Where to go next? Wanting to expand my knowledge

I

Itsmedant

Member
I've been slowly learning how to build pedals by doing the clones here from PedalPCB, reading though a bunch of threads and trying to get my soldering and wiring skills down as good as possible. I've gotten 5 builds done and they've all worked perfectly right away, except one which I quickly realized I put a transistor in backwards!

I've been slowly teaching myself about each of the components and what they actually "do" to the sound/circuit but want to go deeper to fully understand pedals and gear like this. I probably would be totally lost in troubleshooting and tracking down issues on my own so I know I need to learn that skill alot more.

My question is: Where do I go from here? What resources should I start looking into? How do I push myself to get more efficient and learn more about pedal building?
My end goal: Design my own pedal circuits eventually.


Here are a few gut shots of the last 3 pedals I finished:
Almost finished Echovibe
IMG_4856.jpg
Bellum Fuzz
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Muroidea Distortion
IMG_4854.jpg
 
DOWNLOAD LTSPICE

LTSPICE allows modelling of circuits and IMO is a great way to follow what ifs and have fun "playing" with electronics

Some Books and Websites

Small Signal Audio Design by Douglas Self is a great resource for familiarizing oneself with circuits.

If you like tedium, Art of Electronics is VERY informative.

https://www.electronics-tutorials.ws/ Everything here is useful for designing circuits.

https://www.allaboutcircuits.com/video-tutorials/ Another website

Khan Academy LOL.....

https://sound-au.com/articles/index.htm My personal favorite

Electrosmash website

GEO FX website


Study the schematics on here.


In terms of curriculum, there's obviously more to bite off than can be chewed at one time. Pace yourself.


I would reccommend learning topologies first such as

Buffer opamps
Non inverting opamp (think tubescreamers and Rats)
Inverting opamp (think summers and MFB filters)
common emitter amplifier (BJT, big muffs)
Common source amplifier (FET, every AIB on pedalpcb LOL)
Source follower (FET, buffer)
Emitter follower (BJT, buffer)

For filters:
Baxandalls and James
Fender style passive stacks
Bridged T and Twin T notches
Gyrator EQs GYRATORS are VERY USEFUL
Big muff stacks

Musical Clipping can be done many ways but most commonly:
Shunt diodes to "gnd"
Diodes in feedback loop of opamp (big difference depending on non inverting or inverting opamp)
JFET stages
Vacuum tube stages
Opamp clipping (🤮)
MOSFETs (diode connected mosfets too, think zen drive)
OTAs
 
Thanks for the advice!! I think I'll start going through the topologies and breadboard them all out one by one to see what they are doing on there.

I'm going to get LTSPICE too and start learning that.

You've added alot to my reading list!
 
The JHS youtube channel has a series called Short Circuit where they explain and breadboard a few of the classic basic circuits. He goes thru it slowly and in detail and it's easy to follow. He explains what different parts do and how they change the signal. I'd watch a few of those and get a breadboard for yourself so you can follow along.
 
Oh dang I never saw that playlist before! This will be fun!

I have the BB1 from Wampler so it’s quick and easy to plug into a breadboard now
 
Some useful back pocket theory/equations

Ohms law
Kirchoffs voltage and current laws
F_-3db = 1/(2*pi*r*c)

Impedance of capacitor goes to infinity as frequency decreases, goes to 0 as frequency increases

Inductor impedance is opposite of capacitor
 
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