The D.I.Y. FX Pedal Building Thread

[DrNomis_44]

Hi Everyone,


Just thought I would start yet another one of my threads, this time it was inspired by some suggestions by Andy40 about putting up a tutorial on building D.I.Y FX Pedals, so, I thought I would take the opportunity to discuss how I build my pedals, I hope this thread will be of some help for those wishing to get into the fun hobby of D.I.Y FX pedal building.


I must point out that the way I build my pedals is not the only way to do it, there are lots of ways to build them, the way I build my pedals is usually dictated by the parts I have available to me in my local Jaycar Electronics Shop, occasionally I will source my parts from other countries if the parts I need are not stocked by Jaycar Electronics, I used to buy my parts from Dick Smith Electronics before they turned into a general Consumer Electronics Store, which is a bit of a shame.

When I go to build a pedal I usually go through a multi-stage process that goes like this:


Step 1, I think about the type of pedal I want to build, this can be influenced by a number of factors.

Step 2, I go online and see if I can find a good circuit-diagram for the pedal I wish to build, Google is one search engine I use a lot, there are a few others though, but I mostly use Google.

Step 3, Once I have found a circuit-diagram, I download it to one of my computers, sometimes I may do a print-out of the circuit-diagram too, if I find a good article about the pedal I'm building, I usually download and print it out too.

Step 4, Once I have the printouts I take some time to study the circuit-diagram to work out how it is supposed to work, this comes in handy during later stages of the build-process because it's usually in the late-stages that a problem is most likely to occur.

Step 5, I get a few pieces of A4 printer paper and draw up a parts list for the pedal I'm building.

Step 6, I go and buy all the needed parts from Jaycar Electronics, or, if they don't have what I need in stock, I'll order the needed parts online.

Step 7, Once I have the parts I need, I sometimes do what's called a "Breadboard Build", this involves building the circuit up on what's called a Solderless Breadboard, this is so I can check that the circuit will work with the parts I have, if I need to do any tweaking I go through and make adjustments till I'm satisfied with the results I get, a classic example is if I'm building an old school pedal that uses Germanium Transistors, like a Fuzz Face for example, I'll try different Germanium Transistors in the circuit till I find ones that work well.

Step 8, Once I've completed the previous step I move onto building the circuit up into a more permanent form.

Step 9, The next thing I do is I get the metal box I'm using for my pedal build and I do all my marking out so I can drill any necessary mounting holes in the box, these mounting holes could be for the pots, footswitch, in and out sockets, etc, while determining where I'm going to place the holes, I bear in mind how much space in the box I have to work with and position the various holes accordingly, sometimes with some of the boxes I use it can be a bit of a tight fit, but I usually end up managing pretty well.

Step 10, Once everything has been fitted in the box, I go ahead and do all the wiring up of the various controls, inputs, outputs and etc.

Step 11, Once all the wiring up has been completed, I do all the testing and setting-up of the pedal, it's usually at this stage when any problems become obvious and I go through the process of fault-finding and fixing the problem, sometimes I'll get lucky and the pedal will work first go, in that case I'll call the build-process finished.


Sometimes with a new finished pedal-build I'll give myself time to familiarize myself with the pedal before I dismantle the pedal in order to spray-paint the metal box and apply labeling and clear coat to it, during this getting-to-know period I may try the pedal out in various scenarios.



So that's generally how I go about building my pedals.


Note: if the PBG forum moderators can find a better place for this thread, please feel free to move it to that place.