The D.I.Y. FX Pedal Building Thread

[Fretworn]

When I used to hang around pedal maker forums they always used to say that you don't make your own pedals because it's cheaper. You might be able to make a boutique circuit cheaper, but you can't make a homemade pedal cheaper than guys like Mooer or Behringer are spitting out, unless you go for really cheap components.

[DrNomis_44]

Very cool build. Are all the parts easily bought at a decent electronics store?
Curious about the 9V battery. Where does it get wired in - it doesn't look like it's connected yet. How long would it last (guess it depends on how much you play) - wouldn't want to have to replace those all the time, especially if you have a bunch of pedals.

Yep, all the parts I used to build the pedal can be easily bought "off-the-shelf" at most decent Electronics Stores that stock and sell parts, you can also order the parts online from websites on the Internet, one website you can order the parts and Aluminium boxes from is a website called Pedal Parts Plus, I've had good dealings from that company so far, here's the website address:


http://www.pedalpartsplus.com/



The black lead from the 9V battery is soldered to the ring-connection on the input socket so that it is connected to ground when you plug a Tip/Sleeve mono 6.35mm plug into the input socket, lots of factory-made pedals do this, generally the battery should last quite a while since the circuit doesn't draw a lot of current when it's powered up, to prolong the life of the battery simply unplug the guitar from the input socket.

Note that I haven't actually tested how long a 9V battery will last with this pedal, so I can't say for sure, but it should last a fair while, assuming that the pedal is operating correctly and you make sure to unplug the guitar from the input socket while the pedal isn't in use.

[DrNomis_44]

When I used to hang around pedal maker forums they always used to say that you don't make your own pedals because it's cheaper. You might be able to make a boutique circuit cheaper, but you can't make a homemade pedal cheaper than guys like Mooer or Behringer are spitting out, unless you go for really cheap components.

In some cases, making a pedal will actually work out cheaper than if you were to by a factory made version of it, I think the Axis Fuzz pedal I just made probably only cost me about $50.00, plus my time.


Some vintage pedals, like an original Dallas arbiter Fuzz face, a pedal containing probably $50.00 worth of parts, are going for silly amounts of money nowadays, anything from $800.00 and up, you can easily build an equivalent for a fraction of the price.

[DrNomis_44]

cool Doc so it has a base plate to screw into the box ?

have you worked out the total cost of all the parts Doc ? be interesting to compare to the cost of a pre-made Axis pedal

@ Peter think the trick to pedals with 9V batteries is to make sure the input jack is unplugged when not in use. I think if left plugged in they drain the battery. Sure the battery would get a fair bit of life if you remembered to do that

Yes, the Diecast aluminium box does come with a base plate which attaches via four philips-head screws, as a rough estimate, my Axis Fuzz pedal cost me about Au $50.00, a factory made Axis Fuzz will probably cost anything up to maybe $300.00 or so, so I reckon building one has worked out cheaper for me.

[DrNomis_44]

I'm just going to re-size all the new build-process pics I took while finishing off my Axis Fuzz pedal so I can post them for you to check out, shouldn't take too long, I'll also see if I can do a quick audio demo so you can hear what it sounds like with my new strat, stay tuned.

[wokkaboy]

good one Doc, can't wait to hear the pedal, wonder if it will sound anything like Jimi's axe on Axis Bold as Love - fingers crossed

[DrNomis_44]

Okay, here we go, here are the remaining Axis Fuzz build-process pics I took with my Nikon Camera, this is what needed to be done to get the pedal into a finished and working state:


First thing I did was shortened the shafts of the two pots so that the knobs were fairly close to the Aluminium box I used to house the pedal, then I mounted the pots, footswitch, Led Indicator, and the In/Out sockets to the Aluminium Box and tightened the mounting nuts, I also stuck four rubber feet on the base plate:









Once that was done I started work on doing all the ground-wiring, I used some wire with Black plastic insulation so I could see that it was the ground wire, it helps to colour-code the wiring to minimize errors:





The next thing I did was to solder wires to the Indicator Led, In/Out Jacks, and the pots, you will notice a 5k6 resistor soldered to one of the pots, this is to reduce the resistance of the pot from 5k to about 2k6, which is close to what the pot needs to be, I could have bought a 2k Linear pot but Jaycar didn't have any in stock, so I used a 5k linear pot instead and soldered the 5k6 across the two outer solder lugs, again this gives us a 2k6 pot which is close enough to 2k:




Next thing to do was to solder a short length of shielded audio wire to the input and ground tags on the Tagboard, because the circuitry on the Tagboard has grounding on it already and is connected to the other grounds by a single black wire, the shield is only connected to the ground tag on the Tagboard, I cut the shielding off the other end of the input wire and used some heatshrink tubing to cover the wire leaving the inner conductor exposed:

[wokkaboy]

excellent tutorial Doc. You make it look much easier than I thought it would be. As long as you have all the correct parts and a decent wiring diagram I think I could tackle building one. Can't wait for the demo. A cool distortion pedal for about $50 is a bargain and would learn a fair bit building it

[DrNomis_44]

Once the input wire was soldered to the Tagboard, I installed the Tagboard in the Aluminium box housing using two adhesive nylon standoffs:





Once the Tagboard had been installed, I went through and did all the final wiring up of the pedal, I then checked the voltages on the transistors to make sure they were working normally, fortunately everything looked good:





Once the final wiring-up had been done, I attached the base plate to the box using the four philips-head screws that came with it, and here's the result, one finished and working Axis Fuzz pedal:

[wokkaboy]

looks wicked Doc, I'd think about a nice glossy coat of paint and maybe get some stickers made up - would look like a bought one then haha