What was your first PedalPCB build?

[eh là bas ma]

Arkaim Fuzz. At first, the description on musikding got my attention ("wall of fuzz for bass and guitar"). The original circuit and its reviews convinced me to build it. It was in january 2020, and then, I only knew the Zvex Fuzz Factory, which is very special and raised my interest in fuzz effects.
I was hesitating between Arkaim and some big muff variant. I chose Arkaim because it seemed more singular and very rare.

It was my 4th diy build, I did some simple mistakes (orientation, jacks wiring...) and it took at least 2 weeks struggling to figure it out. Pedalpcb makes rather spartan instructions.

It sounds amazingly good and I am still very satisfied with the Arkaim, though I don't know if I built it correctly, because D1 3mm Led doesn't light up...

 

[Harry Klippton]

4 sabbath builds

 

[Barry]

I built a Sanguine and then a Dirty Sanchez, both fired right up! Really dug the Sanguine and I'm not really a high gain kinda guy, but roll off the drive and it's got some great sounds

 

[EGRENIER]

My first build was a Delegate compressor - boneyard edition....

It worked straight off the bench, but I thought it didn’t. I was testing outside the box and didn’t realized the LDR had to go dark at some point. After I tried it in the dark, I realized it was ready to box...

 

[JamieJ]

Mine was the tone bender mk1

What transistors did you go for? I have the PCB waiting to go. Was thinking of using OC71 and OC75.
EDIT: I realise that the leakage and hfe are more important.

 

[JamieJ]

I don't remember what specific transistors they were but for the mk1 I had something like this:
Q1-70's hfe leakage 150-200
Q2-90s hfe low leakage
Q3-120-150 hfe with leakage 200-300
I also used a trim it adapter on the Q3 collector to fine tune the bias as well.

Awesome, thanks!

 

[BuddytheReow]

Thermionic Distortion.

Same here

 

[Bobbyd67]

Mine was a organ donor... That was before pedalpcb offered smd soldering xD so it didn't work... I still got that board, I should really try and troubleshoot it again.... Sometimes all you need is a couple of years break xD

 

[Cucurbitam0schata]

Captain Bit - little too ambitious for a first pedal. Alas, still got hooked and the pedal still made robot farts out the gate.

 

[Chuck D. Bones]

It sounds amazingly good and I am still very satisfied with the Arkaim, though I don't know if I built it correctly, because D1 3mm Led doesn't light up...

It isn't supposed to light up, but it's still working.

 

[Travis]

Paragon here!!

 

[Paradox916]

My first pedal build was the ADHD, I was always curious about the Fulltone OCD but I just didn’t want to pay full price to check it out. That was also my first lesson In ICs and how they only go in one way..(I know total blatant lack of knowledge and total rookie move)I plunged the pedal in and it worked in bypass. I clicked the switch and was disappointed of the silence it produced. So I pulled the chip ( I at least did enough reading to take the advise to socket the chip) spent the next 30min checking the whole circuit from input to output And came up with nothing. with the chip out, the circuit was perfect... And suddenly realized where I had gone wrong. Plugged the opamp back in CORRECTLY this time and it worked perfectly... but in the end it just wasn’t the pedal I was looking for

 

[spi]

Twin Face. It went fine. Prior to trying PedalPCB I had done other builds from other PCBs, veroboard, and protoboard, so I wasn't a rookie.

I've built 25 pedals over all, 9 of which were from PedalPCB.

Only build I couldn't get working was a ROG Thor I did on veroboard. Has a high-pitched squeal I can't resolve.

 

[caiofilipini]

My first PedalPCB build (and second build ever) was a failed Mach 1 (Lightspeed), which I abandoned and followed with a fresh build that worked. Only down(up?)hill from there...

 

[uranium_jones]

Parentheses Fuzz. Worked first time, despite me having not soldered anything in... I'm gonna say 10 years.

 

[Chuck D. Bones]

Pritteh!

 

[uranium_jones]

Pritteh!

Haha, I thought it was ugly, LOL.
Here's version 2, and the Cattle Driver, my most recent complete build:

 

[chongmagic]

Mine was the Abyss or Seahorse.

 

[Crash102]

My first build was a corduroy fuzz that went south on me when I soldered some wrong value parts. (4k7 and 47k still make me pause).my attempts at desoldering lifted a bunch of pads and I scrapped it.

My first successful build was Klon mini. Then I eventually circled back to the corduroy with a new pcb. And it worked the first time

 

[Pauleo1214]

I built these at the same time, so can I post two? I finished these just a little over a year ago; they are my first foray into pedal building. One Carmine Overdrive and a Ionizer Fuzz. I couldn't get my hands on a OC139 and settled for a NTE101.