I'm looking to purchase the most common resistor and capacitor values that are used in pedal building. I know some places sell variety packs but I don't want parts whose values I'll never use for years. I'm just looking for a few common values for each that overlap a broad spectrum of pedals. Anyone have any tips or suggestions. Plus, is there any added value going for the metal film vs carbon resistors?
There are other's who'll jump in but here's my $0.02 as a beginner who's recently done the "inventory buildup":
1) Right here at MadBean Central, print out the build docs for the half dozen or so pedals you'd like to build most.
2) Sit down with a spread sheet and list out everything with quantities.
3) For passive components go to www.mouser.com and order quantities that make sense at the first or second price break. For example, metal film 1% resistors are $0.09 each in quantities of 10-199 but drop to $0.02 for 200. So for resistors, if any value totals up to say, about 40, go for the 200. My personal rule of thumb is for smaller quantities never buy less than 10 (unless it's like a $9 IC or something). Most parts are $0.25 or less, and some are so widely used (e.g. 1N914 diodes, 10K and 100K resistors) AND cheap it just makes sense to order plenty.
3) For pots and those cool poly box capacitors go to www.futurlec.com. They'll take about 2 weeks to get to the USA but they are reliable and reasonably priced. They also have a package of IC sockets that is about 75% usable.
4) for the other hardware like enclosures, jacks and switches, I personally like to order from the small business guys like SmallBear, PedalPartsPlus, CapsN'Such and so forth.
Other notes:
Digikey is an excellent supplier and has reasonable shipping rates for small orders and they're also VERY fast.
If you order a neat board from MadBean or elsewhere - order 2 - as a beginner, the opportunities to screw up are myriad and pedals make cool gifts!
Smallbear has it going on.
Jacob
Quote from: jkokura on August 09, 2010, 12:45:18 PM
Smallbear has it going on.
Jacob
Here's another vote for Smallbear. My only complaint about Mouser is their inventory is next to impossible to navigate, at least for me. Yikes. On the other side, Smallbear is a bit... spartan with how their inventory is listed. But it's still
much easier for me to find what I need than at Mouser. Just my $.02.
Mouser takes a long time to get a handle on. But, once you do it will save you a lot of money. Smallbear is a great substitute, and they carry a lot of stuff that you won't find elsewhere (easily).