New Pedal Builder Suggestions

[eh là bas ma]

If you live in europe, musikding full kits are a cheap and simple way to start. Their kits are great quality and very neatly bagged and tagged. Every resistors have a label, etc.

Just have a look on the reviews and pick any project you like.

I'm in France and I order from Germany because they have germanium parts (forbidden in France), the largest choice of kits, thousands of them, and good prices.

Musikding Kits

Ready to solder kits for effect pedals for guitar and bass. You can find all documents linked inside the article description, in the tab Documents and schem

www.musikding.de

 

[hohumbucker]

View attachment 49690

If you live in europe, musikding full kits are a cheap and simple way to start. Their kits are great quality and very neatly bagged and tagged. Every resistors have a label, etc.

Just have a look on the reviews and pick any project you like.

I'm in France and I order from Germany because they have germanium parts (forbidden in France), the largest choice of kits, thousands of them, and good prices.

Musikding Kits

Ready to solder kits for effect pedals for guitar and bass. You can find all documents linked inside the article description, in the tab Documents and schem

www.musikding.de

I did run across Musikding, but getting their materials to the States made it lower on my priority list. I do have them bookmarked however just in case. Thanks.

 

[Audandash]

Congrats on your new addiction! I would stay away from 1590a projects at first. While the circuits are usually small and typically not to complex (exceptions to everything) it can be very tight to work with. Lots of frustration if you don’t have a system that you will develop by building over and over and over. Soldering is the skill you need to master above all other things. While it has and will always be debated start with a decent iron as well. Work smarter not harder . You can watch all you want, read all you want but it doesn’t happen unless you put in the time. Your best route is to start with a kit. Aionfx or https://shop.pedalparts.co.uk/ fuzzdog in the uk have great kits to. Not having to worry about gathering components and drilling an enclosure helps take off some of the initial sting. That being said I started out on tagboard https://tagboardeffects.blogspot.com/ doing vero boards. While there is a learning curve to the wiring, drilling the traces and adding jumpers it is an excellent way to practice your soldering skills without destroying an expensive pcb (which you will do, lol) And it helps you start figuring out how the circuits work. Another possible suggestion may be to head to guitarpcb.com and go to the clearance section. They have several pcbs for $2 or less that are older versions but would be great for getting a feel for how to solder properly. The pedalpcb boards are laid out better than the most but I find the solder pads tend to be a hair bit smaller than most other places. There is absolutely nothing wrong with that but it can be a little frustrating for a newcomer. Regardless of what you start with its all about enjoying the experience and having something to show for your efforts at the end. I tend to ramble but you get the idea. Good luck.

 

[hohumbucker]

Congrats on your new addiction! I would stay away from 1590a projects at first. While the circuits are usually small and typically not to complex (exceptions to everything) it can be very tight to work with. Lots of frustration if you don’t have a system that you will develop by building over and over and over. Soldering is the skill you need to master above all other things. While it has and will always be debated start with a decent iron as well. Work smarter not harder . You can watch all you want, read all you want but it doesn’t happen unless you put in the time. Your best route is to start with a kit. Aionfx or https://shop.pedalparts.co.uk/ fuzzdog in the uk have great kits to. Not having to worry about gathering components and drilling an enclosure helps take off some of the initial sting. That being said I started out on tagboard https://tagboardeffects.blogspot.com/ doing vero boards. While there is a learning curve to the wiring, drilling the traces and adding jumpers it is an excellent way to practice your soldering skills without destroying an expensive pcb (which you will do, lol) And it helps you start figuring out how the circuits work. Another possible suggestion may be to head to guitarpcb.com and go to the clearance section. They have several pcbs for $2 or less that are older versions but would be great for getting a feel for how to solder properly. The pedalpcb boards are laid out better than the most but I find the solder pads tend to be a hair bit smaller than most other places. There is absolutely nothing wrong with that but it can be a little frustrating for a newcomer. Regardless of what you start with its all about enjoying the experience and having something to show for your efforts at the end. I tend to ramble but you get the idea. Good luck.

Thanks for all the guidance. I have gotten distracted a bit int he past couple months, but have been doing a few things.
1) learning to solder. I made a bunch of electronics mods to one of my basses (new pickups, pots, switches, and wires). I also spent about 10 days with my brother helping set up the EE labs he teaches. He got me going pretty well on the soldering. I have a nice solder station and have been practicing.
2) I built a fun little project that I detailed here
3) I was not planning to tackle 1590A sizes right now. Figure I need to be better at the task first.
4) Bought an Aion Halo full kit. Since there are a lot of options for the Big Muff over the years, I installed sockets wherever the different variants made component changes. I am still playing around with this one, so I have not yet written up a build report. But maybe I will get a status report put together and update as I go along. Even with the stock components, that pedal sounds pretty cool on bass. But it might be more than I need at my current skill level.
5) Thanks for the guitarpcb link. They were not yet on my radar. I might spend some time going through their and seeing what might interest me
6) I am still very much a beginner on bass (although some of these might be fun with my saxophones as well) so not sure what sound I am chasing at this point.
7) Yeah, for me this is likely to be more about the journey than it will be the end product. And that is OK with me.

 

[LukeFRC]

As a fellow bass player my recommendation would be to really think about what you need in a pedal board for the sound you've got in your head, and build that.
Pedals are cool, but in my view the relationship between bass and effects and guitar and effects is very very different.... and this place and the other pedal building places are full of guitarists!

Fun thing I can recommend... for overdrive the chop shop (Fairfield barbershop) is fun (make sure you measure the J201) - it just sounds really nice on bass for a slight ampegish drive...

 

[hohumbucker]

As a fellow bass player my recommendation would be to really think about what you need in a pedal board for the sound you've got in your head, and build that.
Pedals are cool, but in my view the relationship between bass and effects and guitar and effects is very very different.... and this place and the other pedal building places are full of guitarists!

Fun thing I can recommend... for overdrive the chop shop (Fairfield barbershop) is fun (make sure you measure the J201) - it just sounds really nice on bass for a slight ampegish drive...

Thanks for that. I do not yet have a sound in my head that I am looking for since I am playing easy songs from all kinds of different genres while I am learning.
Right now, I am mostly using Peterson strobe tuner, Keely compressor, T-Rex Quint octave, and a Donner Blues Drive. I figure that as I get better and am able to get more right than just the notes and rhythm I will figure out what sounds I need, then look for ways to get there. Might take a look at the Chop Shop in the future.

 

[HamishR]

All the phasers, and all the delays. The green Russian muff is killer on bass.

I agree about the Muff being good on bass. I think it's better than a Rat, because a Rat has very little low end.

 

[Feral Feline]

Way to go @hohumbucker — good and steady.

I, too, socketed a couple Muff boards, so I could compare builds/components/variations. After going through Kit Rae's site, I found so many variations to the Muff that aside from the power supply and pots, there was so few components left that didn't need socketing that I socketed those last few as well.

You can see the crazy socketing here:

Bassifying a Muff

Edit: Take a look at post #18 for my final mods. I've got a "stock" Green Russian muffin board that I want to tune it for my bass. Don't get me wrong: it keeps some low end for, say, a downtuned guitar, but it needs more bottom end. The stock coupling capacitors that I've circled are 100nf...

forum.pedalpcb.com

I wasn't really into breadboarding at the time and planned on doing a lot of explorations into the Muff circuit.


The Rat loses too much low end, but there are some circuit variants and mods out there that address the bass-loss, such as the Idiot Box Blower Box and G Trantner mods. I've built a Rat with the latter and will build a clone of the former. I haven't messed with the Reutz mod yet.

 

[hohumbucker]

Way to go @hohumbucker — good and steady.

I, too, socketed a couple Muff boards, so I could compare builds/components/variations. After going through Kit Rae's site, I found so many variations to the Muff that aside from the power supply and pots, there was so few components left that didn't need socketing that I socketed those last few as well.

You can see the crazy socketing here:

Bassifying a Muff

Edit: Take a look at post #18 for my final mods. I've got a "stock" Green Russian muffin board that I want to tune it for my bass. Don't get me wrong: it keeps some low end for, say, a downtuned guitar, but it needs more bottom end. The stock coupling capacitors that I've circled are 100nf...

forum.pedalpcb.com

I wasn't really into breadboarding at the time and planned on doing a lot of explorations into the Muff circuit.


The Rat loses too much low end, but there are some circuit variants and mods out there that address the bass-loss, such as the Idiot Box Blower Box and G Trantner mods. I've built a Rat with the latter and will build a clone of the former. I haven't messed with the Reutz mod yet.

Yeah, I have looked through Kit Rae's site. I have to admit that and the google sheet from Aion make my head spin a bit and point out my inadequacies in knowing circuits. But it also gives me a place to start my learning process.

Below you can see where I took the Aion Halo kit and socketed all the components that have mods in the multiple sites that catalog the variants. Now I need to start going through and being methodical about swapping components, testing the signal, and finding what sound I like.

I will admit that I really like the Aion kits and how well they go together. Really well thought out IMHO. I am not sure I am a fan of the mono-chromatic resistor coloring. I can understand that from a kit perspective, but the color code is not foreign to me.

One question I have is, if I decide on a final configuration, can I solder the components into the sockets so that they stay fixed? Or is that overkill? Or do I need to de-solder the sockets and re-solder the components to the board?

 

[Nic]

One question I have is, if I decide on a final configuration, can I solder the components into the sockets so that they stay fixed? Or is that overkill? Or do I need to de-solder the sockets and re-solder the components to the board?

View attachment 59776

Single socket can be removed easy enough... triple not so easy. Can be done but frustration can make you lift a pad. I've desoldered a lot, and soldered directly in the socket a few transistors that won't stay in place. A resistor can stay unsoldered in a socket.

 

[Feral Feline]

I'm with Nic, ie only if necessary.

If I was really worried they'd come loose, I would solder one leg in the socket, just so you know it's going nowhere. Then you can re-heat it and remove the component later if you come across another variation you want to try.

Personally, I've not had any problem with components falling out of sockets yet, nor have I had intermittent problems with sockets. Mind, I'm not gigging anymore (hopefully that will soon change).

If I did get some intermittence (loose leg in socket) I'd solder in the offender, and probably both legs (all 3 if a transistor).

 

[jwin615]

I have like $700 of COVID bucks worth of transistor sockets. I've almost stopped using them, opting to sacrifice a few Dupont wires to a breadboard when needed, or just buy an extra pcb and almost populate it.
When I do use them, I just barely insert them, lightly tack them in place, do the business and chop them up and grab the desoldering iron.

Main reason is I gift out a lot of my builds. It's more about the journey than the destination. I only hold onto the things I love or that are just weird, because I love those too.
I can't give a gigging friend a pedal with sockets. I'm a Virgo.

On another note, if you haven't come across it, find Duncan's tone stack calculator. Windows app.
There also an online version here

TSC in the web

Great for toying with tone controls without having to build a full circuit emulation/model.

 

[hohumbucker]

I have like $700 of COVID bucks worth of transistor sockets. I've almost stopped using them, opting to sacrifice a few Dupont wires to a breadboard when needed, or just buy an extra pcb and almost populate it.
When I do use them, I just barely insert them, lightly tack them in place, do the business and chop them up and grab the desoldering iron.

Main reason is I gift out a lot of my builds. It's more about the journey than the destination. I only hold onto the things I love or that are just weird, because I love those too.
I can't give a gigging friend a pedal with sockets. I'm a Virgo.

On another note, if you haven't come across it, find Duncan's tone stack calculator. Windows app.
There also an online version here

TSC in the web

Great for toying with tone controls without having to build a full circuit emulation/model.

Thanks for the TSC link. I had not seen that before. That visualization really helps (I think) me see what changes the circuit is making. I am much more visual so this could be a useful tool. I have a gig playing pit woodwinds for 'Frozen' in the next month so not much time to play with my bass stuff. Maybe I will get back to this fun before the holidays. Thanks for the help everyone.