I don't know if we have a thread like this yet.... but I'm curious about what got everybody started in this hobby/addiction.
I'll go first, and my apologies, as this will be long winded....
For me it was kind of out of necessity. I started playing guitar when I was 9 years old, and then picked up a bass in my freshman year of high school (story behind that one was that I wanted to play guitar in the school Jazz band, but was late for auditions and they already filled that spot. so the teacher handed me a bass and said "here, just remember All Cows Eat Grass for the bass clef and go for it"). Still focused on guitar, then went off to college.
Played guitar in a couple of bands while in college, until one day when all of my pedals, and my amp were all stolen from a rehearsal space that was on campus. Being a college kid, I had no money to replace the gear, nothing was insured, I was screwed. I borrowed gear from friends for a while and then that band disbanded. Around the same time some good friends of mine kicked their horrible guitar player out, their bassist moved to guitar (and is incredible), and they asked me to play bass for them. The band owned the whole bass rig, so it was no cost for me. Did that with those guys for 4 years, then left and moved to Nashville, now focusing on bass. At this time the zVex Woolly Mammoth was going for like $350, and I wanted one, but now I'm newly married, right out of college, living in Nashville, in a sketchy part of Nashville, painting apartments to barely pay my bills while pursuing music. Just didn't have the money.... but I had spent hours soldering cable in college for our schools recording studios, so I was just curious, "can I make one? maybe it'll be cheaper. worth a look."
Hop on Google to search for a schematic. I find one on analogguru's site. Then I discover DIYSB and smallbear and add everything to a cart, and it was like $35 with everything but a circuit board. I was floored. "That's all that it is? Holy..."
Attempted a vero layout based on analagguru's schematic.... fail. Find FSB and Brian's Sabertooth layout. He may not remember this, but I emailed him a ton of noob questions, multiple times, and he kindly replied every time and answered. Ordered some tiny drill bits, bought some PCB etchant and cooper clad from Radio Shack, grabbed a magazine and an iron, and etched my first board, and eventually built my first pedal. The rest, as they say, is history.
I love this hobby, not just for the money it has saved me in gear, but also for the sense of accomplishment I get each time I fire up a pedal, and really for allowing me to build my guitar rig back up and start playing my first love again. I'm forever grateful for this community.
I'd love to hear your story.
Cheers everyone.
Ian
I only wanted a Zendrive....
Cool story btw. I've never been stolen an isntrument, but that has to feel like shit.
I have been playing classical guitar since I was 7,and when I started to play electric at 16 I only had an awful Behringer amp and a 70EUR Storm guitar that was really uncomfortable and didn't sound right. So I invested all (and I mean ALL) my savings in getting proper gear during the first years.
By the time I discovered what a pedal was I didn't have a cent :) My first pedal ever was my beloved Timefactor that my gf bought me in 2011. After that, I started to build the rest of my pedalboard, one pedal at a time.
Always wanted to learn how to play the guitar. Regretted not doing it when I was a kid. Bought a guitar, thought 'stompboxes look fun and I can solder', built a BYOC kit... Kind of forgot about learning to play the guitar and went on to build a couple of hundred pedals.
It all goes back to the fact that I like building stuff and the satisfaction of doing that. As a kid I made stuff out of Lego and Meccano. Advanced on to R/C cars and the like (enjoyed building them, never really did anything much with them afterwards, ran them a couple of times...). When I learned to drive my cars had little electronic projects in them. Then I discovered beer and going out, and that all went out of the window for a while. Got a job doing computer stuff that when it was technical and creative, I loved. As soon as it became procedural and dumbed down, I lost interest.
I discovered making effects probably around the same time my job started turning to shit. It was an outlet for my need to do build things, and I'm still there at the moment. I don't know why, but it just seems to suit me and I'm very comfortable/content with it.
Impressive, that's pretty much the Life of Juan aged 4 to 42.
Bought a "boutique" pedal that had some problems. Opened it up and looked inside and thought "I can do this." Took a deep breath and ordered some boards from Brian, some parts from Mammoth, and gave it a shot.
I like knowing how stuff works, and I find it rewarding to actually make something. I like practicing, but a pedal is something you can start and finish and it is done, unlike music, which is a process.
Quote from: juansolo on February 24, 2015, 04:48:24 PM
Always wanted to learn how to play the guitar. Regretted not doing it when I was a kid. Bought a guitar, thought 'stompboxes look fun and I can solder', built a BYOC kit... Kind of forgot about learning to play the guitar and went on to build a couple of hundred pedals.
It all goes back to the fact that I like building stuff and the satisfaction of doing that. As a kid I made stuff out of Lego and Meccano. Advanced on to R/C cars and the like (enjoyed building them, never really did anything much with them afterwards, ran them a couple of times...). When I learned to drive my cars had little electronic projects in them. Then I discovered beer and going out, and that all went out of the window for a while. Got a job doing computer stuff that when it was technical and creative, I loved. As soon as it became procedural and dumbed down, I lost interest.
I discovered making effects probably around the same time my job started turning to shit. It was an outlet for my need to do build things, and I'm still there at the moment. I don't know why, but it just seems to suit me and I'm very comfortable/content with it.
Impressive, that's pretty much the Life of Juan aged 4 to 42.
thats like pretty much my life so far, and yes i share the same, building stuff its amazing, i build pedals even if i have that pedal, but i need to build something when i see an a amazing layout, even if i dont need that pedal, i still build it, there its nothing better than build a pedal and make it sound.
Mostly it was just sheer curiosity. I was never a pedal guy. Rackmount stuff was popular when I was learning to play. My guitar teacher discouraged me from using effects at all. His advice to me was "Focus on getting good at guitar. Then you can worry about pedals." So I followed that advice for a long time.
Then I happened to hear about BYOC, and that was all it took.
I started modding before building, but I started building because I couldn't afford to buy the pedals I wanted to have. So, in reverse logic, I sold what I did have to pay for what I needed to build stuff to replace and add. Didn't go well, but I recovered and began to build more and more. Now I have so many pedals I look like I'm insane.
Jacob
I wanted a zvex machine, I couldn't afford one, ten I asked somebody for a clone and they offered a price that in hindsight hadn't been that high but pretty reasonable, so I reckoned I'll have some fun and try do it on my own. That was the only time that I have used the breadboard. I remember it driving me insane. Lately I've been having thoughts of returning to it some, because I wanna start doing things in Eagle/Diptrace
I was always a pedal guy. In 2008 I think I ordered a couple of GGG kits, cause I thought it would be cool to build a Keeley TS-9 and a Bluesbreaker.
When I moved to Germany in 2010, I needed a hobby that didn't occupy a lot of space. Originally brought my fly tying kit with me, but there's only so many hundred fish hooks you can tie without actually going fishing, so that got a little old. I found musikding kits on the web (for a ridiculously low price, like half of the of the GGG price), built myself a Zen Drive and an optical tremolo, was pretty happy with that. Got kind of bored with the selection from musikding, so I did some searching and found MB.
Ordered a pile of boards to save on the shipping, and the rest is a haze of solder fumes.
"Huh, that sounds mildly interesting."
I played the game of buying a lot of cheaper (boss mostly) pedals on ebay and selling the ones I didn't want. I saw a few listings with mods done to them, keely, monte allums, and others. I looked into it and got a Monte Allums kit coming. Did the mod and was so surprised when the pedal fired right up when I was finished and the weak buzzy sounding DS1 was now a Monster! I was hooked from there, I probably did 5-10 mod kits on boss pedals when I discovered GGG. I did a few of their kits, most worked a couple didn't. That was back in probably 2007-08 before I met my now wife. I had a long hiatus from pedals and I didn't play much guitar either. Then a little over a year ago I decided to get back into it as I had more time on my hands. I found DIYSB and then MB and off I went.
I thought... Hey I could sell all my commercial pedals and make a few bucks for what I can build new ones for... haha that worked for a couple months... Now I seem to have the need order so many new pcbs and then inevitable I don't have a component or two so I make an order for a bunch of components because... I gotta have stock so I don't have to do this next time. It's a vicious cycle... I love every minute of it and it has helped get me through some tough times.
I always have been into making things, building mechano kits and the like, hammering nails into tree huts etc.
My older brother brought a beat up guitar home one day that a frined gave him as a thanks for help where my brother didn't want to accept payment.
He never took it up, I grabbed it and loved it straight away.
Bought a crappy electric guitar and amp in high school, got a few class mates together on a Monday, four nights practise, and on the following Saturday we played the first terrible but awesome fun gig on a party. Man did we think we were cool... ;D
Anyway, as I like to make things works against the odds I built an overdrive, I think out of Craig Anderton's book (that was the days before the internet... yes they existed...!).
Later hacked together guitars out of chunks of wood and learned A LOT by trial and error and also to improvise when the official expensive tools wasn't at reach.
It feels good to be able to do things, even when sometimes you've got one that goes in the not so brilliant box. It's still a win, somewhat, better than not having tried I think.
Years later getting back into it, with the power of the net there's so much info and help out there, amazing what quantum leaps pedal building has made in the last years.... I only got back into pedals and electronics a few years ago, felt good to have pedals that sound equal or better than the few production ones I had, feels good to play your handmade guitar through it. So next step of temptation was building an amp to make the chain complete. The first time I fired the Weber kit amp up that I built first I immediately afterwards sold my Fender HRD...
By now on amp number 11...
Fun fun fun... 8)
Love all these stories, keep 'em coming.
I really wanted a good compressor and didn't have the good money to spend on one, bought a byoc opticomp, and here I am!
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Well, I didn't really know what a guitar pedal was before 2010. I was practicing acoustic guitar and while I had an electric I didn't do much with it. Finally I decided I wanted to do something with it. Big Gilmour fan so I said I wonder what his rig looks like, let me copy it because I didn't know what else to do and I landed on Bjorn's Gilmourish.com. So I'm diggin the info, I buy a Small Stone, EHX DMM, Rat, Electric Mistress etc... I even put a Weber Thames in my Fender HRD.
So I then read where Bjorn is talking about a BYOC Muff. Now, I knew what a muff was 8) but not in pedal form and what is BYOC? Google. Thought wow this is cool. What exactly is a resistor and a capacitor. Clueless but I built a BYOC British Blues OD and then built another 6 pedals, sold my production pedals and off I went.
So basically I started building because I could and I enjoyed it. I've always built things (not electronics) so it was in me.
Too many pedals, not enough money.
The last new manufactured pedal I bought before starting to build my own was an Iron Ether Nimbus (which has since been replaced with a Rub-a-Dub). I was looking for a good delay that sounded nice on bass and this was top dog at the time.
I spent a little over $200 on it. When I received it, as nice as it was, I was disappointed that it cost so much for a non-life altering event. Then while I was looking for new and different distortions I found the Zvex Machine. When I saw its price tag I was reminded of the Nimbus experience.
So I started to look for other options. I started doing circuit bending on cheaper pedals like Behringer and Digitech stuff (I now have a wicked mean modded Death Metal that I never use and can't seem to get rid of.) I still wanted the Zvex Machine and nearly baught one for several hundred dollars.
However, I was bitching to a friend of mine about how much pedals were starting to cost. he laughed at the piddly $300 Machine and told me about the Klon. I'd never heard of the Klon before so I looked it up; you all know how that went. But while researching the Klon I started to see things about "clones" and "klones".
"What is this 'clone' of which you speak?"
Doing a little more research I discovered BYOC. This opened up a whole new world. I continued to dive into the DIY world to see if there was a Machine clone I could build. Eventually I found the Madbean section of no longer offered boards. Alas, there was the "Macheen".
I sent Brian an email to confirm that this was indeed a circuit similar to the Zvex Machine. It was.
Even if I failed building this thing a dozen times I could still come out with the sound I wanted for less than too much money. Once I found out there was a plethora of pedals I could build I decided that I would build them all before buying a new one. And except for a special case (Digitech Bass Whammy, which was funded mostly on sales of a few DIY builds) this has held true. If I want a pedal i see in a magazine or website, I'll build the closest DIY thing I can find instead. That scratches the new gear itch, is cheaper, and satifies my "want to build something, don't want to sweat" urge.
I started playing guitar at age 10. I was never really into pedals until the last few years. I was more into amps and rack gear. Always been a diy guy. I worked as an electrician in my early 20s, worked on and restored cars my whole life, and love to work with my hands and build model cars. Later, got into pedals mostly for artistic reasons. They are like little custom hot rods. When pedals started to get rediculously expensive, I decided to build my own. A little over a year, and about 30 pedals later, here I am.
I started playing guitar in high school, and played with a couple bands on into Junior College. Pretty much quit when I transferred to University, but always still played around with the acoustic for my wife (she sings, I play, for church specials and the such), and I ended up selling the majority of my gear, keeping only a wah pedal and my Mesa F-50 amp, which was a much-needed size downgrade from the Peavey 100W half-stack I had been playing, but also an "oops" moment because I bought it as part of a silent auction for a benefit fundraiser for someone who had a health issue. Turns out my bid, which was the first bid on the opening day of the auction at the music store, ended up being the only bid. It was low enough I didn't seriously think I'd win the thing. Luckily I was able to quickly sell the half-stack to cover myself, lol!
Then last year we started going back to my wife's home church, and were asked to be on the worship team. I got my electric back out and noticed that I really needed a delay pedal... and an overdrive. So I bought a TS-9 and started researching delays, only to find out the prices of the ones I liked were $300+. Ugh. I was still looking at internet articles about the TS-9, even though I already bought it, and stumbled across all the mods, and then the clones. More research, and I stumbled across MBP. The cost is low to enter into this kind of hobby, so I thought I'd give it a shot. Besides, if I can build my own pedals I can save a fortune! Haha! Ha ha... ha.
So I bought some copper clad and chemicals, learned to etch boards, learned to solder better, then bought a better soldering station ($$), a crap ton of components and hardware from Mouser, SB, mKlec and BLMS ($$$), and a powdercoating gun from Harbor Freight with powders from Columbia Coatings ($$$), some drill bits off Amazon ($), and sunk in a ton of time learning about all this stuff. I think it's just now starting to all come together, about 10 months after entering into the DIY world of guitar pedals and giving the equivalent of maybe 2 to 3 hours per week to actually doing something physical with the stuff. I built and boxed a Green Bean, and put the TS-9 up for sale "to fund further projects." Now I have 2 Snarkdoodles ready to box up and JMK's testing rig (just need to clear coat the boxes).
So, yeah, I wanted a delay pedal but I still really got here because I'm the proverbial "I just wanna build a tubescreamer" guy.
When I first picked up guitar lessons, when I was 15 or 16, I was totally into Blink 128, The offspring and so on. So I kinda wanted a dirt pedal to play that stuff and got a crappy one from a friend very cheap. It still sounds horrible to me today. I continued to play but I never really got into it. It was just a from time to time thing.
Fast forward to august 2013, when I finally pulled the trigger on a new guitar to motivate me. A good friend and co-worker did an electronics school before studying chemistry and he just said: "How about we build an amp for that new guitar?" So, we started planing a solid-state amp. In the process, I thought about adding a dirt channel to the amp and started looking around how to do so and stumbled upon uk-electronics.de where I promptly ordered a klon kit. My friend showed me how to solder, identify parts and so on and from that moment I was hooked. The next projects followed soon thereafter from mbp.
Since then I've build a dozen pedals, but still can't play properly and want more nevertheless. It's not so much about me using them. I just love planing a build, putting it together and the feeling when you hit that switch and it does what it is supposed to.
Ps.: still didn't finish that solid-state amp :p
Been playing guitar since 1996 although... I sound like I have been playing since Christmas :-[
Anyways... about 15 years ago, a cousin of mine was starting up his own band and talked non-stop about wanting a TS808. My uncle could not afford one of them so... one day I overheard him talking about getting one for him. I said that maybe I could help and took it to task. I have worked on electronics for a few decades and was relatively experienced in soldering, part ID, etc. So... I scoured the interwebz (nowhere near as easy as it is now) and it led me to a schematic for it. I was able to fashion a crude PCB and populate it with parts from my work. I even found an old 4558 for it! I built it in a BUD box I found. Painted it enamel Green, which I think is still not fully cured, and presented it to my uncle to give to him. Soon after he received it, we began the modding. He still has it to this day!
Not to soon after this, I found a few forums popping up but never really got involved in them until around 2007/2008. Its been all fun and games since then. I haven't bought a production pedal since they unveiled the SansAmp GT2 if that helps with dating things...
Still wish I could play guitar better though... ::)
/book begin
I started playing guitar when I was 15 and a few friends of mine in a neighboring town started a band. We started by playing Bauhaus, Love & Rockets & Sisters of Mercy covers. We then decided to start making our own tracks and called ourselves "The Fuzz" as in The Police. Looking back it was pretty funny since I did not own any fuzz pedals. In fact I never had any pedals I used since if I wanted any kind of overdrive I would just turn the Bassman up louder lol. My first pedal was given to me by a bass player/friend that played with my dad a lot. He gave me a V3 Big Muff and using a reel to reel as a delay device, I was set and hooked on effects. I then became addicted to reverb and delays. I have owned so many analog & digital delays I have lost track. I went through a phase where all I had was rack effects and a MIDI foot controller. I would run my guitar, drum machine and vocals through it. In came the obsession with Ministry and Skinny Puppy. I was a huge synth pop / Industrial fan and tried my hand at it many time.
fast forward: Married, gained 100 pounds, found better gear.
I have always been a gear whore and loved getting my hands on everything. Even if its just for a short period to try something.I have been very fortunate with the deals I have found and the friends I have made along the way. As anyone that owns/collects classic hardware you know that repairs are inevitable. I learned some basics to fix pedals and amps but nothing to invasive by any means. I have/had a hobby of collecting video game consoles and modding them. Most of the time the mods would be for better video out or the ability to play game backups. I started repairing game consoles and built up a decent workshop of tools for working with very small circuits. Anyone that has modded a Playstation 2 or a Game Cube will know what I am talking about. Tiny tiny pads and hair thin wire to work with.
I got a Japanese Jazzmaster and was hanging out at OffsetGuitars forum and seen a DIY Effects section. It really intrigued me and I wanted to know more about it. I started googling around and seeing what others were building. When I found I could make a bunch of Big Muff variants I was hooked. I started with a Skreddy Mayo from a vero layout from Mark's Tagboard website and it was a huge failure. Wrong part sizes and I spent more time trying to make it look pretty than making it work. So, back to the drawing board. After posting a few successful builds over at OffsetGuitars I was contacted by Timbo since we lived in the same town. He told me about the Madbean forum and said I should definitely check it out. When I seen Brian was not only selling PCBs but he was also giving out etch masks then I knew I needed to learn to etch. Much reading a trial and error I ended up able to make boards. This opened up a huge door for me since I did not have much money to spend on parts and PCBs. I was now able to spend more money on getting my parts & enclosures stocked up.
My blog was started as a catch all for stuff I found around the web and I wanted to archive but it has evolved in to much more. My goal was to share as much information as I can to help people just like me get started or try something new. I used to think etching was the hardest thing to get the hang of, now I pop boards out in 25 minutes with no issues. If it was not for all the people along the way that put up with my stupid questions and the help to the now obvious answers then I would not be sitting where I am today.
Even though I love etching I also see how important it is to support others by buying PCBs and building others layouts.
One last thing. Just as I am a proud owner of things like a Roland Space Echo RE-201 and various vintage amps, I am also a proud owner of Jon Patton's Nature Dweller & Timbo's Nuevo Jefe pedals and look forward to getting builds from all my favorites. Simply put, I am happy to be part of this community of such talented individuals and look forward to the future of this hobby.
/book ending
Cody
I realized a guitar pedal is not that much on parts cost. It seemed like a way to save money. In retrospect, that turned out to be incorrect although I made a pretty good amount of stuff in around a year
Like many here it was driven from an insatiable need to understand how stuff works under the hood. My parents used to kill me for taking apart everything I owned just to see what was inside. I still do that a lot ;)
I got started back in '83. My brother got an electric guitar and we didn't have any money for an amp. We were both starving students. I was taking an electronics class as part of my computer science curriculum. I read a Craig Anderton article in Guitar Player about how to build a solid state practice amp. I couldn't resist. I went to the local electronics shop and bought the parts and made the amp. We found some old car speakers and made a cabinet. I made a few distortion pedals and modded a Marshall and kind of quit. A few years ago, I started making stereo amplifiers and headphone amplifiers. I, also, did a few digital projects. I started making dirt boxes again and really got hooked. Now I'm making delays, compressors, phasers, etc. A lot of fun.
Quote from: dont-tase-me-bro on February 24, 2015, 11:26:54 PM
I realized a guitar pedal is not that much on parts cost. It seemed like a way to save money.
The trap that ensnares us all. ::)
Approximately 8-9 years ago. I was at a friends house, he was showing me his 'boost and buff'. Cost him, think it was $100. He showed me the inside, where the battery goes. There was like...this tiny little board with about 8 components on it.
"that's it...like...THATS IT...!?"
Next week, I was building the Diystompboxes beginner project (npn booster).
I started with amps out of necessity. Always wanted a four 6V6 Deluxe Reverb. Still haven't built it yet. Maybe someday. After a half dozen amps I needed an OD pedal so I thought I'd do a BYOC ODII. Which ended up being a spectacular disaster. It sounds awesome... ...when it works. It was far cheaper than an amp, but still a little expensive. A friend asked me for a boost pedal and I was amazed to find it incredibly easy. And cheap. And fun. Now I have so many projects going I do t know what to work on when I have time.
Great stories, guys. Love reading these.
I need a reverb and picked up a Holy Grail on the cheap that was beat to crap and needed some fixing. Google led me to DIYstomp when searching for fixes.
Then came the familiar refrain:
"Holy crap, you mean I can make a $200 boutique boost myself from a few radio shack parts?"
I didn't know about PCBs and built my first few effects on pad-per-hole perf with a $10 iron. Not beginner friendly at all, but once I got something running I was hooked.
Sometimes when I build something that sounds really good and toss it in the 'maybe box it one day' pile I could just about kick myself because my noob self would have gone bananas over it.
Quote from: jubal81 on February 25, 2015, 12:44:05 AM
Sometimes when I build something that sounds really good and toss it in the 'maybe box it one day' pile I could just about kick myself because my noob self would have gone bananas over it.
Exactly this!
Cody
I am a bit of a spaz. Once I got my first pedal to actually work, I went kind of nuts building things. It feeds off making functional things that I actually want and can use, with the other side seeming like I have a license to print money. I'm stickin it to the man.
Quote from: selfdestroyer on February 25, 2015, 12:46:07 AM
Quote from: jubal81 on February 25, 2015, 12:44:05 AM
Sometimes when I build something that sounds really good and toss it in the 'maybe box it one day' pile I could just about kick myself because my noob self would have gone bananas over it.
Exactly this!
Cody
I miss the old me sometimes ...
(https://s3.amazonaws.com/f.cl.ly/items/19202s3c0Z1k0w0q0w1g/fff.jpg)
Haha perfect analogy.
Well I managed a music shop in the 80s and sold guitars and pedals and keys and everything. Out of all the distortions I really loved the Marshall Guv'nur. Never owned one as I used a preamp in my git and got dirt out of my amps directly. I also used a Boss CH-2 live for many years. Jump forward 30 years. I want to gear up for church. I figured a Boss Chorus was a Boss Chorus... Nope. I had a Marshall Valvestate 2000 that blew up. I couldn't afford another amp so I decided I was going to fix it... Joined the Music Electronics Forum and through those great guys helping out a newbie (who thought he could solder), and after many many hours with a lightbulb limiter I actually fixed the damn thing much to their surprise and mine. It wasn't pretty but it's still working. So I decided I would finally get that Marshall Guv'nur I had sold so many of. Found a circuit board and bought the parts and proceeded to build what looks like a monkey threw solder at a piece of pegboard..lmao. What a mess. I did get it to work though. The next step was to get my CH-2 back. It was all over at that point.
Quote from: jubal81 on February 25, 2015, 12:56:00 AM
Quote from: selfdestroyer on February 25, 2015, 12:46:07 AM
Quote from: jubal81 on February 25, 2015, 12:44:05 AM
Sometimes when I build something that sounds really good and toss it in the 'maybe box it one day' pile I could just about kick myself because my noob self would have gone bananas over it.
Exactly this!
Cody
I miss the old me sometimes ...
(https://s3.amazonaws.com/f.cl.ly/items/19202s3c0Z1k0w0q0w1g/fff.jpg)
That is the funniest thing I've seen in awhile AND it is so true. It used to be the amazing Rangemaster I just built with just a plain box and no artwork. I'd just sit and stare at that amazing feat in wonder. Now it is " Yeah I guess the Aquaboy Deluxe I just finished, with it's etched faceplate and Envirotex is alright... You know ... Whatever..." We suck.
I started playing guitar at 14, but the only pedal I ever really had was a little Guyatone delay (which I still have, and love). I was always super interested in them, though. "I can make my guitar sound like something else? Awesome!" They were always too expensive to really buy any, though.
Fast forward several years to 2008 or 2009...my oldest friend decided he was going to start learning guitar too, and he got a few pedals right away (a black Russian Big Muff, don't remember what else). Somehow we both discovered BYOC at the same time, and like all of us, I was seduced at how cheap building your own seemed to be. I jumped in with their Mouse kit, and was amazed when it fired right up. I was immediately hooked.
Sometime right before I built that kit, I'd bought an actual Zvex Woolly Mammoth (which cost a lot of money for a poor underemployed kid). I figured that since I could build a Rat, maybe I could sell the Mammoth and build a replacement? A little searching on the BYOC forums directed me to Madbean, who was then selling home-etched circuits via his monthly mailing list. After that, there was no helping me. I've spent way more on this "cheap" hobby than I ever would have on production pedals, and I'm pretty satisfied knowing that at least I made all my toys by hand.
Quote from: Govmnt_Lacky on February 24, 2015, 10:52:32 PM
Been playing guitar since 1996 although... I sound like I have been playing since Christmas :-[
Still wish I could play guitar better though... ::)
Story of my life.
About two years ago I wanted a SHO, but couldn't afford the price. Found IVIark's Tagboard Effects and built one on vero. Then started building for buddies and never stopped.
Quote from: jubal81 on February 25, 2015, 12:56:00 AM
Quote from: selfdestroyer on February 25, 2015, 12:46:07 AM
Quote from: jubal81 on February 25, 2015, 12:44:05 AM
Sometimes when I build something that sounds really good and toss it in the 'maybe box it one day' pile I could just about kick myself because my noob self would have gone bananas over it.
Exactly this!
Cody
I miss the old me sometimes ...
(https://s3.amazonaws.com/f.cl.ly/items/19202s3c0Z1k0w0q0w1g/fff.jpg)
haha!
That is so nailed on.
It's comes at the point you've built and heard just about everything and nothing really excites you any more. You see them get all stoked up about the new Boutique fad over on FSB and think, meh, YATS. Is it snobbish? I don't know. But it takes something properly interesting to excite me these days.
I started playing guitar at 13. Mainly played 90s rock stuff at the beggining, had a rock bad at school. I used a solid state laney amp which has decent cleans and a horrible dirt cheannel (later, i used that channel to get a massive wall of distortion that i defined as 'putting your ear against a truck motor'). when one friend at school showed me the only pedal he had, i was super excited... that's how real distortion was made!!. So spent all my earnings to buy pedals in the following years.
in the end, i had : dod grunge (1st pedal i bought .. regretted it every time i turned it on :) ), dod flanger, dunlop wah, boss compressor, danelectro cool cat chorus (actually thought it sounded pretty cool when used is stereo, in my 2 channel amp, really changed the sound to give more space), TS5, and other pedals i don't even remember (bought a used pedalboard from a local band, with a lot of crappy DOD pedals). When i was 17, i discovered DIYstomboxes and i was super excited but at the time i was impossible for me to buy online so i went to a local electronic store and tried to buy vero, resistors, caps and pots. went back home, followed the step by step instructions to make a boost using my father's soldering iron with a huge tip and too much wattage... made a mess with the circuit, only got oscillation noise out of it. tried anotber time ... it worked .. but then i had to make a millenium bypass, and i only had a plastic box .. i had to make holes into it. the plastic box would never be as good as the metal ones and i could not source anything .. it seemed to hard.. i stopped thinking about all this.
a few years later, at university, learning physics, i took the most practical course of the whole physics department : analogic electronics, hoping i'd FINALLY understand how it all works. So i saw the basics amplifier stages with transistors, opamps, and stuff. then i showed a schematic to the teacher hoping he'd help me build a bluesbreaker as a personal project .. and all he could do was analyse voltages and stuff.. tried to build it .. same story, impossible to source componenets locally, found some componenets, soldered them, oscillation and noise again, i had no idea how to debug it.
a few years later, i started studying guitar seriously since i now love modern jazz and gypsy jazz. i thought, i would like to change my guitar pickup, i know i can solder 2 wires, let's do it.. This time i bought a decent soldering iron (15 euros) and it WORKED.. so i thought ... why not try a stopbox again.. i foudn musikding, really low price kits.. i ordered a tremolo, made it work ... and went into havoc.
i spend nights looking at schematics on the net, compiling informations, learning eagle, buying some pcbs, but mainly making my own designs and etching them. and i started making complete pedals. the bigger problem for me being the hardware part: drilling, painting, labelling, ...
I found that it stopped my progression at guitar so i tried to balance both. Also you don't need all these fancy effects in jazz so it slowed me down too.. but i still have this fascination for effects and love building.
Then i had my 2 children, a very demanding work, my workbench was transformed into a baby's bedroom and the solder fumes are replaced by teddybears, and here i am today. I take the time to take all the material and build my temporary workbench during the evenings when i'm not too tired, and when i don't want to play guitar. Playing and practicing to become a better player still being my absolute priority. In the end, both playing and building pedals feel a bit pointless since i don't have the time to play in a band, or see how i would use any of these pedals in a jazz band setting, but i still do it as an intellectual and fun hobby. like some would build small trains or airplanes. Also i want to have a badass pedalboard when i have more time and i'm back playing with a band :)
And i love the community !
Started with a DOD Classic fuzz and a TS9 in my high school band. The fuzz didn't work out, so I bought a Sovtek Big Muff (Tall Font). That lead to a Sovtek Small Stone and then some Ebay purchases: early 70s MXR Dist +, 70s ADA Flanger and an old Stereo Memory Man. Some bands later, our stupid drummer got drunk one night, took a bat to my Big Muff and the footswitch never worked well after that. Between wanting to learn how to fix the pedal and then finding out I could make my own Fender Blender, I found BYOC and a few YouTube videos to learn how to solder. Now I'm up to 20+ mostly successful builds and I still haven't rehoused that Big Muff OR built a Fender Blender! Haha
I still get excited every time I finish a new build. I just wish I was still playing with a band.
It used to be that the very thought of even picking up a soldering iron had me screaming for cover. That was magical technology. The few times I needed something to be soldered, I think some kill switches in my guitars I asked others to do it for me. What probably really kickstarted it for me was buying an Boss SD-1 on the Dutch version of Craigslist. It came with a still unused Monte Allums mod kit. Naturally I asked a friend to do it. But I watched intently and came to the conclusion that it wasn't that hard. So I purchased a few more mods, bought some cheap 2nd hand Boss pedals and damn, it worked!
Then one day I came across BYOC kits being sold in one of my favorite guitar shops and it was like the dawn of a new age. I was in a Radiohead tribute band and now finally I had a chance to get some of those rare out of production pedals, like the DOD 440. And thus the addiction got born. Not everything worked at first. In those days I had like a 50+% chance of producing a dud. I was blessed however that I discovered a solder jockey in my city who could fix almost anything. He's known on places like FSB and DIYSB as Bernarduur. If you google for a Big Muff mod page, his page will come up on top. Nice guy, who fixed my duds. And in doing so he probably helped to keep my flame alive. Not that I learned much of him, but otherwise the frustration of all those failed builds would have caused me to give up in disgust. As it almost did a few times. After BYOC came GGG, which caused my OCD with topmounting all my jacks from now on, and the discovery that you could order boards only, from Tonepad at first, and later the first etched boards from Madbean. Sourcing my own builds, using Smallbear at first, was often quite a source of frustration as you would always forget a part, or order the wrong one. And I didn't have whole bins full of stocked spare parts at that time.
The final step I'd say was when Bernarduur moved away and could no longer fix my mistakes. In no time my box of fail grew to epic proportions and I contemplated giving up entirely as there was no fun any more in building stuff that in most cases didn't work. Over time however I found that I still liked to build things and I forced myself to learn more about troubleshooting. Can't say that I'm the best at it, but I learned how to use the 3 most indispensable tools for troubleshooting, the audio probe, the DMM and how to read schematics (up until I was a layout only kind of guy). I wouldn't say I'm good. I totally lack basic knowledge of electronics, but I managed to increase my success rate from less then 50% to 90%. My box of fail has emptied considerably and few new things go in there these days.
I choose to begin my story now:
I starting playing guitar at 13, but always enjoyed putting things together and/or pulling them apart. They never went back the same way - behold my cheap Watch and Game copy that I pulled apart to have a look at the internals, or the walkie talkies my grandmother gave me and my brother, or the plethora of plastic airplanes I built (some of which were shot with a rubber band peg gun later on). My Tamiya Frog has survived, mostly, but has been upgraded to better suspension, bumpers, and the high speed motor.
I started out putting aftermarket pickups into my guitars and refinishing them. I had a Korg a5 that I save up with my after school job, then I went to a DS-1/crybaby/TS-10 combo into a Roland DAC-50. Later I figured I only really needed one sound and got a VS-102r cheap and used that for everything for years.
I always admired Brian May's Red Special, and generally I like to build things that I will use, or more commonly, things that I think are cool.
I can't remember exactly why or how I found about modding (one of) my DS-1 pedals, but I found an instructable on how to do the keely mods and went from there. I decided I wanted a chorus and got Haberdasher to etch me a Little Angel and a Krankasaurus. I got a little obsessed with the idea of dirt/boost in one box for a while there and now I've built the boneyard, dead ringer, a sprout/SHO combo, Ammocan, and the Kranky.
After I got a Blackstar HT-Dual and decided it sounds like godinabox, I decided to downsize and I got rid of my vs-102r and my bass amp, replaceing them with a single powered PA speaker, so the Boneyard in particular is an effort to get a 9v version of my *sound* (lol) instead of the power supply shenannigans that having a 16vac pedal requires. Random Stranger is the response to needing a front end for playing bass straight into a PA.
I haven't built a *huge* number of pedals, and I think the number of failed veros is probably equal to the number of completed boxes.. Although..... thinking about it, the number of successful veros greatly outnumbers the boxes due to the multis I build!
You know, I think I'm just about done. I just have to box this Dead Ringer etch, a madbean Hipster, a Crunchbox on vero, possibly a TS-9 on vero, and I think I'm finished. Don't see the need to build any more pedals. I'm going to do a 9v battery pedal powered pedalboard, and a Cioks AC-10 powered board for the HT-dual and some sort of multi, probably a Zoom G3x since it has the balanced XLR outs plus all the other effects and leave it at that I think.
Maybe one more DI cabsim with balanced outs type affair (terminus junior), but probably not.
Before I started building a few years ago I had only owned a handful effects in the 20+ years I had been playing. I discovered BYOC and thought it would be fun and maybe a cheaper alternative to buying gear and experimenting with new sounds.
But mainly I do it for the chicks.
Quote from: chuckbuick on February 25, 2015, 01:59:19 PM
But mainly I do it for the chicks.
Are you talking about the ones Juansolo puts on his enclosures? :P
Sadly, yes. Now he knows why I click "like" on his Facebook pedal pics at 2 o'clock in the morning.
Quote from: chuckbuick on February 25, 2015, 02:31:15 PM
Sadly, yes. Now he knows why I click "like" on his Facebook pedal pics at 2 o'clock in the morning.
Thanks for the visual Mark 8)
Quote from: Luke51411 on February 25, 2015, 02:02:55 PM
Quote from: chuckbuick on February 25, 2015, 01:59:19 PM
But mainly I do it for the chicks.
Are you talking about the ones Juansolo puts on his enclosures? :P
I thought he meant the peeps...
http://www.madbeanpedals.com/forum/index.php?topic=4493.msg39771#msg39771 (http://www.madbeanpedals.com/forum/index.php?topic=4493.msg39771#msg39771)
Jacob
I got into it in 2010. I had borrowed my friend's copy of Dave Hunter's awesome "Guitar Amp Handbook." (http://www.amazon.com/Guitar-Amp-Handbook-Understanding-Amplifiers/dp/148039288X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1424881883&sr=8-1&keywords=dave+hunter+guitar) At the time, I owned an Agile AD-2300, Digitech Bad Monkey & Screamin' Blues, DOD Milkbox. I may have acquired my TC Nova Delay at that point. And I was playing into a Blackheart BH5 half stack. By the end of the book, all I could think about was building a "2 Stroke" amp.
A couple of my guitar buddies told me I should start on pedals instead to gain some soldering chops first, and because it would be cheaper and safer than trying to build an amp. I didn't have money to build either one, so it was moot.
Then I read Dave Hunter's not-nearly-as-awesome "Guitar Effects Pedals." (http://www.amazon.com/Guitar-Effects-Pedals-Practical-Handbook/dp/1617131016/ref=sr_1_5?ie=UTF8&qid=1424881883&sr=8-5&keywords=dave+hunter+guitar) At the end, he interviewed several prominent builders, and they were all saying that nobody was coming out with any new ideas, just cloning and re-cooking tired old stuff. That got me thinking about what novel idea one could come up with that would be different, but still useful musically.
That made me want to know how the circuits worked and I started poring over the projects at BYOC and GGG. Eventually I saved up some money and bought the GGG ITS8 kit. I was shocked and amazed to see/hear it fire up, and I've never lost the little thrill of anticipation, wondering if the LED is going to light on the first try. Even though it doesn't always correlate with whether or not the effect actually works, I love seeing that LED glow! And it's always a mini heartbreak if it doesn't light right up.
Of course I set to modding the TS circuit and that led eventually to coming up with my own, non-TS OD circuit. Reading the "Cook Your Own Distortion" article (now called "Design Your Own Distortion" (http://www.generalguitargadgets.com/how-to-build-it/technical-help/articles/design-distortion/)) helped immensely with that.
I then got into some basic Eagle stuff and etching my own boards, screen printing, dabbling with powder coating (eventually giving up on powder coating). I met Jon, a.k.a. Stomptown, and he introduced me to the MB community about a year ago. He also created the amazing layout for my Big Block pedal that fixed the crazy tangle of off-board wire and took it from 3 PCBs to 1.
Through the stuff I've seen here, I've gained a ton of new creative ideas, and I've learned a lot from Jacob's Eagle tutorials. No more etching boards for me! I continue to be blown away and inspired by the builds that get posted here, and I'm learning something new here every day.
Quote from: chuckbuick on February 25, 2015, 02:31:15 PM
Sadly, yes. Now he knows why I click "like" on his Facebook pedal pics at 2 o'clock in the morning.
LOL!
I got into building pedals because I wanted to learn enough about electronics and soldering to be able to fix my tube amps myself (after spending on two repairs in quick succession). Bought a BYOC Tremolo kit and a Rat Shack iron and when the thing worked right off the bat, I was hooked!
Six years later, still know almost nothing about electronics and never came close to opening up a tube amp. Basically, abject failure, aside from the 100 pedals I've built so far and the 20 I need to box.
Here's my story:
I started in 2009 ish. I bought a used Line 6 DL4 that worked great...for a while. Then the tap switch started to flake out and I needed to have it repaired. I put it off for a while. Then I bought a Planet Waves PT-40 pedal tuner for $20 off some dude on craigslist. It was a piece of GARBAGE! Made this horrible noise when I had it bypassed. So I then needed an AB switch to switch over to it when needed. I figured it couldn't be that hard to build. I ordered the parts from PPP and built the switch. Then I decided to try and fix the DL4. Replaced all the switches and did a ton of mods. Then I did the same to my FM4. And the sickness was caught. Haven't been able to stop since. I started out modding for a few years. Then in about 2012 I built a GGG Big Muff and the rest is history. So in the end it was really to fill a need and save a little cash, now it for fun and friends.
-Mike-
Started soldering up stuff from Guitar Player, Electronic Musician, Modern Recording and other mags as well as Craig Anderton's Electronics Projects for Musicians, back in the eighties. Graph Paper, Pencil & Eraser pcb design software, dry transfer pads & tape 'etch resist'. Went and visited Jon Gaines at his Rochester workshop in '91.
Fast forward to the end of the century, my integrated stereo amp is beyond repair but all the new ones i look at are phono preampless, know i can build a phono pre to use with whatever amp i buy.
Find a cool preamp design by astronaut Norm Thagard in AudioXpress magazine, also find a tube power amp design in an issue that looks quite doable so why not? Build those plus a Transcendent Sound Tube preamp, all still functioning and sounding great. In searching for parts for those come across the Angela website/store and discover to my delight, people actually diy tube guitar amps, Eureka moment, i can do that?
Buy a Kevin O'Connor book on building guitar amps and there's a circuit in there for a Tremolo that could be integrated into an amp or made into a pedal, bingo! Made that, meh... eventually reused the enclosure for an EA Tremolo, much better.
I just like making stuff, anything, never occurred to me to buy a pedal, still not much of a pedal person, like making them, love messing around on the enclosure seeing where that journey goes, how do you bring that part of the process to closure? On occassion i even use them, most of the time just give me a SHO and one of my homebrew tube amps and i can contendedly bang my head stupid.
dave
edit; We had a Heathkit tube radio when i was a kid that my dad had soldered up so i'm genetically predisposed to be a solder sniffer.
When i started high school, walked there with a couple older guys from the neighbourhood who were into electronic projects. You'd be walking along talking and they'd randomly rhymn off some three digit number, 211, 524 whatever. Took a while to figure but they were using the resistor code to point out and talk about the 'hot chicks' encountered on the trip, keep the new kid out of the loop and in the dark.
Electronics and me go way back.
My intention when I started was just to learn about what made analog effects work so that I could do more with the digital effects I was writing. I spent about a year doing nothing but breadboarding before I finally realized that the Fuzz Face circuit I'd been messing with really did sound amazing enough that I should put it in a box so that I could actually use it to play with. I did that first one point-to-point on hole board and pretty much had to learn to solder to do it.
I then decided to build the one effect that I had in my youth and sold and wished I hadn't, the CE-2. I did that on a Tonepad layout but eventually got annoyed enough with how noisy it was that I wanted to redo it. That's how I discovered Madbean.
My main goal is still learning about how the analog stuff works so I can do it in digital, but I now have so many pedals built that I'm kinda stunned by it every time I stop and look in the drawer that most of them sit in. The majority of them are the classic circuits that just aren't really obtainable any other way, so that's really cool too.
Quote from: RobA on February 25, 2015, 05:56:49 PM
My main goal is still learning about how the analog stuff works so I can do it in digital, but I now have so many pedals built that I'm kinda stunned by it every time I stop and look in the drawer that most of them sit in. The majority of them are the classic circuits that just aren't really obtainable any other way, so that's really cool too.
Haha, that's one of the reasons why I want to enroll in a DSP master... the problem is that I'm really enjoying the analog world at this time :) and don't have the intention to let that part go!! As much as I love programming stuff, emulating analog and creating things that are almost imposible to hear on a breadboard, I'll always be a soldering-iron-guy.
Ho-kay. Growing up, Dad had a shelf FULL of electronic stuff that he never did anything with (he's one of those people who never seems to have spare time), but I had no clue what I was doing so didn't touch most of it.
In High School, I discovered first my local BBS, then the wonders of the Internet. Then I discovered the synth-diy mailing list (late 90's). I've still got a notebook somewhere full of schematics I copied out but (at 50c a week pocket money) couldn't AFFORD to build.
I thought about learning guitar but, when I saw a page of chord charts ("You mean you have to memorise those semi-random patterns?! ALL those?!") I decided to learn keyboard instead. I wasn't hugely good.
A decade later, I heard Oasis' song "Talk Tonight". That was the one that spurred me to consider learning how to play guitar (at age 26, I think.) I don't think I finished making it through Ernie Ball Volume One, though.
I had a job that paid real money, and decided to build a guitar amp (since my MG15CD amp is fucking awful), on the basis it could be quite fun, more fun than just /buying/ one. This gave me a bit of confidence with that soldering thang. (And my 40W iron -- it's lasted me awhile!)
I spent several months doing the "Guitar to amp is purer!" thing, then decided I wanted to try out one or two effects, not a lot. The BD-2 Dad had felt uncontrollable to me, so I looked further afield. A guy on NZGuitars described the LaVache glowingly, and it sounded like a good match for my noobie hands, so I picked one up.
Building pedals turned out to be FUN. And cheaper than buildings amplifiers -- a LOT cheaper. My self-control is poor under these circumstances.
Once my confidence was propped up a bit, I remembered my high school dreams of a big MOTM modular synthesizer wall. Hmmm. I wonder how much harder a synthesizer module is than a guitar pedal... to quote Clarkson, Hammond, and May, "How hard can it be?"
Love some of these stories guys.
I was given an Italian Vox Crybaby around 2004 and sold it for a huge price on ebay in 2009, then missed it immediately and went looking for another/something similar, which led to a period of true-bypass modding Thomas Organ Crybabys and Vox V847's, I don't even know how many, but I'd guess around 50, bought, modded, sold. One day I thought I'd build a BYOC ESV fuzz, did it, huge massive sound, sold it. Missed it, found FSB, built a Bad Stone, then an Aquaboy/Echobase 2-in-1 which led me here. First proper MB board I built was a Boomstick, then many many Pastyfaces, all got sold, then many other dirts, then delay pedals. So many delay pedals now. I build, I sell, I buy more parts and do it again. It has never really turned much profit, but it has been a self sustaining hobby and a great time. Now I'm onto winding pickups, but still love to build delay pedals, just something so interesting about what you can do with them.