I'm starting to get a itching to build things.

[Mad-Max]

Meaning, I'm starting to want to build pedals, and maybe even some project amps in the future. I know it's a alot of hard work, but it's been interesting me lately. I just recently got the feeling that I could do my own guitar set-up including installing new pick-ups, realizing how easy it actually was. Just takes a little bit of time and patience, (Which lord knows sometimes I don't have!).

Problem is, I have no idea where to start as far as getting the parts and the components. Any suggestions on that? I know some of you guys build your own stuff, so I'm interested to hear how you guys got started on building stuff.

[jimijames]

Re: I'm starting to get a itching to build things.

So, as far as pedals, the classics are www.buildyourownclone.com (bit expensive) and www.generalguitargadgets.com (less expensive), and if you don't mind sourcing the parts, www.madbeanpedals.com has a lot of cool projects for what you want. Benefit of madbean is because you buy everything yourself through places like mouser and smallbearelectronics it's even cheaper than general guitar gadgets very often.

Having tried all 3 BYOC definitely has the best instructions, and General Guitar Gadgets is 2nd, while Mad Bean pedals is 3rd. 2 and 3 are closer than 1 and 2 though - BYOC is really thorough. Madbean has great instructions but you just need to order the parts on your own through mouser.

Madbean pedals you'll also have to drill your own enclosure most likely. But, you can also do really cool things like fit overdrives and fuzz pedals and even a version of the BBE sonic stomp circuit into tiny 1590A enclosures. You can also make charge pumps and with the right parts run things internally at 18v off a 9v supply. But first I'd get down the basics.

[Surgeon]

Re: I'm starting to get a itching to build things.

Building pedals is alot of fun and a great learning experience. You can buy kits at first but the important thing if you want to really profit is to not approach it as a "paint by number project". Try to learn a little something from each pedal you build circuit-wise.
The debugging phase is always the most frustrating part but also where you'll learn tons more. Successful at first try pedals aren't usually the ones syou learn much from.
There are lots of great ressources out there.

kits I don't know much about but sourcing parts makes the most sense if you want to build more than 1 or 2.
Tayda electronics is the best imho for parts and enclosures. Ebay laways remains a great source of cheap components, especially ICs.

Word of advice: start with something dead simple. My suggestion: zvex SHO. Use the vero layout at tagboardeffects.com and do it slow, it's a great sounding pedal.

don't forget to have fun!