Fighting the urge to give up

[metalguy55]

How do you curb the desire to give up? I'm about 3 years and 12 pedals into building pedals and literally not one pedal I've made has worked. Going so slow, methodical, testing and cleaning every component before and after soldering and none of it seems to work. I make a pedal and it just doesn't work so I try again and again and again.. and at this point I'm just sick of it. A couple months ago In a last ditch effort I bought the aft preamp, titana2, pariah mid-boost, and clandestine preamp just to put together the easiest ones I could find and had 0 luck. Looking at all the equipment, parts, time, money, and research put in to this hobby and its depressing to think that I could have been playing guitar this whole time. I buy the pedals I want too so now I'm wondering why I even started this hobby.

 

[Big Monk]

How do you curb the desire to give up? I'm about 3 years and 12 pedals into building pedals and literally not one pedal I've made has worked. Going so slow, methodical, testing and cleaning every component before and after soldering and none of it seems to work. I make a pedal and it just doesn't work so I try again and again and again.. and at this point I'm just sick of it. A couple months ago In a last ditch effort I bought the aft preamp, titana2, pariah mid-boost, and clandestine preamp just to put together the easiest ones I could find and had 0 luck. Looking at all the equipment, parts, time, money, and research put in to this hobby and its depressing to think that I could have been playing guitar this whole time. I buy the pedals I want too so now I'm wondering why I even started this hobby.

I think we’ve all been there when starting out.

Do you troubleshoot the pedals that don’t work?

 

[jeffwhitfield]

One thing that might help is to post up pics of the PCB's you're working on. We can help by looking at the PCB and determining maybe where you're making some mistakes. Also, listing the equipment you're using will help too. The wrong soldering iron, solder, flux, and the like can make any build an absolute nightmare.

 

[dawson]

That's rough, I'd be frustrated too.
I wonder though- if none of your pedals are working, it's possible that some or all of them share an error. If that's the case, possibly with the help of a troubleshooting thread, you may be able to solve and fix all 12 of your builds at once and you'll be scrambling for patch cables.
Won't that be a good day?

*Also, there's no shame in quitting- this hobby isn't for everyone, however, by your description and the amount of effort you've put into it already, I think it'd be worth one final push to post a troubleshooting thread with plenty of pictures. It really may be something simple and fixable you did wrong 12 times.

 

[Stickman393]

Well, the good news here is that failure is kind of a packaged deal with life.

If the guitar pedals you build don't work, I guarantee you that there is an identifiable reason WHY they don't work.

And that reason has nothing to do with who you, personally, are. Nobody's uniquely blessed with a supernatural ability to fuck up every build for forever. Nobody is invariably doomed to be shit at building pedals for forever. And, truth told, nobody gets to success by themselves.

My dad taught me to solder. I have countless individuals online that I owe my gratitude to for sharing their knowledge for free. I work in a field that taught me LOTS about electrical theory that I wouldn't know otherwise.

90% of errors, when it comes to putting a pedal together, comes from incorrect wiring, shorts from solder bridges or wire whiskers, and reverse polarity on polarized components.

If you're consistently building pedals that don't work, you're likely repeating a specific mistake. Maybe you've got your center on 9vdc wired to positive. Maybe you have your inputs and outputs reversed. Maybe you're wiring your 1/4" tip connection to ground.

Maybe you're using a switched power jack, but you're connecting your positive lead to the wrong, switched terminal.

That's what the troubleshooting forum is for. Just take good pictures, follow troubleshooting forum etiquette, and if you don't have one yet...buy a multi-meter. Build an audio probe. Learn to read schematics.

You don't have to know everything instantly. Hell, that would rob you of all those "ah hah!" Moments that can rejuvenate you and lead to an immense sense of satisfaction.

But...this requires patience and an ability for self reflection. To troubleshoot, you must first accept that you probably made a mistake, and that mistake exists independently of you. Your ability to debug it or not relies entirely on your current skill level, which will change over time, and does not reflect your potential.

TL;DR, chin up brotha. Have fun. If you're not breaking anything, you're not doing anything.

 

[TGP39]

My first 4 pedals I built didn’t work. I was meticulous just like you described. I would build the circuit and test it before I boxed it. I posted a troubleshooting thread on another board. It turns out that since I had the circuit face down, I was plugging my guitar into the output jack and the amp to the input jack. All 4 builds were done right, but tested wrong.
Lesson for me is you have a large number of really awesome pedal builders who have “been there / done that” on this board. Open up a troubleshooting thread describing your problem and I bet you things will turn around.
Best of luck,
Steve / PharmerFx

 

[Grubb]

Getting one to fire up will turn the tide. Please post your builds in the troubleshooting section, guaranteed someone will spot the problem and you'll get to muck around with a pedal you built yourself. It's a great feeling!

 

[BuddytheReow]

troubleshooting is part of the learning process and can be frustrating and drive your patience. Once you’ve figured out your mistake (I’m sensing a common theme) you won’t make it again

TUTORIAL - Troubleshooting 101

There comes a time for every builder to spend multiple hours soldering, wiring, and breadboarding a certain circuit just to have it work incorrectly, if at all. This could happen on your first build or any build after that. This write up is to help you in your quest to figure out why it isn't...

forum.pedalpcb.com

 

[andare]

Kudos to your for sticking to something for so long in the face of failure.

Lots of people here can help. Post good pictures of your pedal guts and be ready to follow the advice you will receive.

 

[Dan M]

I haven’t built any of the pedals for you listed, but the Titania looks like the simplest.

Maybe start a troubleshooting thread for that one and get it running. It doesn’t have jfets to bias, or ICs, or germanium transistors.

I’ve only built 20 pedals, so I’m still fairly new.
When my pedals don’t work, I’ve found there’s only 10 possible reasons, in this order:
#1-7: bad soldering
#8: part installed wrong (wrong value, installed backwards, etc)
#9: a short due to a stray or loose wire OR bad soldering
#10: a broken part. Possibly due to melting it because of bad soldering

 

[jimilee]

After 10 years of building, my fire right up ratio is probably one to three. I still have to troubleshoot. These fine folks are super delicious in getting things going.

 

[PBWilson1970]

It can be maddening for sure! I remember making a small batch of pedals and a handful of them just didn't work right. Facing the daunting task of retracing my steps and checking all those connections was a challenge.

Here's a few silly things I've done to screw up pedal projects:

Wiring input and output jacks backwards
Not installing ICs or transistors in their sockets
Orienting the 3PDT switch wrong
Not using heat sinks on more delicate parts when I was just learning to solder
Not checking pinouts of transistors
Not checking resistor for correct value
Solder bridges!
Not cutting a trace fully when using stripboard

I'm sure there will be more!

 

[jimilee]

It can be maddening for sure! I remember making a small batch of pedals and a handful of them just didn't work right. Facing the daunting task of retracing my steps and checking all those connections was a challenge.

Here's a few silly things I've done to screw up pedal projects:

Wiring input and output jacks backwards
Not installing ICs or transistors in their sockets
Orienting the 3PDT switch wrong
Not using heat sinks on more delicate parts when I was just learning to solder
Not checking pinouts of transistors
Not checking resistor for correct value
Solder bridges!
Not cutting a trace fully when using stripboard

I'm sure there will be more!

I still do some of these now, I bet all of us do!

 

[fig]

You haven't recently broken up with a voodoo priestess have you?

Just look at this unrivaled support base available to you. I'm proud to be the village idiot of this bunch!

Challenge: Choose one non-functional build and post it on troubleshooting.

If you accept and follow through, not only will you find the problem, you'll be in a better position to better decide if this is for you or not.

All the best!

 

[peccary]

Yeah, dude. Get that Aft or another small parts count build up in troubleshooting. Have you seen some of the Frankenstein's monsters walking out of that place? Lifted pads, jumpers, all kinds of stuff. The folks here can help if you're determined enough. Post some good photos. Most of the time it's something rather simple.

 

[Paradox916]

I'm proud to be the village idiot of this bunch!

Damn And I was really hoping to fill that slot, so that must mean Im the kid that has to wear a bicycle helmet all the time…..

 

[Harry Klippton]

Do you enjoy the activities that go into building a pedal? Not just populating a board or soldering, but also reading build docs, planning out a build, and troubleshooting?

Early on, I viewed pedal building as only populating a board and soldering. I didn't like wiring everything and always rushed it, but then I learned to love it and focus on doing a good job. I made a habit of not even testing pedals the same day I worked on em, so that when they didn't work, THAT was the activity I did that day- focus on figuring it out.

Ultimately, it's ok if pedal building is not for you. I've explored and given up lots of different hobbies over the years cuz I liked the idea or end result but not the process, or the activities of the hobby didn't fit into my lifestyle

 

[pcb rookie]

I hear you! I started about 2 years ago. I struggled a few times but in the end I was able to fix most of them.

There is one of my built that I just could not figure it out. I keep placing it aside and I at some point decided to reorder the PCB and components to start fresh. Just before I was going for a fresh start (with all components on hands), I decided to post a thread in the trouble shooting section of this forum.

I took time to clean the PCB, inspect all solders and components (value, position and orientation), post pictures and voltage measures of the values.

Super '64 OD troubleshooting

Fishing building the Super '64 OD. LED is working fine. I'm getting sound on by pass mode and clean low volume sound when engaged. All pots are turned fully clock wise including the trimpots. I looked at all solders for cold solders, bridge etc. Then cleaned the PCB. I refloweds all sorders...

forum.pedalpcb.com

There are a lot of good and knowledgeable people willing to help and share their knowledge.

I can tell you that I learned way more in this process that I did in all the previous builds that worked on 1st try. Not only did I learn a lot that but it help me process troubleshooting further on my own on following builds. I actually enjoyed the process with the support of members on this forum.

* I built a audio probe in the process and learned to use it which as become my most useful troubleshooting tool.

At the end of the day, it actually worked and I've been enjoying this pedal ... maybe more than the overs I own!

 

[Paradox916]

It’s definitely not an easy hobby. My two cents for you is pay close attention to component orientation, that has nailed me more than a few times, pick one pedal you really want to get operational.. and stick it out to the bitter or sweetened, post or bump an existing troubleshooting thread, seen it through man, when a heavy hitter that obviously knows what they are doing gives you advice or direction… just do it even if you think or know that’s not the problem, they have to deal in “known” conditions and not assumptions( I think this is the most prevalent reason peoples troubleshooting threads die and go nowhere.) if you report back the findings promptly you will get through it quicker there are a lot of people that are in here daily. And lastly enjoy the process,if it was easy, it wouldn’t be any fun.

 

[peccary]

I am kind of dumb and don't test my builds before boxing them up, but because of that I spend time going over the completed boards with a magnifying glass before installing it in an enclosure.

Every mistake that's prevented a board I made from working was because I wasn't paying attention to something. A reversed diode or cap, a solder bridge, whatever. A good visual inspection (I usually do a couple, giving some time in between) along side the build docs has saved me a lot of time.