advice on selecting DIY guitar pedals

[drew571]

Thinking about building some of my own guitar effects pedals.  anyone have any experience with that here?  I've been looking at this website.

http://buildyourownclone.com/

Has anyone heard any of their pedals before?  Opinions? 

Any other sites or specific pedals that ya'll would recommend? 

Thanks!

Drew

 

[pucho812]

plenty of DIY guitar pedal sites, most with examples. Some new designs, some like this one are clones of designs. BYOC is nice for the fact it's all in one kits so there really isn't much guess work to do. It's pretty paint by numbers. YOu end up with units that sound like the one they cloned.


As far as guitar pedals go, you can breadboard it all and get some nice stuff. Plenty of bread board designs out there, search and you will find.

Now what kind of pedals were you thinking on making. What do you need?

 

[Engels]

Indeed kits are nice but where's the fun?  ;D
You also spend a bit more with kits imo for some reason:

for example, you can use almost everything as case! I never really bought a classic guitar case (anyway there are good ones for 6/8$ up to 20$), I only used recycled stuff or what I was founding across home;

Also making stompboxes pcb is really simple! since they are generally single sided and very small;

btw, things can be very different from pedal to pedal: fuzz are simple while delays can be quite complicate, for example...

Here an ampeg scrabler clone made using recycled case and home made pcb =)

If an original and super-rare one costs 800$, I spent about 25$  :

 

[joaquins]

I've made a lot... download the PDF, print with toner in a satinated paper, go to board, buy components put all on the board and start playing... well, not the first pedal I build, it was a single opamp booster that take me a couple off days, then from the third on it was pretty straitfw... I've build a nice chorus boss type, took a couple of days and more work than others but I mod it big and now has 5 controls and I like it very much...

Start with some distortion, the simplers ones.. make a bunch of them, at least 6 I'd said, will make a pedal by day for the last ones, choose 2 or 3 more you like and a tuna can may give them a house. Then a comp maybe, and you can start with modulation, phaser, tremolo, autowah, etc. or more complicated overdrive/distortions. A chorus and delay for lasts projects and you'll have 10 pedals you'll like and use and some other for when you get bored...

JS

 

[critterkllr]

I've made well over 60 effects pedals. They're addicting! BYOC kits are great and a good starting point to get your feet wet. Madbean makes great pcbs and has clear instructions. If you don't want to start making PCBs and dont want to be stuck with a small selection, http://tagboardeffects.blogspot.com is awesome.  Mouser, Small Bear, and Mammoth Electronics make it easy to source components.

 

[usekgb]

I would add generalguitargadgets.com to the list of kit sites.  Building a few kits is a great way to get in to guitar pedals.  After you've done a few kits, you can branch out in to new designs or clones of old classics.  It's a ton of fun, and you get something you can gig with when you're done! 

 

[drew571]

thanks for all the info, great suggestions!

i'm a relatively new guitarist but I'm learning fast and want to start from the ground up with some great pedals and thought it would be cool to build them while I'm at it.  since i do a fair amount of composing/recording, i'd like to get some that are great for running stuff out of my DAW through as well.  first off, a decent overdrive pedal or distortion pedal, or both really.  never really love the overdrive effects inside the box, don't ever feel quite natural.  i doubt if i'll build a delay pedal, probably just get a strymon timeline and be done with it.  i'm kinda starting from scratch as far as guitar tone is concerned so if you have any suggestions as to these types of pedals, that would be great. 

i was looking at this one....  http://buildyourownclone.com/effects-pedals/overdrive/od2.html

anything better out there?  should i start with something else that every guitarist should have? 

thanks again.

 

[okgb]

kits with pcb mount pots can save time & wire stripping ,  , although  that
commits to you a certain control layout which may force you to a particular case .
the " fabbed "boards with solder mask can  save you from sloppy or hurried work
there's allot of good options , these days , check the boms & doc's make sure it's supported
and debugged .

A simple boost is a good place to start but the OD2 is a tube screamer w/ mods and everyone
can use a tube screamer in their kit . As pucho mentioned b.y.o.c. is one stop shop, so take your time
follow the directions , if you can solder decently you should be rewarded with a classic

 

[Engels]

just want to wish you good luck dude 
and have fun with your new pedal

 

[critterkllr]

It's hard to give advice without knowing the tone you're trying to achieve. My experience has been that most pedals are designed to enhance/change the sound of a tube amp. An overdrive is most useful for adding a little bit of grit to your tone and hitting the first gain stage harder. Going into a DAW, you'll probably feel pretty underwhelmed with an OD pedal. You're not going to be cooking any tubes with it, you'll be cooking your interface.

Distortion or fuzz pedals may give you the most bang for your buck at the moment. It's all completely subjective, but IMO the Proco Rat is the king of distortion pedals. Keep the gain low and you have a great OD (especially with the Ruetz mod). Medium gain will get you into classic rock gain territory. High gain will actually get you very fuzz like tones. So this gives you a bunch of variety to chose from.

BYOC sells the Mouse kit. That is the Rat clone. The dilemma here is that if you can find a Proco Whiteface reissue Rat, you may be better off getting it instead of building your own with a kit. Only a few $ more and easily as good as anything you'll build.

Edit: Looks like I misread your "overdrive in the box" and "DAW" comments. Can you tell us what kind of guitar and amp you're using and what kind of bands/tones you like?

 

[usekgb]

Check out the distortion kits based on the DOD250/MXR Distortion+/Ross Distortion.  Great little pedal with lots of options.  If you are in to high gain, check out the BSIAB II.  You will also probably want a Tubescreamer type distortion as well.

 

[Andy Peters]

everyone
can use a tube screamer in their kit .

This is true!!

(I have two. I had a third but I gave it to a friend as a birthday present.)

-a

 

[okgb]

You can price shop , the odII gives you separate switchable boost & o/d sections
so better value there , and options for mosfets & switching the order of the two fx [ could do it with any pedals ]

One thing about kits is resale value is usually lower , You could wait for a good deal on ebay and mod it too !
depends whether you want the pedal or the experience more

You have checked out the stompbox sites right ?
diystompbox
freestompbox
byoc forum

 

[Gus]

Go to diystompboxes.

Tube Screamers are overrated and I get a laugh when I see all the clones or circuits built like it.

I don't understand building currently made effects you can buy.  Build something different.

 

[usekgb]

You can't buy a new DOD EF440, or a BSIAB II.  Plus, it's just fun to do.

 

[12afael]

the tubescreamer is the only pedal that I use, it is THE pedal for modern metal sound, the other part of the formula is a good tube amp .

maybe a modern version like a maxon od820 could be a substitute.

 

[peterc]

Here is a good thread :

http://www.groupdiy.com/index.php?topic=51253.msg663231#msg663231

Got my pedal making juices going, especially Martymarts' ideas

 

[okgb]

If you're going to get the fever and end up making 10 or 20 , then plot it out and pace yourself
look at the different clipping types of overdrive , what excites you the most .

Almost seems ripe for a survey of what people have , made and use the most

 

[adeptusmajor]

The other guitarist in my band has built a few from BYOC. I know he did the rat clone, which is pretty nice, also one of the compressors and delays among others. I haven't played much with them much myself but can definitely tell that they are about as good as anything you could buy. You might also consider getting an NYC Big Muff and hacking the crap out of it. Plenty of room to play inside those things, and lots of info on different mod options floating around. I can get a pretty huge range of tonal options and effects with mine.

 

[rob_gould]

Looks like no one's mentioned tonepad.com so far. It's PCBs only but they have lots of nice projects on there, including clones of classics.