Small circuit from a PC board, noobie ground dilemma

hi guys, i have a noobie question.
i want to make a small circuit with a PC board  --i mean the board with a lot of hole, rounded by pads--  (a guitar pedal) and i'm worrying about the ground.
all the circuit i've seen have their traces and the rest of the space is a big ground.
so, how can i make it on a pc board?

do i have just to create a circle with the ground pads, or i should connect this ground loop the the chassis?
( or i should solder all the free pads in a big ground net? )


thanks guys

For a guitar pedal? Don't worry too much.

thanks

in cases like these i ask something i need but what i'm really looking for is a practical explanation of how things works, so next time i could help someone myself.

i think, but i'm not sure, that the big ground traces are made that way to have a big absorption surface. the bigger ground surface, the bigger
absorption. and that means bigger stability and lower noise for the circuit.
am i wrong?

In a guitar pedal, a circle (ground-ring) would be quite good, but you will waste quite some time getting it to be "nice".

In my perfboard prototypes, I usually aim to the "opposite of a circle" - i.e. I try to make an "island" (o.k., it is a form of a circle) that is "ground", and connect the stuff from there. This way, I'm getting a "healthy" ground in my circuits. Hope it helps.

yeah, this makes great sense. that's a good way to avoid ground loops. is that what you aimed for?

One of the things, yes.

You can add the "circle" or a "hatch" later, but you will still have this healthy "core" ground.

IME this is a valid approach for simple circuits (or simple circuits that can be bitchy if not done "just right"). Bigger circuits will give you enormous headaches if you try to cram all the ground connections onto one "island"...