Taking a break...Anybody else feel like this?

music6000 said:
WARNING : Graphic Pictures

This was my brothers fretting arm back in 2016 halfway between his wrist & elbow after his shirt sleeve got grabbed by the Sliding docking saw while checking for Nails in a piece of 4'' x 2'' cutting timber for my Uncle for firewood!
8 hrs of surgery to join one of the bones he cut clean through & joining all the tendons back up!
I had to play Guitar for around a dozen booked Gigs as he is a Solo performer with professional backing tracks for 25 years & in a band with me & others for 20 years before that.
He was back to Playing on his own again after around 4 months.
His arm still gives him some nerve pain but he has full use of it.
Miracles can happen so Time can heal most wounds!









View attachment 70463 View attachment 70469
Click to expand...
Please put that behind a spoiler warning so it's not visible
 
I'm not sure that I actually enjoy building pedals - it front-loads the suffering. Populating a board is kind of tedious. All I can think about when I'm soldering, even with a fume extractor, is lead exposure. Troubleshooting makes me want to throw things in frustration. Drilling kind of sucks but I'm too cheap to get Tayda to do it for me. I think I'm into this hobby because getting a working pedal is satisfying and putting something together yourself is immensely gratifying. Multiply that feeling by a order of magnitude when the pedal sounds really good or was $300+ cheaper than buying the thing new. I also feel best when a build comes together in as little time as possible, which is a stark contrast to my other interests where I want to stretch out doing them as long as possible.

My building is always in service to playing music which periodically takes a backseat to other interests. I think the ebb and flow of interest is healthy. I've never been able to force myself to have a good time.
 
joeyd said:
I'm not sure that I actually enjoy building pedals - it front-loads the suffering. Populating a board is kind of tedious. All I can think about when I'm soldering, even with a fume extractor, is lead exposure. Troubleshooting makes me want to throw things in frustration. Drilling kind of sucks but I'm too cheap to get Tayda to do it for me. I think I'm into this hobby because getting a working pedal is satisfying and putting something together yourself is immensely gratifying. Multiply that feeling by a order of magnitude when the pedal sounds really good or was $300+ cheaper than buying the thing new. I also feel best when a build comes together in as little time as possible, which is a stark contrast to my other interests where I want to stretch out doing them as long as possible.

My building is always in service to playing music which periodically takes a backseat to other interests. I think the ebb and flow of interest is healthy. I've never been able to force myself to have a good time.
Click to expand...
In terms of lead exposure, the fumes from solder are the flux—which is not good for you! But, it’s not lead. The main issue with lead and soldering is skin contact, and potential touching food, mouth, etc. with lead on your fingers, so washing one’s hands when done is the recommendation. Just looked it up— lead doesn’t vaporize until 900 F.

I can’t agree more with the gratification factor in building things—pretty much anything. I’m at the other end of the spectrum though —stuffing boards might be my favorite part of the build process; that or the graphic design.
 
Alan W said:
In terms of lead exposure, the fumes from solder are the flux—which is not good for you! But, it’s not lead. The main issue with lead and soldering is skin contact, and potential touching food, mouth, etc. with lead on your fingers, so washing one’s hands when done is the recommendation. Just looked it up— lead doesn’t vaporize until 900 F.

I can’t agree more with the gratification factor in building things—pretty much anything. I’m at the other end of the spectrum though —stuffing boards might be my favorite part of the build process; that or the graphic design.
Click to expand...
I agree on the lead. And as long as you wash your hands after working with it, your exposure is next to nothing- it’s hard for it to break the skin barrier. That said, I still wear gloves when working with the paste solder but I don’t worry about wire solder.
I think a lot of fear about lead exposure is based on misinterpretation of RoHS- it was never meant to protect workers and consumers from lead in products… rather it was an admission that we are a throwaway society and they wanted to keep lead from ending up in landfills.
 
Sucks to hear about your fingertips. That's rough. I am on a break from building because I made everything I wanted, basically! I have some ideas for future projects, a couple unused boards, and a couple builds to troubleshoot, but nothing urgent. I've also spent more time playing, since the building was getting in the way of daily practice.
 
1710199571902.gif
It’s the law of diminishing returns at work. Once the serotonin levels plateau and that next build or sound just feels like going through the motions then it’s time to break away. I have so many pedals that I built, plugged in, played for 5 testing minutes, thought “damn that sounds good”, and then haven’t touched since it’s a little disturbing. Time for spring and getting outside instead of huffing solder fumes. Maybe, just maybe after I have taken each of my builds through legitimate play time and a project I have waited for comes along, then maybe I’ll pick it up again. That said, I hope your fingers heal up quickly and you can get some piece of mind in the mean time.
 
Yep. Take a break. Come back. I've returned to this hobby 3 times. There will be new, exciting projects when you return.

A mandoline once sent me to the emergency room. It still gives me trembling flashbacks—including just now reading your OP. That one'll stick with you for a while. Hope you feel better soon!
 
Pauleo1214 said:
This place is a super cool community to be part of. Honestly, there are a few things frustrating me;

1. It will be two months until I regain the use of my fingertips after slicing them off with a mandolin.
2. I haven't felt any burning ideas come into my head to push the envelope with builds.
3. A number of my FV-1 builds have decided to crap out for no good reason.. Even my crown jewel Oroboros Looper stopped taking power (don't ask me how) and I feel like throwing it away would be more cathartic than finding out what's wrong or breaking it down for parts.

All this is telling me I'm burnt out on pedal building (and other things too). Has anybody ever come across frustration that is similar? If so, feel free to share your experience.

Be well everyone!
Click to expand...
I'm at a point where pedal building is taking too much of my time and $, where I'd like to shift it into something else. There are a few projects I want to finish up, some pedals, an amp. It's gotten to the point it feels more like work than a fun hobby for me.

I made a spreadsheet of projects with interest in the finished product, time, cost, etc. It's helped me figure out what to finish and what to let go of.

I still get excited every time a box of parts arrives but sitting in front of the bench is feeling like a drag. I don't think I'll ever give up tinkering with electronics just slow down.

Good vibes to your fingers healing.
 
Diynot said:
View attachment 70511
It’s the law of diminishing returns at work. Once the serotonin levels plateau and that next build or sound just feels like going through the motions then it’s time to break away. I have so many pedals that I built, plugged in, played for 5 testing minutes, thought “damn that sounds good”, and then haven’t touched since it’s a little disturbing. Time for spring and getting outside instead of huffing solder fumes. Maybe, just maybe after I have taken each of my builds through legitimate play time and a project I have waited for comes along, then maybe I’ll pick it up again. That said, I hope your fingers heal up quickly and you can get some piece of mind in the mean time.
Click to expand...
You mean we aren’t supposed to throw them in the pile and build another? I may have a problem then. 🤣
 
Just before the end of the year I had a truth bomb land on me (which was a good thing, and I asked for it) which made me stop and ask why I'm doing this (and for whom). I answered that one just in time for another bomb to drop…without an invitation this time. While my current ailment isn't much of an excuse on its surface, 2024 has just been this irritating phantom, poking and slashing with the tiniest blade.

I know why I'm keeping at it, and I'm not giving up, but I'm definitely having to slow down and be tactical—out of character for me, but perhaps that's a good thing.

Be well and be kind to yourselves.
 
jimilee said:
You mean we aren’t supposed to throw them in the pile and build another? I may have a problem then. 🤣
Click to expand...
This is very much my problem. I'm not actually a talented guitar player (#Madisonsquarebedroom). A few days before this thread I completed a Deflector Reverb only to say, "cool", and chuck it into a pile.

One of the other contributing factors are when some of my builds crap out after working fine for years. One of them was my four arachnid dual looper.


It stopped taking power the other day. The power wire has continuity throughout so I can only deduce the loopers died but it doesn't comport with the preceding event which was changing a single EEPROM. Now I'm on the verge of throwing it away.
 
Pauleo1214 said:
This is very much my problem. I'm not actually a talented guitar player (#Madisonsquarebedroom). A few days before this thread I completed a Deflector Reverb only to say, "cool", and chuck it into a pile.

One of the other contributing factors are when some of my builds crap out after working fine for years. One of them was my four arachnid dual looper.


It stopped taking power the other day. The power wire has continuity throughout so I can only deduce the loopers died but it doesn't comport with the preceding event which was changing a single EEPROM. Now I'm on the verge of throwing it away.
Click to expand...
Nooo, not the quadrachnid!
 
giovanni said:
I was in college in the early 2000s, studying electrical engineering. At the same time I was studying classical guitar with a private teacher (who wasn’t very good). My parents never really supported my interest for music, but my dad had this idea that you could go to college and also get a music degree at the same time because he often talked about a friend of his who did that back in the 70s. Somehow I internalized that idea and was basically trying to do that. I think subconsciously I had this belief that if I got a conservatory degree my parents would suddenly become supportive of me playing music and maybe even accept the fact that I wanted it to be my career.

After a few years of this routine, I was ready to finish my undergraduate degree which culminated in an internship (around 2004 I think). For three months I would go to the internship every day, work there all day, then get back on the bus for over one hour, eat dinner at home and get into a 1-2 hour classical guitar practice. I was learning “Recuerdos de la Alhambra” at the time. Needless to say, that was a recipe for burn out. One day I started having sharp pain in my right wrist which turned into tennis elbow. I had to stop playing guitar for a while and the tennis elbow stuck with me for over two years (it is painful!). But that wasn’t the end nor the worst of it.

I noticed pretty early on that something had changed in my right hand. Even after the tennis elbow was cured, I was making lots of small mistakes and my timing was off. And it kept getting worse, no matter what I did. At some point I stopped playing guitar altogether. Took me a few more years to get diagnosed with focal dystonia in my right hand (around 2013). By then, I had symptoms all the time, not just when playing guitar. For example, I couldn’t touch type on a keyboard anymore with my right hand and had to come up with all sorts of sensory tricks to help.

Ten more years have gone by. I no longer finger pick, but I kept my flat picking technique up and have learned a lot of jazz. My dystonia is still there and I doubt it will ever go away (I hold a pencil in my right hand while typing on the keyboard these days), but I try not to let it rule my life anymore (it’s hard).

Anyways, injuries sometimes make us reevaluate what we are doing with our lives. Silver lining I guess, but good luck with the injury and I hope you find pleasure in your hobbies again, or new hobbies to bring new pleasure!
Click to expand...
Sorry to hear that. I imagine you've tried gloves for your focal dystonia, like Scott Devine.
 
Why bother painting?
Why bother mountain-climbing?
Why bother building pedals?

Why do some of us build at all?

Like Paul, I have ideas, though he's a lot better at making and taking his ideas to fruition.

Thing is, if you don't excise the demons, they'll poison you.
So better to build something and chuck it on a pile than to have...
...the IDEA festering within your mind, screaming LET ME OUT!





THE POWER OF IDEA-GRIST COMPELS YOU!
THE POWER OF IDEA-GRIST COMPELS YOU!
THE POWER OF IDEA-GRIST COMPELS YOU!
THE POWER OF IDEA-GRIST COMPELS YOU!
THE POWER OF IDEA-GRIST COMPELS YOU!
THE POWER OF IDEA-GRIST COMPELS YOU!

maxresdefault.jpg

























Ideas knockin' around in the noggin, tryin' to get out...


dbfc3729903020210293ea6c785e3c10.jpg
 
Wanting to quit is normal, so don't fight it. If it's meant to be you'll come back with a vengeance. I've probably shut down a handful of times. Anywhere from a month to a year. Sometimes life gets in the way. Sometimes you just lose it thru boredom or frustration. It's all the same. If you have to force it, it's not a hobby.
 
Pauleo1214 said:
This is very much my problem. I'm not actually a talented guitar player (#Madisonsquarebedroom). A few days before this thread I completed a Deflector Reverb only to say, "cool", and chuck it into a pile.

One of the other contributing factors are when some of my builds crap out after working fine for years. One of them was my four arachnid dual looper.


It stopped taking power the other day. The power wire has continuity throughout so I can only deduce the loopers died but it doesn't comport with the preceding event which was changing a single EEPROM. Now I'm on the verge of throwing it away.
Click to expand...
Check any component that has been socketed!
If cheap Electrolytics were used, it maybe the culprit???
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top