Anyone else trying to learn circuit theory?

[MBFX]

@Chuck D. Bones and @BuddytheReow have been helping me learn the very basics of Fuzz Face and LPB-1 circuit design, and I am hooked. Does anyone have any good resources they would like to link here regarding learning circuit theory?

 

[BuddytheReow]

Resources

Post links to supplies, tools, tutorials, cat videos, that turbo-lift blooper reel. Anything related to breadboarding (makes sense huh?)

forum.pedalpcb.com

You'll need to understand a lot of the basics like Ohms law, AC vs DC, current, voltage, etc. Once you get these down you'll have to dig around the internet, but there's a lot of good links posted in this thread. Unfortunately, there's no one stop shop for pedal specific theory. You'll pick up something here, something there, etc. Then start looking at schematics to see this in action. Since I started going through my circuit/pedal building journey I've tried to give back to the community here with a lot of the basic tutorials to help people like yourself. Don't try to learn everything at once. You'll drive yourself crazy.

 

[HamishR]

I would love to learn more about circuit design and have learnt a lot just since participating on this board. But the basics do my head in. I'm not too dumb but the science of it all is beyond me. Some of it I think is not all that important to know - as long as you know how to get what you want. The biggest thing I have learnt is to ask Chuck.

 

[szukalski]

Rob Robinette’s tube amp site was really good for me in connecting the dots in hire circuits work.

 

[Passinwind]

@Chuck D. Bones and @BuddytheReow have been helping me learn the very basics of Fuzz Face and LPB-1 circuit design, and I am hooked. Does anyone have any good resources they would like to link here regarding learning circuit theory?

Rod Elliot's very well known site: https://www.sound-au.com/

And John Broskie's, which it may take a while to work up to: https://tubecad.com/

 

[Locrian99]

Electrosmash when I want to feel dumb, but they do a great job of explaining what an individual part does. Then throw in a bunch of math to put me back in my place.

 

[derevaun]

If you have free access to linkedinlearning (formerly lynda.com) through a local library, there's a good series by Barron Stone on general electronics, about 9 hours total but super easy to go at your own pace.

When Medhi (Electroboom on Youtube) isn't zapping himself/his stuff, he has a series on electronics theory that is pretty good. I also like The Learning Circuit, which (like linkedinlearning) is designed by educators.

 

[MBFX]

You'll need to understand a lot of the basics like Ohms law, AC vs DC, current, voltage, etc. Once you get these down you'll have to dig around the internet, but there's a lot of good links posted in this thread. Unfortunately, there's no one stop shop for pedal specific theory. You'll pick up something here, something there, etc. Then start looking at schematics to see this in action. Since I started going through my circuit/pedal building journey I've tried to give back to the community here with a lot of the basic tutorials to help people like yourself. Don't try to learn everything at once. You'll drive yourself crazy.

I'm good with the absolute basics that you mentioned, but knowing when to apply the math and how is the current gap to bridge. I'm getting OK with schematics, at least! I put together a "custom circuit" that is a booster and an Electra smashed together, and it worked first try! =D

Thank you to everyone who has replied so far. I'm on Electrosmash right now

 

[jesuscrisp]

What it essentially comes down to is learning the building blocks, knowing what influences tone in which way when placed where in the circuit and how to connect it all. Simulations can help but ultimately it comes down to fuck around and find out.

 

[Feral Feline]

OSMOSIS!


What BtR said, don't try to bite off more than you can chew.

Quote from another recent thread.

Often you'll see small-value caps like that in a similar location in schematics for reasons Swyse already noted. It's not uncommon.

To help you understand schematics better, I suggest looking at our own BuddytheReow's tutorial:

TUTORIAL - What Are All Those Symbols? - Intro to Schematic Reading

You've got your breadboard, jumper wires, offboard components, and breadboard components in hand and are ready to go. You download a build doc from PedalPCB website, skip the pretty picture of the PCB, skip the components listing since your order came in the mail 3 and a half minutes ago, get to...

forum.pedalpcb.com

More from the forum:

How did you learn to read schematics?

I have built about 5 pedals now and am enjoying it. Luckily I haven’t had any issues, but I know at some point I will. When that happens, I would like to know how to troubleshoot and reading schematics is a large part of that. What’s the best or easiest way to learn that skill?

forum.pedalpcb.com

Also check out:
BEAVIS AUDIO's website and
ELECTROSMASH's circuits-analyses.

I still reference all the above, and I try to/need to extrapolate information — for example, looking at information on Electrosmash's analysis of a Dunlop CryBaby, I'll try to see what info translates/correlates to/with other circuits (not just wah-circuits).

 

[BuddytheReow]

Once you’ve got the basics of theory, I would suggest breadboarding a LPB-1 (I wrote a tutorial about it). There are a handful of circuit analyses about it and you can play around with each component to see how it changes your guitar signal. The LPB-1 is a textbook transistor amplifier so there are plenty of resources out there to help you understand it. Then mess around with diodes both as a hard clipper (shunted to ground) and across the transistor (collector to base) to see what you like and how it changes the sound. This is also covered in that tutorial. From there I would then look into high pass and low pass filters (textbooks cover this) and try them out on your LPB-1. Then you can mash em together to make a Muff tone control and find out how those two interact. The next step after that would be trying out an opamp circuit, either the Distortion + or the Mini Muffin Fuzz. I wrote a tutorial about each and they are very bare bones circuits to help you understand how they behave. One is an inverting opamp configuration and the other is a noninverting. Both are used frequently in pedals. I think following this path of baby steps will help you immensely and will keep you busy for a while.