General hobby Q – do you ever find it a bit exhausting?

mkstewartesq

mkstewartesq

Well-known member
So I’ve now built about 25 pedals since starting down this road in late February 2023. At first, I was buying pretty much exactly (and only exactly) what I needed for a given set of builds. Over time, as I started to recognize common components popping up, I decided to “over buy” so I had a fair amount of spares, as well as buy things that I didn’t need right at that moment but that I reasonably expected I might need in the future - things like ICs, an assortment of pots with different tapers and values, etc, various flavors of DPDT and SPDT switches, etc. Especially as I started getting interested in stripboard builds, the goal I was working toward was that, for the most part, if I found a pedal that interested me, I would more likely than not already have the parts on hand.

Yet I still keep running into these situations where I’ll find a build that interests me, look at the BOM, and find I have everything except for one or two parts. Maybe it is an A5K pot, maybe it’s a chip coupling like the LF347 and LF353 that I have never had need for before.

So, OK, let’s consolidate what is needed for a few builds and order them at once to save shipping. But, as per my usual luck, I can’t find a vendor who offers all of the items. Mouser has the ICs but they don’t carry pots. StompboxParts has the pots, but only one of the ICs. Tayda carries the pot but it’s out of stock until December, and they only carry one of the ICs - and for $12 shipping, I’m gonna wait to place an order with them until I have a ton more stuff to include in the order anyhow, which is not currently the case because I thought I had just stocked up with my last order from them (see above). So no matter what I do, if I want to build this pedal, I’m going to be shopping for multiple specific parts from multiple vendors, with multiple shipping expenses. Which starts to feel a bit exhausting and more than a little deflating. I just wanted to build the pedal now, not a few weeks from now and at a lot of additional expense.

This is 1,000,000% a first-world problem, and not meant as a whine. I truly love this hobby (and all of you fine folks I’ve had the opportunity to meet through this hobby). I’m just more curious if any of you ever experienced the same feelings from time to time, tips on how to deal with it, etc.

Mike
 
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Yup.

It's an intimidating part of starting to build like 2-3 pedals but I definitely experienced a similar thing when I had built how many you have now where it almost felt like more of a hurdle than that initial one.

I started to focus more on component organization / storage and trying to get a better understanding of the circuitry to know what could be substituted, but also started to indulge different things I find fun about pedal building - like finding different sources for components. I will track down a $2 saving like I'm a god damn serial killer.

Part of the fun :)
 
mkstewartesq said:
So I’ve now built about 25 pedals since starting down this road in late February 2023. At first, I was buying pretty much exactly (and only exactly) what I needed for a given set of builds. Over time, as I started to recognize common components popping up, I decided to “over buy” so I had a fair amount of spares, as well as buy things that I didn’t need right at that moment but that I reasonably expected I might need in the future - things like ICs, an assortment of pots with different tapers and values, etc, various flavors of DPDT and SPDT switches, etc. Especially as I started getting interested in stripboard builds, the goal I was working toward was that, for the most part, if I found a pedal that interested me, I would more likely than not already have the parts on hand.

Yet I still keep running into these situations where I’ll find a build that interests me, look at the BOM, and find I have everything except for one or two parts. Maybe it is an A5K pot, maybe it’s a chip coupling like the LF347 and LF353 that I have never had need for before.

So, OK, let’s consolidate what is needed for a few builds and order them at once to save shipping. But, as per my usual luck, I can’t find a vendor who offers all of the items. Mouser has the ICs but they don’t carry pots. StompboxParts has the pots, but only one of the ICs. Tayda carries the pot but it’s out of stock until December, and they only carry one of the ICs - and for $12 shipping, I’m gonna wait to place an order with them until I have a ton more stuff to include in the order anyhow, which is not currently the case because I thought I had just stocked up with my last order from them (see above). So no matter what I do, if I want to build this pedal, I’m going to be shopping for multiple specific parts from multiple vendors, with multiple shipping expenses. Which starts to feel a bit exhausting and more than a little deflating. I just wanted to build the pedal now, not a few weeks from now and at a lot of additional expense.

This is 1,000,000% a first-world problem, and not meant as a whine. I truly love this hobby (and all of you fine folks I’ve had the opportunity to meet through this hobby). I’m just more curious if any of you ever experienced the same feelings from time to time, tips on how to deal with it, etc.

Mike
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When this happens to me and the walls start closing in, I like to play guitar and then go for a walk.

Then I inevitably come back and place 4 different orders.

Problem? What problem?
 
finebyfine said:
I will track down a $2 saving like I'm a god damn serial killer.
Click to expand...

Ditto. I’ve got saved carts at like five different vendors, most of which have a lot of the same items in the cart. When the time finally comes to pull the trigger, I’ve got to pull out a calculator and drag in an accountant to figure how I can save $.35 across four orders by buying which part from which vendor.

M
 
This reminds me of what we tell ourselves in software dev land. There's a hump on any long term project. Every deploy launches new unforeseen errors into the world that we then need to fix alongside normal errors and improvements. Tickets and issues stack up till you have a backlog that makes you want to cry. But at some point you finally hit that peak and start to see that you will do less and less ordering because fewer things pop up. I am in the same boat as you where I definitely lose heart when I get the order and pull out the board only to realize I am one specific part off from having all the requirements. But I take notes and move on to another build or getting the enclosure drilled etc. Then the same thing ensues. But at the end I can place minimal orders to get those items and I can finish a few builds in a day or weeks time. This was by far the biggest hurdle in taking up this hobby. To some extent I also try to stratify my backlog with some easier boards with commonplace parts and maybe a few harder more parts hungry builds. You're learning to walk and it takes time to learn to run. It's a great hobby but it's partially about enjoying the process and not just the end result. That was something that irritated me for a while, but now I try to embrace the fact that there are hurdles to cross.
 
jimilee said:
If I want to finish a build bad enough, I will substitute with what I have. I took almost a year off once. I’m about there again, I need to play more.
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This comment actually resonates with me a lot.

In all candor, and because I’m among friends, I picked up this hobby earlier in the year after a very long term (around 20 years) relationship ended. It’s been a wonderful way to channel my energies, make productive use of newfound free time, and gain a lot of new knowledge (and friends). But I’ve also noticed that I tend to finish a build, try it out and play with it a bit, and then go right into planning to build the next one, which is probably a bit overboard on the “coping mechanism” aspect of this whole thing. I haven’t really given myself the opportunity to just play them all nearly as much as I should – especially since that is what they were built for in the first place.

I’ve managed to build all the pedals I need to cover the bases for the types of music I play, and now I am at the point of building different “flavors“ of the types of pedals I already have. But, although I’m not looking to take a break right now, I can definitely see one at some point in my future just to enjoy the fruits of what I have accomplished rather than just jumping manically straight into another build.

M
 
mkstewartesq said:
This comment actually resonates with me a lot.

In all candor, and because I’m among friends, I picked up this hobby earlier in the year after a very long term (around 20 years) relationship ended. It’s been a wonderful way to channel my energies, make productive use of newfound free time, and gain a lot of new knowledge (and friends). But I’ve also noticed that I tend to finish a build, try it out and play with it a bit, and then go right into planning to build the next one, which is probably a bit overboard on the “coping mechanism” aspect of this whole thing. I haven’t really given myself the opportunity to just play them all nearly as much as I should – especially since that is what they were built for in the first place.

I’ve managed to build all the pedals I need to cover the bases for the types of music I play, and now I am at the point of building different “flavors“ of the types of pedals I already have. But, although I’m not looking to take a break right now, I can definitely see one at some point in my future just to enjoy the fruits of what I have accomplished rather than just jumping manically straight into another build.

M
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Coping with the bad through creating things that are good is rarely problemic in my opinion. It was very much how I got through 2020 and beyond. Do what I do and limit your hoarding through random gifting. That's a heaping scoop of good juju.
 
I have definitely felt this way, but on the other hand there is such an awesome wealth of build info, boards, etc. out there these days that it's usually pretty simple to find something in the ballpark of what you want that doesn't need anything unusual, even if it's not the exact one you're eying. We really are spoiled with all the well-documented and readily-available DIY projects are out there.

I like stripboard and turret board builds quite a bit, so if I'm working on a build or have a planned build that requires some additional waiting time, I'll often pull out some stripboard and find a different project to put together until that gets here. I know stripboard is not for everyone, but I really love being able to find a build you think looks interesting online and being able to get started on it right then and there (if you have all the other parts you need).

Not talking down on PCBs on pedalpcb.com haha, PCBs are awesome too and tend to be more pleasant to assemble, they just both have their benefits for me.

One thing I will say is that you'd benefit from learning when it's OK to swap something like an LF353 for something common like a TL072. In pedal applications, as long as the op amp pinout is the same you can pretty much always try it so long as the op-amp can accept more than 9V or whatever the supply voltage is. If there was any concern about the functionality of different op-amps, I'd just use a DIP socket, throw the TL072 (or whatever) in, and get an LF353 on order to try in that position later.

Same with pots - there are a lot of applications where you could sub a 10kA pot in for a 5kA pot with minimal differences, and there are also ways to make a 10k pot operate more like a 5k pot depending on application by using parallel resistance. No harm in asking around about that kind of thing if you're unsure in the meantime. And of course, putting resistors/caps in series and/or parallel to get values you don't have on-hand is something everyone should learn to do when needed IMO.
 
I think longevity is key. That’s why I’ve dove into a bunch of different aspects of building. Once you’ve perfected putting a board together, try making a circuit board. The learning curves of the programs and such are more than enough to make things feel fresh all over.

Not saying you need to make your own enclosures or powder coat them and go the extra mile but again I found refreshness in trying these routes that honestly I feel like I have the same vigor as when I first started. Just a thought…
 
I think the circumstances played in my favor to keep me motivated.
I started by buying PCBs from the UK. I got a resistors and a capacitors kits, and got the enclosures and pots from Tayda. When I decided on a pedal (or a couple of them), ordered the PCBs, the enclosures and pots, and the specific chips from AliExpress. A couple weeks later, everything had arrived and I spent a weekend building the pedals. Rinse and repeat.

I build around 30 pedals in this way. You can see some of them here (and a couple intruders):

46C57D5A-C5A9-41B3-BDFC-641C397C1BC9.jpeg

By the time I was getting bored of it, Brexit happened. So I thought “maybe I should learn to make my own PCBs”. So I started learning to use EAGLE. And while I was at it, I thought “If I’m going to design them, maybe I should start using SMD components too”, so I did that.

I designed a couple pedals, based on and idea I had of mixing and modifying two circuits.

Here’s the latest PCB from that phase:

IMG_1419.jpeg

I also had a very ambitious idea, mixing a pedal’s analog circuit with a digital control circuit. And got it partially working:


IMG_1641.jpeg

But on one side I encountered some technical problems that are hard to solve by myself, and in the other, microcontroller prices skyrocketed. So, I lost momentum.

But then I thought “How about designing a line of pedals like if they were a real product, centered more on the design and personality of the product than the technical side?” (I’m a Graphic Designer, after all). So, I started doing that. And since I’m treating it like a real product, I decided to switch to EasyEDA, that allows me to order an almost complete board if I want to do that in the future. So that’s what I’m doing now:

mithra-3d.png

And that’s how I haven’t yet lost motivation. When something bores me, I somehow find another approach to keep me interested and learning new things. So far, I’m pretty happy with where I am. And I know I have tons to learn yet.

Thank you for coming to my TED Talk… 😆
 
I have the tendency once I find a new hobby or interest to really throw myself into (maybe even to an unhealthy degree), and I sometimes bite off more than I can chew.

I think it's important to remember that when hobbies and interests become stressful, this is a stress we're creating for ourselves, and one we can back away from as needed. Don't feel like you have to pressure yourself to complete a project under a deadline; you're doing this for fun, so be kind to yourself.
 
mkstewartesq said:
But I’ve also noticed that I tend to finish a build, try it out and play with it a bit, and then go right into planning to build the next one
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I do this too, but I don't necessarily see it as a bad thing. I do it because I enjoy the building aspect of it, and I slow down or take breaks when I'm not enjoying it.

Overall I've learned that all overdrives sound approximately the same, but I keep building them.

Maybe I should find other electronic projects to build but I haven't thought of good ideas. At least pedals are relatively cheap to build and compact to store. I'd build amps but they're expensive and there's no room for them.
 
I think everyone goes thru this at one point or another if you build long enough. Lots of good insight about keeping it fresh. Wether learning software, or graphic design or making enclosures. Some of my favorite pedals were gifts for others and my least favorite aspect is building to sell. Parts ordering nightmares are something all of us face if you want to make something other than just YATS.

Having taken breaks off and on the past couple years the thing that reinvigorated my interest last fall is having focus on why I was building. That focus can change periodically and it's always good to step back and reevaluate.

I became frustrated by parts orders, shipping delays and constantly feeling disappointed by building the latest flavor of the week. Instead of chasing my tail like a dog with ADHD I thought about what my favorite tones were, useful pedals I would actually use and make me feel inspired and creative. That spiraled out of control in the best of ways and what started out as an 8 pedal series and turned into nearly 40 pedals 9 months later. Soon I'll be at square one again and it's time to play and reevaluate.

Just don't forget to play guitar. A pedal is just a box until someone makes noise with it.
 
Yeah the comments about branching out into related areas like board design are great ones. Those keep things fresh while learning and for quite awhile after as you get to use your new skills for board design. Plus, that's one other skill you can put to use in the time you're waiting for that obscure IC to come in.

Kicad has become very impressive in recent years by the way. It's excellent software with a pretty user-friendly interface (which I otherwise find to be the most common downside of free open source software), and there's a solid amount of documentation. I put off learning PCB design for ages because I expected the learning curve to be massive. There is a lot to learn, but it doesn't take much time to be able to put a basic board together, and after that it's not bad just learning on-the-fly as you need more functionality.
 
totally hear ya on the parts ordering stuff.

i fkn love building, but this year i’ve barely had time to do it.
it’s so frustrating because i want to build and try so many circuits that pique my interest. and they usually end up piling up in a list in my notes app.

so far i’ve only managed to do 8 pedals this year.
oh well. got the rest of my life to build i guess
 
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