 2014, 07:15:25 PM
... I just think a little more deeply about sound than I used to.
This. The whole pedal building thing started as part of a quest to help my guitar sound. A bit less time practicing, but a better end result in many respects.
Making pedals makes me want to play more guitar! I have a nice pedal board with some effects that I wouldn't be able to afford. There's nothing better than blasting away on my new creation. I stopped playing scales and trying to play like my heroes a long time ago. I write my own songs and just go by what sounds good to me. I now play solely for fun and I'm not worried about my level of technique.
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Quote from: twin1965 on January 31, 2014, 07:32:26 PM
Making pedals makes me want to play more guitar! I have a nice pedal board with some effects that I wouldn't be able to afford. There's nothing better than blasting away on my new creation. I stopped playing scales and trying to play like my heroes a long time ago. I write my own songs and just go by what sounds good to me. I now play solely for fun and I'm not worried about my level of technique.
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+1 to this. I play for fun and it's more fun to play with a collection of magic boxes underfoot.
Quote from: das234 on January 31, 2014, 07:50:53 PM
Quote from: twin1965 on January 31, 2014, 07:32:26 PM
Making pedals makes me want to play more guitar! I have a nice pedal board with some effects that I wouldn't be able to afford. There's nothing better than blasting away on my new creation. I stopped playing scales and trying to play like my heroes a long time ago. I write my own songs and just go by what sounds good to me. I now play solely for fun and I'm not worried about my level of technique.
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+1 to this. I play for fun and it's more fun to play with a collection of magic boxes underfoot.
Another big +1. I'm 47, but I've only been playing guitar for a couple of years (and soldering way less than that). Still a beginner to both guitar and pedal building, but the effects keep playing fun and sometimes even make my fumbling attempts at songs sound a little more like the original! I usually make myself practice pretty regularly for 3-4 weeks (songs, techniques) as a motivator before picking up a pedal or ordering parts as well. I've built 3 pedals since last September and collected parts for 3 more!
recording and now pedal building has really almost killed my guitar playing
there is only so much time in a day ...that and constant interweb surfing about recording and pedal building :-[ :-[
My playing is probably getting better, though not enough of it is happening. Like any new piece of gear, everytime I plug in a new circuit, I come up with a new piece of music. But really have to finish some ideas.
I used to be in a band forever ago and never really liked playing out. I am more of a "lets play in the garage and just do it for fun" kind of person. Lately, the last 10 years, I really just play in my room by myself and I am very self conscious about my playing. I have a really hard time with recording demos for that reason. I am trying to get over it and play more with my father to try to get back to feeling comfortable playing with others... its just hard. But I will have to say, building a new pedal and "testing" it for 2 hours definitely helps my playing.
Cody
When I first started building it really hurt my practice time... As I became aware of that I cut down on build time, practice is more of a necessity for me... Since I kinda suck.
Building is done in my spare time... And as I get better playing I find I appreciate the pedals more because I'm able to get more out of them as my skill improves.
I think my playing has suffered due to lack of time but I play every Sunday with a great band and I've never really been a "lets jam dude" kind of player anyway. I like to learn whole songs and have them sound as close as possible to the original, which kind of feeds the pedal fetish. One thing that HAS changed is that I used to swap out pedals on my board all the time but I've used the same lineup for nearly a year now and it's really forced me to learn the pedals. Its amazing how much more you can do once you REALLY understand not just a single pedal but how they all interact.
I've been using bike chain links as pedal mounts instead of velcro so the upside is, it's harder to change pedals (well it's kind of an upside) and I don't have to worry about pedals coming off the board if it gets stored on its side for a week...
Wait. You mean all these pedals don't make me play better? What the hell have I been building them for?
I think it has improved my playing. Before pedal building I was pretty much only playing at band practice and shows but very little at home. Now I head down to the basement/shop to work on a circuit and come up a few hours later with a new song and the circuit still needing work ;D I was never a pedal guy before building them, kind of a long story as to why but my philosophy was great amp plus great guitar and your good. Pedals have really opened me up to a lot more textures and as Jon put it, a better understanding of sound. Just last night at practice I noticed my over all volume was lower but I was cutting through way better thanks to a simple treble boost with some tweaked caps I'd made. 'Testing' pedals makes me play more which leads to me writing more. I'm in three music projects now and feel like I have plenty of material for all of them thanks to all that 'testing'. It does make it hard to finish a circuit though ;D
I have to say that after it being a huge time sink (building/reading/etc) :-[, I've been commissioning builds. I know that it's taking me further away from building, but frankly, I want to be a better player than a builder and am just trying to focus on that. Not sure how I feel about it because I love tinkering, but for now, I want to be a better player.
I hardly play anymore. The most playing I do is testing pedals. The playing itself hasn't really progressed for about 3 years now I think.
I've been status quo for a long while. Played for 12 years before any pedal DIY.
I'm not as fast or technical as I once was but I sound more polished. I was never a good technical player anyways, but I know how to fit in to a musical situation very well. I like to add to the noise, not be the solo creator of it :) I also used to have stage freight, but now it's no longer an issue.
Josh
I find it takes away my playing time. If you build a pedal, build it with as less knobs and switches as possible! If not, you will be forever fiddling with the damn thing that just took forever to get to work!!!!
Same here! Need to find a balance between building and playing otherwise soon i will not be able to test the pedals anymore due to the lack of habilities:P
...i used to be a good guitar player back in high school and college years...cant afford to buy a lot of good pedals so i used to reverse engineer a BOSS DS1 and an Ibanez flanger...it was long ago before everyone else is cloning pedals...
..now i build pedals for my son who is now in college and playing in 2 bands...for now i can still play a BOSTON's "more than a feeling" intro...and some LED Zepp's riffs...woooah...happy building everyone!
I'm blessed on that I get play pretty much every Thursday night (practice) and Sunday morning. We have some very talented musicians and it makes it fun. I don't know that my playing has gotten better, but pedal building has definitely made me focus on the sonics of what I'm doing. I love the tone that I'm able to dial in now. I fall in love again every Sunday.
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Well, I teach guitar 8 hours a day for a living, so if anything, playing guitar impacts on pedal building time.
Seriously, I build pedals when I get a chance, but I'm too busy teaching E, A, and D to 6 year old kids to really want to sit down and improve my playing. Need to get into a band or two. Noodlely jam sessions don't do it for me, need more focus than that.
Pedalwise, got three multis to finish, one for bass (compressor, fuzz, eq), one for the guitar (delay, chorus, dirt, boost), and my amp-in-a-box (buffer, vol, eq, cabsim, master vol) to go on the pedalbord. I'll never get time to do those.
Playing hasn't gotten any better, but I do notice a difference in direction songwriting-wise. In the past, I would just aim for a good rif, drop it onto my bandmates and see where it went. Now I develope a lot more sounds, and also try to fit those in our existing songs. So, playing remains about the same (aka a little better than crappy, more attitude than technique), but creativity has improved a lot, because I still write those rifs, but have a new thing to add, texture!
Paul