Quote Originally Posted by McCreed View Post
Woltz, try a search for Joyo AC Tone schematic.

I know bugger-all about building pedals but I can say that actual Joyo pedal is really good. The down side is you can buy the pedal for $65 form Artist Guitars, which is probably less than you can build one, but I reckon that's not the point so much with you DIY pedal guys
According to this list, the Joyo AC Tone is a clone of the Tech21 SansAmp Liverpool. I haven't heard either, but the Tech21 pedal does come in the same conversations of good Vox in a Box pedals that mentioned the Catalinbread ones. Joyo do have a good rep as one of the better quality clone builders. I have the Joyo Sweet Baby, which is an excellent clone of the Mad Professor Sweet Honey Overdrive. It's a great pedal but I have never bonded with it so it's been evicted by the recent #5 build (Barber CDD).

I can build a pedal for much less than $65 worth of parts. Typically less than $20 depending on the components. Most of the cost is a more or less a fixed cost per pedal - ~$10 for the enclosure, ~$5-7 worth of pots, knobs, jacks and other hardware, and then just a couple of dollars worth of components. I keep things cheap by mostly buying bulk packs on eBay. Some circuits require special orders, but I usually use that to stock up on other parts to amortize the postage cost.

Here's the breakup on the 3 pedals I completed recently:
Buffer: cost me ~$15. The original JHS Little Black Buffer costs $129. Most of the cost was harware, electronics are probably less than $1.
Lemon Squeezy: cost me $35. An AnalogMan Juicer is $279. My cost was higher because I got a PCB kit, but a stripboard build would have been pricey as well due to rare JFETs.
#5: cost me $20. The original Barber Compact Direct Drive is around $250 if you can find one at all.

So I get the equivalent of over $650 worth of high-end pedals for $70. But that's not all of the point, or even the main point. I enjoy the process of building the pedals. I find it relaxing, and a good creative outlet.