Ideas for a first time DIY?

[zed3409]

Hello everyone, this is my first post here. 
I have never done a DIY project like this.
What would be a good project to start with to get my confidence up a bit?
I would love to eventually have a few preamps as well as compressors.
Thanks in advance!

 

[pucho812]

well what do you need.

It's fairly  common to start with cables, then move into guitar/bass products like pedals or a di to get the solder skills happening
then people move into the outboard gear. Kits are a good start on that end as they can come with everything then move from there.

 

[MountCyanide]

A BYOC pedal was my first hit of crack.
It worked on first inhale and right then and there I knew I'd be a proper fiend.
And that was in January.
Mainlining these days.

 

[Rochey]

Blatant self promotion....

The expat audio Eden Mic Pre was designed precisely for beginners. It's partially built and tested to help you get to a finished build quickly and build confidence.

Good Luck.

/R

 

[Blue Jinn]

My first DIY's were ill advised, dangerous, and lacking parental supervision. I didn't blow up anything  or kill myself, but I wouldn't recommend doing that. Back in the day, Radio Shack had some easy project to sell parts, like LED flashers etc. Did some of those.

If you are truly just starting out I'd suggest you buy a soldering iron, solder, and some cheap proto boards. Get a book like Electronic Projects for Musicians, which has a really good introduction on parts, schematics etc. Practice soldering a bit (This is if you are starting from scratch, please forgive me if you aren't) and then get a kit. Kits are great. I later built a handful of PAIA kits, and then moved up to a 12AX7 preamp from a magazine

Oh, and then check the white market for PCB's and read the threads!

 

[Brian Roth]

I have to admit that I'm a fan of Paia kits.  Back in the mid/late 1960's, I saw something or another in Popular Electronics and read "for a complete kit..." in a sidebar.  The address was in Oklahoma City, my hometown!

I wasn't old enough to drive, so Mom took me to the address after I made phone contact.

John and Linda Simonton were operating Paia out of their house, while John had a "day gig" at Tinker Air Force Base.  I ended up being a thorn in John's side <G!!> through high screwel.  I can't even begin to relate how much John...one of my mentors... helped me as I was building stompboxes in my folks' garage, etc.  He etched PCB's I laid out with a Sharpie on typing paper, made up silk screens for me, etc.

I worked for John after high screwel....1973.  An opening appeared at a local studio, and I went there at age 19.  BUT, John and continued as good friends for decades until John's untimely death from cancer at TOO young of an age:

http://paia.com/obituary.html

John took his "cues" from things like Heathkit manuals, so most Paia instruction books are VERY easy to follow by a novice constructor.

I can go on and on about Paia as I personally observed the company from the 1960's to the present time.

http://paia.com/


Bri

 

[L´Andratté]

Hello!
Do you want to
- ´just´ build the stuff, then learn to solder and to do the hardware work by completing kits, like those mentioned earlier. This will be already enough for absolute beginners.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nBFGzoBkdzI

- if you want also get into electronics understanding do as above and also get yourself a breadboard (get a big one) and try to build all kind of little circuits for experimentation.


One of the easiest yet nice projects is the Hamptone FET preamp,  you could try that, there´s also lots of threads about it.
http://www.diyrecordingequipment.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/02/hamptone_fet_scan.jpg

Have fun!

 

[Gus]

Check
http://www.diystompboxes.com/smfforum/

FWIW The beginner project is from me.  The name is misleading.

 

[Landins]

Follow allamericanfiveradio on Youtube. He mainly works radio repairs but covers basic theory of ohms law, transformers, signal flows, biasing, components etc in a very educational and easy to grasp way.

J

 

[Spino]

FWIW, being a beginner myself, I started out with a cmoy headphone amp, mainly because I needed an headphone amp. Basic electronics, basic schematics, basic skills needed, very few components, lots of documents, easy and rewarding results. I then jumped on this forum happily, plenty of great stuff here.