Small Bear vs Tayda

[Lgmlgm76]

I'm a relatively new builder and had good results with my last build exclusively with Tayda parts. I'm trying to keep costs low without sacrificing sound. Has anyone done a sound comparison between the two? Tayda is damn cheap. Or if there are parts that you guys could recommend I only get from Small Bear, like transistors , diodes, etc; And get things like resistors, pots, caps, etc from Tayda. I don't know much about components but I plan on building a ton of pedals. Of if anything what components are crucial for sound quality and shouldn't be skimped on? Thanks!

[jwin615]

I haven't bought much from tayda. I mostly deal with digikey, smallbear and mouser, in that order. Pedal parts plus and love my switches occasionally.
Some bulk stuff from AliExpress. The big packs of resistors for a few bucks are a must. Think I got 110 values, 25 each for ~$4 a couple years back. Sort the in a couple of recipe card boxes with dividers in-between every 10 values or so.
But, my point in all this, is through recent comparison shopping, small bear beats out mouser/digikey in pricing on a lot of components right now. My guess is much of their inventory was purchased 2+ years ago before everything went up. Some silicon items were almost half price there.
Also, I've grown against buying silicon from discount sources. Get your transistors and ICs (and Electro's) of name brand from reputable sources. I've gotten trannies from Ali that were obvious rebranded generics with hfes way off the datasheet spec.
I also try and support the smaller shops as much as possible. 5 cents here or there is a small investment in the health of the hobby.
While I'm ranting, I do like AliExpress for bench stuff. Banana to Dupont connectors, perfboard and the like.

[jimilee]

I’ll be honest with you. I’ve been using Tayda for as much as I can for as long as they’ve been around. Rarely if ever  have I had a part that failed.


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[matmosphere]

I use Tayda a lot as well. Over the past several years I've had one bad bag of electro caps from them that caused a few big headaches, but other than that all has been very good.

I get most stuff from them, I like getting enclosures and switches from Lawrence at love my switches. There stuff if a nicer quality than tayda, and for mechanical stuff like switches that matters (to me at least). I occasionally order from smallbear if there is something more specialized that I need. They are a true gem.

Mouser is also very, very good, but doesn't have quite everything you can find at tayda that people end up using for pedals.

[Lgmlgm76]

I use Tayda a lot as well. Over the past several years I've had one bad bag of electro caps from them that caused a few big headaches, but other than that all has been very good.

I get most stuff from them, I like getting enclosures and switches from Lawrence at love my switches. There stuff if a nicer quality than tayda, and for mechanical stuff like switches that matters (to me at least). I occasionally order from smallbear if there is something more specialized that I need. They are a true gem.

Mouser is also very, very good, but doesn't have quite everything you can find at tayda that people end up using for pedals.

I’ll be honest with you. I’ve been using Tayda for as much as I can for as long as they’ve been around. Rarely if ever  have I had a part that failed.


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I haven't bought much from tayda. I mostly deal with digikey, smallbear and mouser, in that order. Pedal parts plus and love my switches occasionally.
Some bulk stuff from AliExpress. The big packs of resistors for a few bucks are a must. Think I got 110 values, 25 each for ~$4 a couple years back. Sort the in a couple of recipe card boxes with dividers in-between every 10 values or so.
But, my point in all this, is through recent comparison shopping, small bear beats out mouser/digikey in pricing on a lot of components right now. My guess is much of their inventory was purchased 2+ years ago before everything went up. Some silicon items were almost half price there.
Also, I've grown against buying silicon from discount sources. Get your transistors and ICs (and Electro's) of name brand from reputable sources. I've gotten trannies from Ali that were obvious rebranded generics with hfes way off the datasheet spec.
I also try and support the smaller shops as much as possible. 5 cents here or there is a small investment in the health of the hobby.
While I'm ranting, I do like AliExpress for bench stuff. Banana to Dupont connectors, perfboard and the like.

Thanks everyone, this is exactly the info I was looking for. I'll have to try out the other companies listed as well. Happy building!

[Thewintersoldier]

Tayda is the bulk of my parts and has been since I started using them in 2018. The fact that they cater to guitar players and offer so much at great prices is amazing. I have never had issues with quality of anything I've purchased and they have always been easy to work with in the event something was wrong.
Smallbear are fantastic for the hard to find nos parts. You can make sure they aren't fakes and have a good variety of parts. LMS is great for jacks, switches and knobs/enclosures. Stompboxparts is my new goto for a lot of things and use them for the things I get usually from tayda when I only need a small amount fast, but their footswitches and jacks are my favorite. They are rarely out of stock and super fast shipping. Always adding more parts and quickly becoming the new smallbear.

[BryGuy]

+1 for stompboxparts

Smallbear is good but I usually only order from them these days when I can’t find what I’m looking for somewhere else. I use mouser for resistors and cap mostly but it just depends on what I need. Been using Tayda a bit more lately as well.

Aion has a nice parts sourcing guide that I have found very useful, especially in the beginning. I think he keeps it fairly up to date.

https://aionfx.com/resources/parts-sourcing-where-to-buy-what/

Also check Cabitech for some hard to find ICs or BBD chips.

[jimilee]

+1 for stompboxparts

Smallbear is good but I usually only order from them these days when I can’t find what I’m looking for somewhere else. I use mouser for resistors and cap mostly but it just depends on what I need. Been using Tayda a bit more lately as well.

Aion has a nice parts sourcing guide that I have found very useful, especially in the beginning. I think he keeps it fairly up to date.

https://aionfx.com/resources/parts-sourcing-where-to-buy-what/

Also check Cabitech for some hard to find ICs or BBD chips.

True, but with mouser, you now have to order 200 resistors of the same value, they no longer sell singles. For the weekend duffer, it's a bit much.

[BryGuy]

All depends on your needs for sure. My last order with them I got 100 KOA resistors, can’t remember the value. I started gauging the amount I order based on the list of common components found here

https://diyeffectspedals.com/where-to-buy-diy-guitar-effects-pedal-components/

Basically as components fall out of the top 25 or 50; order less. Heck order just what you need for the one thing you’re building that month or whatever.

[oeslicoalfin]

You can get still get single resistors at Mouser. They just aren't Xicon like before. Cheapest resistor will set you back 10 cents. You have to buy 10 resistors at Tayda. It will set you back 12 cents. I'm not really hung up on who makes what. You'll find brands from NOS military surplus to KOA Speer, Royal Ohm, Vishay-Dale, and Yageo all in my same build. I buy the oddball resistor values at Mouser and most everything else from Tayda. I like the blood red 3PDTs at BLMS. Digi-Key and Arrow are on par with Mouser and usually have something Aion specs when Mouser doesn't. I like to support the small businesses, too. Small Bear is going to have things no one else carries, especially now that it's part of synthCube. With the euro on par with the usd, Das Musikding and sources across the pond are options, too. Be wary of getting obsoletum, like TO-92 J201s and MN3xxx, from eBay, etc. It's best to buy these from others in the community: DIY GuitarPedals, DIY Stompboxes, GuitarPCB, LectricFX, Pedalhacker, Pedal Parts and Kits, PedalPCBs, and Stompbox Parts, etc. The scene has exploded since BYOC and GGG were the only ones selling kits. The DIY synth scene also has some crossover with guitar parts, so Modular Addict and Thonk UK are options, too. I mostly buy all my vactrols from Thonk. Good luck, there are lots of options for us compared to a decade ago  !

[Invertiguy]

I like Tayda for jellybean parts, and their powdercoating, drilling, and UV printing services really can't be beat if you're just a hobbyist building one-offs. I don't really trust their jacks and switches though. For that I tend to use the name-brand stuff from either BLMS or Small Bear. Small Bear is also good for a lot of the more pedal-specific or obsolete parts, especially certain ICs. Finally, Mouser and Digikey are my source for electrolytics, certain ICs that Small Bear doesn't have, MLCCs, and WIMA, Kemet, and TDK film caps since they look nicer than the ugly grey ones from Tayda.

[jessenator]

my anecdotal / personal experience

IME Tayda of the past they were once rightly maligned for only peddling in cheap-to-a-fault bits (I had a load of switches I just threw out because they failed so consistently), but I tend to view them now in the same light as harbor freight: buy the right stuff, and will always be consistently adequate. As has been said earlier in the thread, good for jellybean parts.

In the last six months or so as of this writing:
Their electro caps are hit or miss (mostly okay and within spec, but about 20-30% are quite out of spec)
Their film caps are good, no massive value outliers
Their resistors are good, all within spec

They have a good variety of switches (though frustratingly not series-matching toggles), pots, etc. --including the white-label switches that several places use.
They have a good variety of component values and a very nice ordering page: e.g. this one for 1/4W metal film resistors.

Their shipping rates are very reasonable, mostly because they aren't shipping from within the US (it's amazing how much freight is subsidized for importation purposes). Just make no mistake, the cheapest, longest shipping, is QUITE long--no exaggeration there. I think the only time I did that was almost 3 weeks.

The only order mistakes have been me not clearly reading the specs*.

subjective observations:
The leads (resistors in particular) are thin, which is a place to reduce costs I'm sure, but it just feels cheap, but they haven't failed or anything, and I haven't had it happen, but it feels like they could break with too many bends.

If they can sell pot caps for as cheap as they do, they need to just include them when you order alphas that omit them--not installed, but just, "here, have a bag of them"


*as a UX designer ...don't get me started on how this site could be massively improved with some UI tweaks and without much in the way of developer lift.


Small Bear

I'm glad they're back! They have a load of the non-jellybean stuff, which is great. I think it might be a good thing for them to look at their passives supplier and see if they can compete a bit more. They can be more Mouser/DigiKey prices sometimes, which, I'd rather use their UIs to order parts, personally.

[cspar]

I'll give a shout out the Stompboxparts.com too. Fair prices with quick shipping. 9mm pots are cheaper than Tayda for most values and good quality.

I order from Tayda a lot but prefer Mouser for electrolytic capacitors and cmos chips and the wider inventory.

Utsource.com is a great resource for getting harder to find parts, bulk jellybean chips, transitors, etc.

The components that are supplied by them directly come with a money back guarantee of authenticity which is a good thing from an Asian supplier considering the fakes out there.

They don't guarantee items that they fulfill through affiliated companies though. It's easy to understand which is which looking at the site. I've yet to have a problem with anything I've ordered from them directly.

I personally only order from Small Bear if I only need a few peticular harder to source parts but don't want to make a bigger order elsewhere. I

Drilling is my least favorite part about building and I generally don't put art or labels on pedals since I just build for myself and friends.

I wish someone carried a better selection of predrilled enclosures on the cheap. Tayda's prices are good and I use a bunch of thier predrilled 125b's but thier predrilled 1590b's are awkward for me to work with the way they are drilled for board mounted hardware. It'd be nice if there was 1590a predrilled 1-4 knob options.

[Invertiguy]

[quote author=cspar link=topic=34146.msg327458#msg327458 date=1663591448
Drilling is my least favorite part about building and I generally don't put art or labels on pedals since I just build for myself and friends.

I wish someone carried a better selection of predrilled enclosures on the cheap. Tayda's prices are good and I use a bunch of their predrilled 125b's but their predrilled 1590b's are awkward for me to work with the way they are drilled for board mounted hardware. It'd be nice if there was 1590a predrilled 1-4 knob options.
[/quote]

Tayda offers a custom drilling service for all of the enclosure sizes they sell for $4.50 apiece if you don't feel like dealing with the predrilled options. It's pretty simple and easy to order as well.