BuddytheReow
Breadboard Baker
You've spent hours trolling this forum and have wandered into the Test Kitchen and want to start breadboarding, huh? If you're relatively new to this hobby, then you probably don't have a lot of spare inventory. BuddytheReow is here to help you get your shopping list together. This guide is a beginners list of items to stock up on if you want to experiment and build basic circuits, but not sure where to get.
There are generally 2 routes you can go here: find a specific project or projects that you want to build and stock up on those components. Or, take a read below and stock up on a lot of common components. You'll be able to make dozens, if not hundreds, of a lot of the basic circuits out there.
For your one stop shop experience I would highly recommend going to Tayda. They are cheap and pretty reliable. You're more than welcome to try your local electronics shop or some of the other big name vendors out there, but you'll probably be paying more for components in a circuit you may or may not like. I've had great experience with Tayda. The choice is yours.
Jumper Wire. I mentioned jumper wires in the "What is a Breadboard" thread. You can read a bit more over there. I pick up a jumper wire box set from amazon and am really happy with it. $12 well spent. You can read about it here.
forum.pedalpcb.com
If you've got a protoboard you will also need some male to female jumper wires for connecting the various power and signal on your board. Tayda is a good source for them, but IMO they are a bit too long at times. Get some male to male ones too in different sizes if the kit mentioned above can't do the job.
Resistors. In general go with 1/4 watt metal film. 99% of pedals use 1/4 watt. 1/8 watt is recommended for certain pcb builds, but that's just to save some real estate on the board itself. Tayda sells em at $0.01 each. In terms of resistance values there are more standard ones used than others. Take a look at many of the build docs on this site and you'll see what I mean. I bought this from Amazon just for breadboarding. Anything above 1m ohms you'll need to pick up from Tayda along with some less common values but it gets the job done. https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07N1ZK8CC/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o05_s01?ie=UTF8&psc=1
Capacitors. There are basically 3 camps here: ceramic disc, poly film box type, and electrolytic. Some like to use different ones than box ones, but that's personal preference. Ceramic disc are in the picofarad values and they're dirt cheap on Tayda. 10p, 47p, 100p, 220p, 470p are common values and will get you pretty far in that range. Box caps are nanofarad. Suggested values IMO are 1n, 2.2n, 4.7n,10n, 22n, 47n, 100n, 220n, maybe 470n, and 1u (That's microfarad). After that are electrolytic. 1u, 4.7u, 10u, 47u, and 100u are what I would get and use most often.
Edit: It's worth noting here that anything under 1n should be ceramic disc, 1n to 1u should be box caps, and 1u plus (in general) should be electolytic. Electrolytics are also polarized, meaning that the orientation matters whether on a breadboard or a PCB. Whatever voltage you plan on running the effect at, get an electro rated for higher voltage. Some say the voltage rating should be double and that's a good rule of thumb. The problem is that at a certain point they just become too big and can get cramped on a PCB.
Diodes. Let's talk germanium first. You can't go wrong with 1n270 or 1n34a; those 2 are standard in pedal building and you can't get them from Tayda. There are russian ones amongs others, but those 2 will check the box mostly when breadboarding. For non-germanium, it wouldn't hurt to get 1n4148, 1n914, some of the BAT series (BAT46, 41, etc), colored LEDs (not the super brights), 1n5817. Those can get you pretty far.
Opamp. Tl072, 4558, lm741, tl071, op07 if you want to build a rat. The first 2 are dual opamp and the others are single opamp. Lm386 is a power opamp and has it's own sound and pinout. You can try a quad opamp, such as a TL074, but that may make your breadboard super messy after a while.
Transistors. If you're starting out I would suggest NPN silicons mostly and a few PNP silicons. 2n5088, any in the BC series such as BC547 BC549, 2n3904, 2n2222a or PN2222a, and maybe MPSA18. Those are NPN. For PNP try 2n3906 for starters. When you get into the germanium side of things (unicorn dust here) everyone has their preference and it depends on what you want to build. Germaniums are mostly PNP so you'll need to mind the voltage polarity but that is a conversation for another day. GE is also more expensive and not sure what your budget is.
For FETs, I would suggest getting a few j201s from here on the adapter board. J201 is the gold standard , but they don't make the through hole kind anymore. Only surface mount is made, hence the adapter board. 2n5457 is a close substitute. You can't get either from Tayda. If you want to go the MOSFET route get BS170.
In terms of offboard components it depends what you want. You could buy an assortment of potentiometer in different tapers or get a box of trimmers on Amazon. Trimmers are nice, cheap, save space, but they only come in linear taper which isn't the end of the world. Pots make you feel a bit more professional and you don't need a screwdriver to turn them. The choice is yours. Switches I'll leave up to you whether you want to solder wires on and make it breadboard worthy or get a few breadboard mountable ones. Those only come in spdt, but they're nice. I just picked up some the other day.
Obviously, you can get much more complicated with parts, but I think this is a good start. If anyone would like to contribute to the list feel free to comment below.
Hope this helps.
BuddytheReow
There are generally 2 routes you can go here: find a specific project or projects that you want to build and stock up on those components. Or, take a read below and stock up on a lot of common components. You'll be able to make dozens, if not hundreds, of a lot of the basic circuits out there.
For your one stop shop experience I would highly recommend going to Tayda. They are cheap and pretty reliable. You're more than welcome to try your local electronics shop or some of the other big name vendors out there, but you'll probably be paying more for components in a circuit you may or may not like. I've had great experience with Tayda. The choice is yours.
Jumper Wire. I mentioned jumper wires in the "What is a Breadboard" thread. You can read a bit more over there. I pick up a jumper wire box set from amazon and am really happy with it. $12 well spent. You can read about it here.
Buddy's Breadboard and Circuit Design Notes
Diggin' the Bredi Deverboard, Buddy! (y)
forum.pedalpcb.com
If you've got a protoboard you will also need some male to female jumper wires for connecting the various power and signal on your board. Tayda is a good source for them, but IMO they are a bit too long at times. Get some male to male ones too in different sizes if the kit mentioned above can't do the job.
Resistors. In general go with 1/4 watt metal film. 99% of pedals use 1/4 watt. 1/8 watt is recommended for certain pcb builds, but that's just to save some real estate on the board itself. Tayda sells em at $0.01 each. In terms of resistance values there are more standard ones used than others. Take a look at many of the build docs on this site and you'll see what I mean. I bought this from Amazon just for breadboarding. Anything above 1m ohms you'll need to pick up from Tayda along with some less common values but it gets the job done. https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07N1ZK8CC/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o05_s01?ie=UTF8&psc=1
Capacitors. There are basically 3 camps here: ceramic disc, poly film box type, and electrolytic. Some like to use different ones than box ones, but that's personal preference. Ceramic disc are in the picofarad values and they're dirt cheap on Tayda. 10p, 47p, 100p, 220p, 470p are common values and will get you pretty far in that range. Box caps are nanofarad. Suggested values IMO are 1n, 2.2n, 4.7n,10n, 22n, 47n, 100n, 220n, maybe 470n, and 1u (That's microfarad). After that are electrolytic. 1u, 4.7u, 10u, 47u, and 100u are what I would get and use most often.
Edit: It's worth noting here that anything under 1n should be ceramic disc, 1n to 1u should be box caps, and 1u plus (in general) should be electolytic. Electrolytics are also polarized, meaning that the orientation matters whether on a breadboard or a PCB. Whatever voltage you plan on running the effect at, get an electro rated for higher voltage. Some say the voltage rating should be double and that's a good rule of thumb. The problem is that at a certain point they just become too big and can get cramped on a PCB.
Diodes. Let's talk germanium first. You can't go wrong with 1n270 or 1n34a; those 2 are standard in pedal building and you can't get them from Tayda. There are russian ones amongs others, but those 2 will check the box mostly when breadboarding. For non-germanium, it wouldn't hurt to get 1n4148, 1n914, some of the BAT series (BAT46, 41, etc), colored LEDs (not the super brights), 1n5817. Those can get you pretty far.
Opamp. Tl072, 4558, lm741, tl071, op07 if you want to build a rat. The first 2 are dual opamp and the others are single opamp. Lm386 is a power opamp and has it's own sound and pinout. You can try a quad opamp, such as a TL074, but that may make your breadboard super messy after a while.
Transistors. If you're starting out I would suggest NPN silicons mostly and a few PNP silicons. 2n5088, any in the BC series such as BC547 BC549, 2n3904, 2n2222a or PN2222a, and maybe MPSA18. Those are NPN. For PNP try 2n3906 for starters. When you get into the germanium side of things (unicorn dust here) everyone has their preference and it depends on what you want to build. Germaniums are mostly PNP so you'll need to mind the voltage polarity but that is a conversation for another day. GE is also more expensive and not sure what your budget is.
For FETs, I would suggest getting a few j201s from here on the adapter board. J201 is the gold standard , but they don't make the through hole kind anymore. Only surface mount is made, hence the adapter board. 2n5457 is a close substitute. You can't get either from Tayda. If you want to go the MOSFET route get BS170.
In terms of offboard components it depends what you want. You could buy an assortment of potentiometer in different tapers or get a box of trimmers on Amazon. Trimmers are nice, cheap, save space, but they only come in linear taper which isn't the end of the world. Pots make you feel a bit more professional and you don't need a screwdriver to turn them. The choice is yours. Switches I'll leave up to you whether you want to solder wires on and make it breadboard worthy or get a few breadboard mountable ones. Those only come in spdt, but they're nice. I just picked up some the other day.
Obviously, you can get much more complicated with parts, but I think this is a good start. If anyone would like to contribute to the list feel free to comment below.
Hope this helps.
BuddytheReow
Last edited: