The D.I.Y. FX Pedal Building Thread

[SIMpleONe89]

Guys, do check out www.tagboardeffects.blogspot.com.au. I started building my pedals from their vero board layouts. Very simple, just like making a puzzle!

[DrNomis_44]

Guys, do check out www.tagboardeffects.blogspot.com.au. I started building my pedals from their vero board layouts. Very simple, just like making a puzzle!

Cheers for that, they look like interesting designs to build, definitely has alot of useful info on it.


I've got that website bookmarked now.

[SIMpleONe89]

Cheers for that, they look like interesting designs to build, definitely has alot of useful info on it.


I've got that website bookmarked now.

Yes they're really easy to use. I built some and they sound real great. Check them out!

Lovepedal eternity clone https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=My3O...eOancm&index=2
MI Audio crunchbox clone https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tdONTd2HCDc
Lovepedal Plexi clone https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ERjO...eOancm&index=4

[DrNomis_44]

Update:


I thought that I would go ahead and show you how I actually build an FX pedal from scratch, and do a write-up with some pics of the build process, note that this is just to illustrate the general build process since it is relatively the the same for most types of pedals.

Before I could start, I had to first work out what type of FX Pedal I was going to build, for this write-up, I deliberately chose something relatively easy to build using parts bought from my local Jaycar Electronics Store, the FX Pedal I chose to build is one called an Axis Fuzz pedal as used by Jimi Hendrix on the Axis: Bold As Love Album, which was released on December 1967, I think that qualifies it as a vintage Fuzz pedal, incidentally, the Fuzz Pedal was one of the first effects used by guitarists to get new and interesting sounds, one of the very first Fuzz Pedals was the Gibson Maestro FZ1, this pedal was designed by a recording Engineer, Glen Snoddy, while recording the song "Don't Worry" by Marty Robbins back in 1962, if you want you could try googling for the story behind how the song was recorded, when the Gibson Maestro FZ1 was first marketed to the general public, there wasn't much interested in it until Keith Richards from the Rolling Stones used one to record the distinctive Buzzy Tone riff in the song "Satisfaction", after that every 60's guitarist had to have a Fuzz Pedal.

A Fuzz Pedal takes the sound from your guitar and heavily distorts it so that it sounds very raspy, the idea was to deliberately imitate the sound of a blown speaker, but with more control over it.

Over the years since 1962, Designers have created lots of different designs for Fuzz Pedals ranging in complexity from relatively simple designs, such as the Fuzz Face, to more complex ones such as the Big Muff, they all produce a distinctively raw raspy and Buzzy tone.


I am going to be buying all the parts to make an Axis Fuzz Pedal from Jaycar Electronics in the morning, and will be documenting the build process so stay tuned for more updates to come.


For the time being, here's the circuit diagram of the Axis Fuzz Pedal:

[kimball492]

Great read thanks Doc

[Dedman]

I look forward to your tutorial Doc

[DrNomis_44]

While I was shopping for all the parts to build the Axis Fuzz Pedal, I stopped in at JB HI FI to buy a couple of new DVDs to watch tonight, one is the latest 007 James Bond movie Spectre, and the other one is Star Wars: The force Awakens, should be good viewing tonight.

[Dedman]

Spectre is better than the previous Bond film but still a bit average, haven't seen the Star Wars one. You haven't got time for movies anyway, you have a tutorial to write!

[DrNomis_44]

Spectre is better than the previous Bond film but still a bit average, haven't seen the Star Wars one. You haven't got time for movies anyway, you have a tutorial to write!

That's right, I almost forgot about that, I need to put my cordless drill on charge overnight though so I can start work on the pedal in the morning, the Cordless Drill is needed to drill the holes in the Aluminium box I'm going to use to house the Axis Fuzz in, and the drill is the only one I have.

[DrNomis_44]

Update:


My Cordless Drill has had enough time to re-charge so I'm going to start the Axis Fuzz build-process today, I started by preparing the Tagboard which I'm using to mount all the Electronic Parts on minus the pots, footswitch, in/out jacks, Led etc, I'm taking pics as I go through the build-process so that I can add them to the write-up, stay tuned for more updates.