What's your thoughts on Brian Wampler's new Video Courses?

Fizz

Fizz

Well-known member
I found this cool video where Brian was showing how to build a StewMac pedal kit and add your own mods to it. A really cool video where I learned some stuff. It was cool how he traced the circuit.. never would have thought about that.. and even mentioned PedalPCB since they sent him the PedalPCB version too. But early on he mentioned his video course.. I was just curious what you all might think about them? They seem a little pricey to me:

All Products - Wampler Pedal Courses

www.guitarpedalcourse.com www.guitarpedalcourse.com
 
I thought about it. But the longer I think about it, the farther into the course I would end up starting. So it’s losing its value the longer I don’t get it.

Personally, I’m more of a reductive learner. Start with a task, and keep asking hows and whys until you get where you want to be.

All that said, I could still see myself getting into the later sections. But I can also buy enough parts to do several builds, which can also be a learning experience.

I also have mixed feelings about courses like this. A lot of times they are marketed as “get these videos, learn x and then you can do y”, without pointing out that you actually have to put in the effort to get the value out of them.

I have bought stuff like this before though. For example, this is pretty cool:

www.howacarworks.com

How a Car Works

Beautifully illustrated guides to car mechanics, automotive engineering and tools.
www.howacarworks.com www.howacarworks.com
 
imo, these courses seem to be aimed at people that are usually too lazy to seek out their own learning resources, which are definitely out there and freely available. GeoFex/R.G.Keen, https://sound-au.com/index.html, RobRobinette, for example. google works too.

money probably better spent on going for more challenging builds. depends on the person i guess.

and honestly, if you've never had a build error and been through a troubleshooting process involving an audio probe + tracing your build with the schematic on hand, you've probably missed out on a huge learning curve.
 
If I was STARTING OUT, I might consider it.

I just watched a vid of him modding a BMPOA, swapping out the initial gain-stage for a transistor stage and tweaking the tone stack a little.
While I like how he explains things for the lay-person or newb, for their sake, it slows down the video-tutelage for those more experienced who, for instance, already understand that there are differences and pros/cons for wiring up inverting vs non-inverting op-amps...

So, no. At this point, the vids would be of little interest to me, even though I'm sure there'd still be some nuggets of info for me to learn.


Last night, I was jamming at a friend's place and he had the JHS Notaklon he'd put together — yet he asked me to diagnose and fix his '80s era MXR Dist II. I guess what I'm saying here is, there are all levels of involvement/interest and the video courses will be of use to some while others will feel ripped off and some will carry on without the vids and fail and others succeed...
 
From his description:

“Taught by Brian Wampler of Wampler pedals, this is ideal for those with no experience, but a desire to learn how guitar pedals work!”
 
KR Sound said:
From his description:

“Taught by Brian Wampler of Wampler pedals, this is ideal for those with no experience, but a desire to learn how guitar pedals work!”
Click to expand...
Yeah, I think I'd only find a couple of those lessons relevant unfortunately.

However, he does have a link to this book on his website.. might be interesting and is actually book 1 of 2.
 
Robert said:
I've been through the first few courses and although a lot of it is geared towards absolute beginners, there is still some good stuff in there.
Click to expand...
Which course are you doing Robert?

hamerfan said:
This circuitlab.com site Brian uses is something to check out. Looks promising. Any experiences?
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Nice.. didn't know about this.. thanks for posting. I'm really just trying to learn as much as possible about guitar pedal circuit theory and seeing a circuit flow would be very helpful. A lot of times for me, trying to figure out how the circuit flows and interacts is hard for me to conceptualize.
 
First, I personally never qualify who or what I will learn something new and having been working on music electronics since the late 1970's, I never think I know it all.

IMHO, Brian Wampler is a smart dude. Sadly, the one thing that would be hard to learn from him, is his incredible sense of musicality and associated, his musical ear. I have never had a problem getting one of his pedals to fit in the context of a band or even in a single instrument context.
 
Robert said:
I've gone through a bit of the "Complete Beginners Guide: How To Design Your Own Guitar Pedal Circuits"

I've talked with Brian about offering the course as an affiliate through the shop site, I just haven't had a chance to configure it properly yet.
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Pete's DIY Effects Pedals currently offers 25% off this course, if anyone's interested (bottom right):

DIY Guitar Effects Pedals Guides & Ideas | DIY Effects Pedals | DIY Effects Pedals

diyeffectspedals.com diyeffectspedals.com

As an absolute beginner I can say that I found Brian's books really helpful. I had my eye on another course of his (https://www.guitarpedalcourse.com/collections/products - the blue one) but I figured it's more about using pedals than designing them. The third one he's rated as high-intermediate and it's only $20. Maybe you should try it. For what's worth the guy surely deserves it.

The best book I have, although it's out of topic, is the The Science of Electric Guitars and Guitar Electronics by Jarmo Lahdevaara. Look it up if you haven't already.
 
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