Cheap DIY Distortion and Compressor and Fuzz kits

[churchie]

Nice work.

I like the thought of putting together some pedals, but i'm worried my soldering skills won't be up to scratch.

Any suggestions on simple kits to start with?

[Marcel]

Soldering skills can be a huge issue.. particularly on kits like this Klon clone. And the only reason I say that is in the Klon clone kit the soldering joints on the board are all very small and there is a lot of them, with some of the most difficult soldering joints being on the IC's where other circuit tracks passing between the IC pins that needed to avoid any soldering. A quality fine tip iron is essential so that you only solder what needs soldering in the Klon clone...

As for easy starter kits my suggestion would be a Fuzz pedal of some sort. A low component count of usually decent sized parts and relatively simple circuit both being big pluses for the beginner. Then come your distortion kits and the like, with delay kits being more complex and therefore harder. I haven't built enough pedal kits to give any recommendations of particular suppliers as my formal soldering training and then +40 years of soldering experience has a tendency to 'colour' my opinion rather strongly. Maybe one of the other pedal builder guys from the forum might like to offer some great suggestions... (Doc?? JohnH..??)

[DrNomis_44]

There's at least a couple that immediately come to mind with regards to kits for those just starting diy pedal building, you could try starting with a Bazz Fuzz which is a very simple one-transistor design, or, the ever popular Fuzz Face, which is also a relatively simple design, when I first started out in electronics, I started with very simple circuits and gradually worked my way up to more complex ones, along the way I did lots of practicing with soldering, I started off with a relatively cheap 15 Watt soldering iron, but eventually upgraded to a decent temperature-controlled one, if you can afford one definitely invest in a decent temperature-controlled soldering station because it will make it much easier to get good solder-joints, which is what you want when building your diy pedal kits, also invest in a decent multimeter too since that will come in handy when you need to do some fault-finding.

[JohnH]

Nice work.

I like the thought of putting together some pedals, but i'm worried my soldering skills won't be up to scratch.

Any suggestions on simple kits to start with?

I totally recommend just jumping right in - I'd never done anything with solder or electronics before September last year, but I bought myself a cheap soldering kit from Jaycar, and spent some time googling simple fuzz and distortion circuits (and also bought an eBay kit, but I don't know that I'd recommend that). I've made a pedal a week since then. There was a lot of confusion, frustration, and swearing along the way, but I've learnt heaps and got some cool pedals to play around with


Aside from the eBay kit, I mostly started out looking at things like this:

http://tonefiend.com/tonefiend-diy-c...cts-resources/

http://www.seymourduncan.com/tonefie...art-14-v03.pdf

I buy most of my components from either my local Jaycar, or online from Tayda electronics as they are cheap, and their packages arrive quickly (I recommend choosing DHL as the postage option - it's crazy how fast they'll get it to your door, and they have a signature waiver so you don't have to be home to sign for it)

[Marcel]

While not strictly pedal related there are a number of interesting electronics kits at Jaycar that are ideal for developing soldering skills. Most are very well documented with good clear circuits and detailed explanations on how the circuit works and are often quite easy to get going, and are usually not too difficult or fussy over the builders soldering ability or lack there of. Many also include a few invaluable notes on identifying values of various components and on good soldering technique.

Sadly the same can't be said for many of the Ebay kits where a builder is fortunate if there is more than a basic B&W picture of the final wiring assembly included. Few suppliers feel the need to include a parts list. And it is extremely rare to be blessed with an actual circuit diagram from those Chinese Ebay kit suppliers which makes fault finding an errant build all that way much more difficult.

In getting some soldering experience I'd highly recommend trying a few of the cheaper battery or plug-pack powered kits from Jaycar first. Most stores have a whole section dedicated just to simple, often amusing and yet oddly useful electronics kits. Pedals become so much easier after even one or two of the Jaycar kits. Stay away from mains powered kits like 'motor speed controllers' until you have a LOT of experience, mostly due to to the safety concerns of working with our very lethal mains power, and as even I am having considerable difficulty in getting mine going.

[churchie]

Thanks for the tips.

Will have a look at the JayCar stuff.

I remember years ago, when I lived in NZ, Dick Smith used to do little kits.

[DrNomis_44]

I'll definitely second recommending staying away from mains-powered kits for newbies just starting out building kits, there is a very very small margin for error when working with 240V AC mains powered circuits, and yes, our 240V AC mains supply can be very lethal in the event that a mistake has been made, that cannot be overstated, I've had some very close calls in the past and fortunately I'm still alive to tell the tale.

[Marcel]

Thanks for the tips.

Will have a look at the JayCar stuff.

I remember years ago, when I lived in NZ, Dick Smith used to do little kits.

Yep, Jaycar sells pretty much the same as what the old Dick Smith Electronics stores used to sell... well it's similar sort of stuff at least...

There was a time where the two were in competition, then Woolies bought DSE out and changed the direction of the store away from the Jaycar market to be more a threat to Harvey Norman and JB Hifi.... and then lost that battle entirely...

[WeirdBits]

Tucked away at the back of a shelf, not sure how I ended up with this 20th printing circa 89:

[DrNomis_44]

At one point I had all three of those DSE Funway Into Electronics books, I did manage to build a working Funway 3 Mini Synth, that was a fun little project, I wish they'd bring the Funway series back, nowadays some of the kits available feature micro controllers, there used to be some really cool kits but they got discontinued.