What spare parts should I have on hand?

[Zissou]

I've only done a handful of pedals so far so apologies if this is a silly question.

Thus far I've been working from kits from a couple of different sources. I have noticed that sometimes the items received don't correlate exactly to the BoM. What components do you guys recommend that I have on hand things that are likely to be found often. Obviously I've gotten myself a kit of resistors with ten or twenty of various values.

Now I'm thinking I should have some caps lying around just in case. What values/types?

What else would be convenient to have at hand?

 

[Dan M]

I try to look ahead at the next 3-5 pedals I will build. I order all the parts at once, and add a few extra of the more common parts. (By looking at the parts lists for your next planned pedals, you’ll get a feel for parts that keep showing up repeatedly).

I think you will get a variety of responses. Some people on this forum order parts 100 units at a time.

 

[BuddytheReow]

I think Dan has a good point: think ahead. Do you have a goal in mind (i.e have a "free build" sometime down the road or be able to experiment an unleash your inner mad scientist)? The answer will depend on what and how much you should stock up. I don't know where you're located, but I would suggest pulling the trigger on a Tayda order for at least resistors and capacitors: check the "kits" out there on amazon to see what the common values are, although I would tend to avoid all the values less that 100ohms.

Opamps: 4558, tl072, tl071, lm741 to name a few

BTS: bc series, 2n34904, 2n3906, mpsa 18, 2n5088. These are the common ones.

Diodes: 5817, 4558, 1n914, maybe some schottkys

I would also stock up on various sockets, switches, and LEDs. When you get further down the rabbit hole it's good to stock up on pots.

 

[Feral Feline]

Not a silly question at all, Zissou!

There are a few "beginner's" guides on parts stocking & sourcing, such as at Beavis Audio, Aion FX and GuitarPCB — check them out.

Start familiarising yourself with DATASHEETS of what you're ordering. For example, you see a deal on some 470n caps so you buy a bunch but when they arrive they're too HUGE. Well if you'd checked the datasheets you would've seen those caps on sale were for 1,000v, and all you really needed was 50v 470n caps... you can imagine how I know this.

Just know that you WILL make a few mistakes when ordering, to begin with, but you learn from those mistakes and if you keep the "mistake" components you may eventually find a use for them, even if it's paying a freebie forward or barter exchanges for something you need etc.

Don't worry about not understanding everything on the datasheets, either, that knowledge comes with time & experience and some of the data isn't too relevant in the bigger picture of pedal building.

Parts-Kits are a good way to start, but you'll soon find they've limitations when you run out of one particular thing and find you never use another thing the parts-kit supplied. As BuddyTheReow suggested, the kits are a good idea to see what's common, yet still order items independently.

I tend to go through a lot of 1k, 10k, 100k resistors, as well as 4k7, 47k and 470k...
A100k is a common Volume pot
B100k is a common gain/tone/etc.
If you play bass, get some extra box-film 220n caps to sub out for 100n, 1uF (and 2u2 if you can find them)...

Yeah, user guides.


PT2399 delay builds, the ICs aren't that reliable, sometimes you have to swap a few in/out to find one that works well with a build, even though all the PT2399 chips you have may work, technically.

4049UBE is a pretty popular CMOS chip with a number of different OD/Dist/Fuzz circuits.

Ahhh, check out those aforementioned Docs, they mention everything I've just suggested.

Nota Bene: No matter how well-stocked your pedal-parts larder, you will always find builds where you need to order one part, and that one part will NOT be from your main parts-supplier — there is no spoon one-stop shop.

Happy parts hunting.

 

[andare]

I went through the part lists of all the PCBs I have and took it from there. The problem is I will want to build more stuff so I went ahead and basically bought every resistor value there was. Pretty much the same with capacitors of all kinds.

Try to order from one vendor if you can. Not only will you save on shipping but you'll spare yourself months of sourcing from all over the internet. I'm still searching for parts and I haven't been able to build a single pedal because there's always some part missing. Son of a bitch!