Do you ever get tired/burnt out building?

[Freppo]

I build alot this month.. maybe too much!
I built and boxed 12 pedals during the last 4 weeks.

It's not even fun anymore. It's feels more like a chore now lol..
Maybe I need to take a break for a while, play some videogames?

How do you guys manage to keep it fun and exciting?

Been thinking I need to sell some of the ones I never gonna use..
Clear the space alittle, and keep the gems.

/ Fredrik

[johnk]

that's quite a few pedals to build in 4 weeks. I've built 235 of them in the last year (so i'm averaging about 4 a week) but for some crazy reason I haven't gotten tired of building them yet.

[bart]

It's a really interesting thread you just started. I'm not really fed up with building (I don't build as many as you guys do) but what I noticed about myself  is that I play the guitar a lot less cuz most of my (limited) free time goes into either building or looking for good deals on components online

So I got a nice collection of distortions and overdrives now and ...... they're there lying around as I'm planning on buiding someting new.

Promised myself that I'm going to grab the guitar a lot more often ..... riffs won't come knocking at my doors, they've got to be come up with

[JaviCAP]

I just get tired of building when the pedals are for sale. It gets  like a job instead of a fun time. By the way, it depends on the new layouts you find and if they look exciting.

Last weel I've built the Big Cheese, the Plexi Drive with trimmers, the Purple Pink fuzz and the Woolly Mammoth for me, and two Big Muffs and a Triple Wreck for sale, that's about a pedal / day.... so I 'm sure that I'm not tired f building :P

BR

PS  I strongly HATE building Triple Wrecks, extremely time consuming build :(

[johnk]

yeah, I've built three triple wrecks (to of them were sold) and I don't intend on building any more. i'm keeping one for myself and that's it.

there are a few others that I will never build again too, like the Dr. Boogie, the Pigtronix Philosopher's Twin germanium, the Tronographic RustyBox, the Fetto, and the ToneCzar Openhaus.

[agoldoor]

Huh, that is so interesting that you posted this.

I definitely have had the same thoughts before.

Sometimes I get tired of building altogether, and sometimes just specific parts of building (such as wiring or drilling/boxing.) And when that happens, I'll just do the other parts of building...

And then other times, I just take time off between builds. I've built somewhere between 130-150 builds since I started out a couple years ago, most of which I kept for myself.

But I also agree, it has to do with new and interesting circuits striking my fancy. Like I couldn't build the PLL fast enough when that got traced.

My suggestion is to either look for other stuff to build, or take a break from building and play guitar for a while.

[Vince]

EXACTLY what Javi said. As soon as I feel that I 'have' to build it as someone is paying then my enthusiasm dies. It feels just like a job. That's why I prefer building what I want then listing them on eBay. A while ago I had a run of failures and that pissed me off enough to stop for a breather for a while.

[alltrax74]

So far I built something like 60-70 pedals, and I'm starting to sell now (I sold 4 this month).
The only part I really dislike is drilling, no fun there.
But I enjoy all the other steps, from soldering components to wiring and finishing the enclosure.
I improve and get faster every day, so I'm still really enjoying it, but I still do this as a hobby and no way I will be boxing 12 pedals in 4 weeks, I just don't have the time for this, as I also build guitars as luthier amateur (I built the ES335 of my avatar)

[GoranP]

I've been going through a slump myself lately. I've only built like one or two pedals last month and I blame the summer season and all the nice weather. Once I'm stuck inside I'm sure my building will pick up again. I don't sell, just build for friends and friends of friends so no pressure there to burn me out. I don't think I'll ever sell.

Having said that, I have a few pcbs obtained from group buys on madbean and diysb that need my attention and I've also started to dabble in Eagle again with the idea of mixing things up a bit and having a few boards fabbed. And just to make things more interesting for myself, I've decided to go full-out SMD. I know this isn't the place to talk about non-vero stuff but I'm gonna try to do a sweet honey od and a deep blue delay and perhaps a few others in smd and see how that works out.

Some playing would be nice, too... I just don't have enough hours in a day.

[Kost1978]

Really nice thread here...

I must say I'm still a newby at this hobby, only 10 pedals built since last january (actually 12, one never worked, one is going through the troubleshooting steps right now - see my Klon thread if you wish) and basically I didn't build anything from june to second week of september because I'm lucky enough to play a lot during the summer season (something like 3/4 gigs per week, seems like a job sometimes, but I will never complain !!).

But it's true what some other already said: my (few) spare hours are going more and more into pedals than in guitar playing lately and god knows how much I need to improve my playing!

This hobby is addicting: now I have 2 pedal board that I use for different live situations (unbeliveable...) and a couple of pedals I probably won't use cause I don't "need" them and a list of future building quite long and growing everyday...
Yes, probably it's still too early for me to get tired of building!

[Freppo]

Great responses everyone. Feels good to know people feels the same way sometimes :)

Since I started building pedals my band has been really inactive, so I have not been able to test/use my creations at rehearsals/liveshows, and that has made the building feel a bit unmotivated sometimes. It's a bit depressing actually. Luckely I play drums in another active band so I still get to play. I'm always giving our guitarplayer different effects to try out lol...

I think a good way to make more fun of your building is coming up with 2in1, modding stuff more to your liking or even creating your own circuits. Drawing your own layouts is great fun too! A great way to have some fun is breadboarding circuits and start experimenting.

The spring reverb I built in a stomp box was a great example of a really fun build - something different that made me figure out stuff/solve problems and come up with my own ideas.

Anyway, I built a Big Muff (russian version) today and it sounded awesome! Made me feel some love for the hobby again. :) Oh, and I just realized i'm almost out of enclosures.. so now I can naturally take a much needed break until my next order arrives. Maybe even have some time over for GTA 5...

[Geiri]

I'm up to pedal #323 from November 2012 (since I moved back to Iceland from London) and I still enjoy every single build!

[Freppo]

Wow!! That a very impressive number!
Glad to hear you still enjoy every build.

[Dave]

I always hate offboard wiring whether its a build for myself or for someone else, its always such a pain in the arse. The thing that makes it worth it is when you learn how a part of a circuit works and then you start to successfully integrate it into your own designs and mod other pedals, thats the part I really enjoy.
Thanks
Dave

[adstrum]

Off-board is the bit that I'm not fond too. Using 3PDT PCBs has made that a lot easier.

[Surgeon]

I got through one of those lately. I built a bunch of pedals but realized that I got bored of always building the same "types of pedals"... ODs, although available in a zillion flavors always pretty much sound alike, except for some slight nuances, which usually disappear as soon as you're playing with somebody else (as opposed to being alone with your guitar and amp). Distortions are a bit more varied but again, they can get repetitive.

I have built a few very interesting fuzzes lately and that brought the fun back in it though. The Toecutter (project from a mod on FSB) is really cool and the Megalith just blew my mind as well.

My first delay and trem were fun too.

Challenge in a circuit is also critical. Some more complex pedals I've built only to challenge myself. I'm in this to learn, not for profit and I barely ever use pedals live anyways so for me it was about learning a new skill and understanding what was going on in those boxes that most folks spend a fortune on, only to rave about how cool they sound on the internet, sell them a week later and buy the newest flavor of the week.

It comes and goes really but for me it's a matter of finding new interesting sounding projects, not just going for the "oh wow, Mark came up with a vero for  *insert-name of cool but most likely overhyped boutique OD*, I've got to build it..."

I'm really grateful for all the work put into those vero-layouts but you can't build 20 ODs and think they all are VERY different and all worth having... at least I can't and that takes a bit of the fun out of it.

[alltrax74]

Geiri, that's about 1 pedal/day week-end and holidays included, is this your main income source ?

[piltdownman]

I am in an unintended hold for a while based solely on time constraints.  I have built 45 or so but with work, school, building sets and props for a couple theaters, I am too tired to do anything but watch the odd episode of Breaking Bad and go to sleep.  The nice thing is that I don't get a chance to get burned out since there will always be a hiatus around this time.  Of course my notebook of printed out layouts gets thicker every week.

I agree with the folks not liking the off board wiring.  If it has 4 pots, I have to really want it, to make the attempt.  A lot of times, I just recycle projects, so the switch, jacks and power are already there.

[Vince]

About the off board wiring. I have an old 1590bb enclosure that I messed up so I drilled it full of holes to fit pots. Fitted a switch, dc and a couple of jacks and use it as a tester box. Wire the circuit into the test box then you can just pull it out and drop into the enclosure you plan to use.  

[JaviCAP]

Yeah! I have to be really interested in an effect to wire 4 pots or more (even 8 as in the Magnus Modulus)

That's why I said that will never build another Magnus Modulus and gets hard to build a Meatball, Triple Wreck, Okko Diablo, Musket or anythin with 4-5-6 pots, several switches and so on.

After built, I use to love these effets, as use to be really tweakable and get many options to modify the tone, but.... it gets hard to build a really difficult board like the Meatball one, and after this... wire 6  pots, 4 rotaries and 6 jacks plus 2 leds

BR