Leveling Up...

[Joben Magooch]

Years ago, back when I was in college...I was a pretty average guitarist. Not terrible, not great. On a whim I auditioned for a local band's lead guitar position and by some miracle ended up getting picked for the spot. Spent the next two-ish years touring the country and regularly playing shows...and I can pretty confidently say that that experience was probably responsible for the biggest step forward or "level up" in my playing, more than anything else. I am still not particularly spectacular, but that period really pushed me to be a lot better than I was prior.

Now as it stands I also consider myself to be a pretty average pedal-builder. I've done dozens of PPCB (or other PCB) builds, quite a few veros, a bunch of "utility" boxes (switchers, buffers, splitters, that stuff), and some stuff like minor pedal and amp repairs and/or mods. But by and large this stuff has been relatively "paint-by-numbers" and it starts getting dicey when I try to do something a bit more "independent," if that makes sense. And that's an area that lately I've found myself wanting to grow and learn more in.

So with that all being said: I'm curious as to what some of your biggest "level ups" or "next steps" have been for you personally.

Some areas that immediately came to mind:

• Learning to better read schematics / a better understanding of what a given component does in a particular circuit (and by extension what changing it would do)
• Becoming more familiar with common topologies and other "building blocks" that you'll frequently encounter
• Various hacks/tricks to improve overall productivity - what's something you've learned/you do that you feel sets you apart from an "average" builder?
• Practically speaking: improving your finished product, both aesthetically and functionally. I struggle a lot with finishing builds and most are just pre-finished enclosures with no labels or quick ones printed on a labelmaker. Waterslide, UV printing, etc?
• Breadboarding and getting more hands-on experience with modding/developing circuits
• Learning more about PCB design/layout and how to move from schematic to PCB

I know there are some here who do pedal-building commercially, so their tips might be more from that angle. Of course, that is certainly welcome. I'm not particularly interested in developing a better money-making operation, more just interested in improving things and learning for my own personal development, but I'm curious to hear any and all input all the same. What have been some of your biggest steps forward in growth/development/etc.?

 

[iamjackslackof]

Breadboarding, by far. It also helps with reading schematics, since that's all you use. Then you start tweaking parts, seeing common circuit blocks, etc.

 

[Paradox916]

I know this probably doesn’t help a lot but I have learned waaay more from my failures than my successes, don’t be afraid to punch above your weight class, take on a project that’s over your head and do the homework, hopefully it doesn’t work, and you have to learn how to troubleshoot a more complex circuit than you are comfortable with… and above all don’t ask for help and don’t give up, there is enough info and knowledge that’s accessible if you put the time and work in there is nothing you can’t accomplish if you really want it, and of course repetition.. we only get better the more time we put in. Is this a generic point of view perhaps, but it’s also battle tested.

 

[pbrommer]

I know this probably doesn’t help a lot but I have learned waaay more from my failures than my successes, don’t be afraid to punch above your weight class, take on a project that’s over your head and do the homework, hopefully it doesn’t work, and you have to learn how to troubleshoot a more complex circuit than you are comfortable with… and above all don’t ask for help and don’t give up, there is enough info and knowledge that’s accessible if you put the time and work in there is nothing you can’t accomplish if you really want it, and of course repetition.. we only get better the more time we put in. Is this a generic point of view perhaps, but it’s also battle tested.

This is great advice. I've attempted some really tough projects. Without it, I wouldn't have learned how to troubleshoot with and audio probe and schematic. It helped me figure out why my ? Flanger from DeadEndFX wasn't flanging, my StringRinger didn't ring mod, and how I figured out how to stuff a 3 channel guitar tube preamplifier into a 1u rack chassis.

Sometimes, you just have to get on top of the high dive board, look over the edge, freak out, and then just go for it.

 

[Gordo]

I think that like guitar playing the "level" thing is multi faceted. I think I do a bang up job of building and troubleshooting yet my buddy jhaneyzz just obliterates my inner and outer builds with artistic skills I don't have. Do they sound and play the same. They do.

Like Paradox916 mentions above a lot of these skills get developed by refusing to give up. Be that artistic like jhaneyzz marble/LED indicators or figuring out why a tube amp doesn't work and having to dedicate a lot of time and resources to figuring out amp circuits, it's all the same.

I still struggle with more exotic stuff like midi, that might be elementary to those that grok'd it ages ago. I also struggle with guitar parts that are less acrobatic than I'd like, only to have someone say "that thing you did there just crushed..."

It's all relative. It's what I like about all this music/electronics stuff.

 

[HamishR]

Obviously learning to read and draw schematics is a no-brainer. It's not that difficult with the level of electronics we generally deal with. Breadboarding is something I still have to get my head around. But using Vero to try out ideas is also really useful and I have learnt a huge amount by trying things, both successfully and unsuccessfully. It's fun and extremely rewarding even doing something as simple as designing a Vero layout for an overdrive with built-in boost. Getting them both to run off a single power input - sometimes they can share the VREF too, but not always.

I love the tweaking. Wanting a particular sound and working out how to get it. That is particularly satisfying. I never thought I'd be able to tailor my sound so well, and this place has helped enormously with that (Thanks @Chuck D. Bones in particular). Use what people suggest and try to understand why it works, then test that knowledge yourself.

It's like any creative pursuit. I'll never be Da Vinci or Chet Atkins but I can get good results that suit me!

 

[chris.knudson]

I love the fact that you are drawing an analogy between leveling up your playing and leveling up your pedal building. I am by no means an expert, and there are experts on this forum, so take everything I am about to say with a grain of salt.

The first (and most important thing) is having the right attitude, and clearly you do since you want want to learn as much as you can. Like playing, there are aspects of this that will get easier the more you practice -- so yeah, build lots of pedals and get good with an iron. Soldering is definitely an art form, and just like playing a guitar, the good ones make it look so easy. So practice, practice, practice.

I know this probably doesn’t help a lot but I have learned waaay more from my failures than my successes, don’t be afraid to punch above your weight class

@Paradox916 is a wise man. This is sage advice . I have learned more by screwing something up and having to troubleshoot it than by doing it right the first time. Every failure is an opportunity to learn, so don't get frustrated when something doesn't work. Take a step back and try figure out why -- and when you can't, go to the troubleshooting forum and look for people who have had a similar problem. If you're still struggling, ask for help -- there are a ton of really smart people on here and most of them want to help. It doesn't even have to be your mistakes. I watch the troubleshooting thread (mostly because I like helping people), but I learn a lot from problems that other people encounter.

• Learning to better read schematics / a better understanding of what a given component does in a particular circuit (and by extension what changing it would do)
• Becoming more familiar with common topologies and other "building blocks" that you'll frequently encounter

These go hand in hand. Read the schematics for every build you do -- don't just populate the boards. Using your analogy -- populating boards is like tablature -- reading the schematic is like music theory. It helps to understand what is what and what it is doing. Once you start understanding the schematics, you'll start understanding the building blocks that all of these pedals are made of. Six months ago, I couldn't tell you the difference between hard clipping and soft clipping. Now, I can identify a fuzz circuit just by looking at the schematic. I got there by reading and trying to understand the schematics.

Various hacks/tricks to improve overall productivity - what's something you've learned/you do that you feel sets you apart from an "average" builder?

Watch a lot of YouTube. That's actually how I got started in this -- I was laid up due to an injury, and for a couple of months, all I did was watch videos about electronics. I can't stress this enough -- there is so much good information on the internet (and yeah a lot of crap too -- but eventually you learn what's good and what's not). I learned how to solder, I learned how to troubleshoot, I learned how to program -- it's all there if you want to learn. [Sidenote: I'm a bass player, but I learned how to play guitar on the internet -- also taught myself Spanish -- but I digress]

Breadboarding

Breadboarding too -- yes, you can find circuits to build on vero and strip board, and you can solder those into handy little effects packages, but breadboarding lets you experiment without committing to a solder joint. I was breadboarding and programming Arduino projects before I ever built my first guitar pedal, So yeah, buy a breadboard, and start experimenting.

Bottom line is that you have the right attitude. There's no secret to this. Treat it the same way you treat your guitar playing. Every time you pick up that instrument (or soldering iron), challenge yourself to do something you haven't done before.

And when you screw it up, I'll try to help you figure it out.