First pedal build

[Heath]

Just came across a some pictures and stuff I took while building my first pedal.  It was around July 2012 if I recall (could have been as much as 6 months earlier than that, the drugs have been unkind to me).  I had been building/rewiring/upgrading, modding guitars for a few years prior to that, but they take up a lot of space and I was getting close to having to sleep on them:


(and that's just downstairs...)

So.. owning exactly 2 pedal (a mostly working BOSS OC-2 and a BOSS DS-1 that I never quite got along with) I was thinking "it can't be THAT damn hard to build a guitar pedal."  I mean, I could solder (or I thought I could) and I'd used pots, capacitors, and the occasional resistor in wiring guitars (tone caps and treble bleeds), though looking back I was laughably ignorant (now I'm just kinda stupid :p )

Note that this was before I discovered this site (wasn't it called tagboard effects or some such back then?).  The first place I found where it seemed easy enough for a dufus like me to follow along was Joe Gore's Tonefiend projects (which I still highly recommend, especially for beginners.. lots of gently served info on going from schematic to perfboard).

Here goes...  The Bad-Ass Distortion Pedal:

I ordered a "kit" from Mammoth Electronics... not exactly a kit by today's standards, though... and I paid what I now know to be a RIDICULOUS amount for it.  

Kit part 1 - 6 pots, 1 toggle switch, 1 trimmer, some components (caps, resistors,  diodes, and a couple of common transistors - about $1.50 worth and that's being generous), all for $16.87

Now admittedly this was for three projects.. but those projects are a simple distortion, a simple fuzz, and a buffer/booster.  Very low parts counts.

Kit part 2 - The 1590b enclosure (bare and undrilled, which for a first time pedal builder is not going to work.. I had no effin clue how to properly drill an enclosure, not had I ever drilled into aluminum, I just had no reference, but for an extra $4.55 they would drill for two knobs, led, badly placed DC, footswitch, and side jacks + powder coat in basic red... that up-charge I can somewhat agree with, though I still think it's a bit much when it's a company focused on hobby pedal builders and they powder coat in batches and not to order, still, I've seen worse), small piece of perfboard, footswitch, led, led bezel, dc jack, ONE knob, a 9v battery jack, and 2 serviceable, but cheapo1/4" jacks (again, not meaning to bash them here, I regularly use these, they get the job done and I haven't had one come even close to failing on me, but I didn't want you to get the idea they were $2.00 Switchcraft jacks).  $24.55

Kit part 3 - Small but nice little breadboard (had never even sen one before, so it was nice that Joe made getting one an integral part of building a pedal), jumper wires, a 9v battery jack, 2 more cheapo 1/4" jacks, some wire, and some pin headers for the transistors (not sure why that did not come in the components pack),  $21.43

So, yeah, building my first pedal, a very basic modified Electra (but DAMN did Joe modify it good) cost me $62.85.  Oh, I've DEFINITELY seen worse, but damn, with what I know now, that would cost me... right about $16.00 and that's including it totally drilled and boxed AND I'm accounting for the breadboard, etc.  You live, you learn. Still, it was worth it to get introduced to such a great hobby (and business for some.. hell, I remember Gieri asking some very basic questions back then and now he's making some pro-quality stuff and some of the nicest PCBs I've ever seen)

(FYI, Joe had nothing to do with the pricing on any of this, he just listed the parts needed on his page and someone submitted them to Mammoth so they offer "kits" for his projects.)

Here's the stuff:

The test guitar, a baddass highly modified and highly gigged Fernandez Vertigo, AKA "The Flying Porkchop (and it's sidekick, Stupid Cat):"



Getting ready to breadboard it:



Not totally sure what I am doing (note the piece of blue painters tape on one resistor as I had trouble telling them apart back then):



Quick testing from the breadboard (it was about 3am, wires everywhere, don't judge me :p ):



Transferred to perf, wiring the enclosure up, and boxing it, all for the first time.  Look at that MESS of wires, cockeyed foot switch (jacks were in the way), Mammoth shorting me a knob, and the marvelous labeling job:





This was all shortly followed by my first mod (toggle switch and 2 different caps) aaand still missing that knob!



Anyway, just having a boring day at work and came across these pics and thought I'd share. I'd love to hear any of your first pedal stories.  Savvas had a great one (well, not sure that was his first, but it was hilarious!)

[rocket88]

bro, sorry to hear that the drugs haven't been working well, i thought things were getting better. in any event happy to see you're back. also, love all the pics, it's great  show of the method to the madness that is pedal building. and savva's had the huge mess of orange wire, which we all know is the secret sauce to amazing tone.

[IvIark]

I enjoyed reading that mate, thanks for sharing.

Heath wrote

Note that this was before I discovered this site (wasn't it called tagboard effects or some such back then?).

It was.  It wasn't actually named that with any intention of being what the site was called, I really didn't intend it to be a site at all.  I just wanted somewhere remote from my home that I could store my layouts in case my house burnt down  and so tagboard effects was literally just the name of what I intended storing here.

Just think, if I'd put them on Facebook instead the site may never have become what it is now

[Adam_MD]

Awesome read I really enjoyed that. I built my first pedal about 3 months ago using a Son of Clay Jones layout and a Bitsbox kit. Really enjoyed it but man it was pretty stressful. Like the OP I had rewired guitars and had some soldering skills but this was very different from wiring up a pot in a les Paul, add to that I was also convinced it wasn't going to work. Finished at 11pm on a Friday night while Mrs_MD was working through a Firefly marathon. I don't have any gutshots unfortunately but I did shoot a video to send to one of my mates to prove I got it working. I was so excited to get it up and running I hadn't even cut the LEDs down to size :-). http://youtu.be/lVdsoxGtVuw Here's the finished article. I've been meaning to write on it with a sharpie or something but just haven't gotten round to it instead I just keep looking to see what I'm going to build next. Finished the board for my 10th pedal tonight a crunch box and it sounds fookin awesome. I've only been here for a few months but man I love this site :-)

[tabbycat]

neat post, heath. it's like an initiation into a bizarre cult, everyone has a story and everyone has a reason. always interesting to hear how another builder got from a to b. joe gore's tonefiend is a pretty good site. when i was having an octave fuzz clone phase i must have watched his top octave fuzz clone rundown a dozen times. i think it's the best one out there and definitely helped me compile a shortlist.

re the money you spent, you didn't only get a cheap pedal out of it though, ultimately you were investing in your education as a builder (even if at the time you thought of it as only building to get a cheap pedal). and as a consequence of your experiences you are now able to build every other pedal you want for $20. so considering it from an educational (not consumerist) perspective, that was quite an empowering investment in your potential, not to mention your pedal board. $60 cheap.

definitely interested in your guitar collection. some classy leftfield kit on display. is that a pair of teisco samurais? you will have to give us a guided tour one day. am thinking a post modestly entitled ‘heath gets his wood out for the boys’.

[Heath]

Figured I'd get back to this post :p

rocket88 wrote

bro, sorry to hear that the drugs haven't been working well, i thought things were getting better. in any event happy to see you're back.

Naw, I'm actually MUCH better, to the point that I'm kind of overwhelmed with things I need to get done at this point, hence my continued semi-absence from my favorite virtual haunt :)  

I'll get this little bit of "woe is me" out of my system, because, frankly, I'm tired of being sick or even thinking about being sick, but get this...

...at the end of September I got a violent case of food poisoning from some breakfast tacos I was too busy to eat, that got left sitting on my desk for about 6 hours.  I missed a day of work when I called in the next morning sick.  I went to work the next day (Friday), because I am an idiot, but made an appointment with my doctor for the end of the day.  I figured I could power through the day and spend the weekend vomiting my guts out and getting better.

Around the middle of that day I got called into the Support director's office (the supervisor of my supervisor) and officially reprimanded for an "unexcused" absence from work.  See, we have this great policy that if you miss work for any reason without at least a day's prior notice, you get dinged.  This is missing ANY work.  15 minutes late, same as missing the day.  If you get 3 of those, you get a warning, 1 more, you get a written warning, 1 more and you get fired.  Turns out, unbeknownst to me, I had been secretly ding 3 times already without knowing, so this one resulted in my first official warning.  After spending 8 years at this place and then being told I was two steps from termination kind of freaked me out a little bit, so I cancelled the Dr. appointment for later that day as it would have put me 1 step from firing.

So I spent that weekend in one of the sickest conditions I can recall.  It wasn't vomiting so much as it was my stomach desperately trying to ram it was out of my mouth.  After initially trying to eat or drink something I gave up, but continued to heave violently at least every 15 minutes for the entire weekend.  I'm diabetic and the extremely low blood sugar from not eating also makes me incredibly nauseated, so that wasn't helping either (aside from the more serious issues related to diabetes and not eating).

Monday, having still not eaten, incredibly sick, and experiencing vertigo, I drove to work and tried sitting at my desk for about 30 minutes before I decided I might actually be dying.  I made it about halfway through the building when I collapsed into some nearby cubicles.  A couple of people from work came over to see what was wrong.  I only recall being severely pissed off because I should not have been there in the first place and I couldn't get to my feet.  An ambulance was called (which they are still expecting me to pay $1200 for) and took me to the hospital.  

I had a nasty worse-than-usual case of food poisoning and severe dehydration, like to the point where my kidneys were struggling (which, again diabetes plays hell with, so things are doubling up nicely).  They give me Promethazine and Meclazine plus IV fluids and then send me home.

I'm subsisting on saltine cracker and water, when I can hold it down.  Then I start to have the worst thoughts.  I wasn't honestly on the verge of suicide, but the thoughts were leading there.  I was wrapped up on how worthless I was, how my family would have been better off if I'd died at birth, how no one liked me, what a screw up I was, how messy my apartment was (yeah, I know, seems pretty minor, but it didn't feel that way at the time), what a lousy pet-owner I was, blah blah blah... and then I tried calling someone because I was literally crying out loud, sobbing.  I couldn't get anyone which just made me feel twice as dejected.

If you are thinking "what the fuck, dude?" at this point, then you are right on track.  The thing is, you do NOT take Promethazine and Meclazine at the same time.  You will hurt yourself or someone else.  It makes you think and feel the darkest shit ever.  

So I watched Trailer Park Boys until the sun came up and then called my regular doctor and told the receptionist what was going on and they told me to come in as soon as I could.  My Dr. told me straight up about drug interaction and gave me a new anti-nausea called... shit, I think the generic name is Ondansetron, but it's what people undergoing chemotherapy are usually prescribed, so it's serious shit with a pleasantly minty taste.  In addition he got me on some other meds to help me get though the puking, shitting, falling-down horrow show and a very careful diet to where I could get some food down without irritating my recovering digestive tract.  It sucked, but it was food :/

So about 2 weeks from that Friday, I got an all clear to head back to work.  That very night before heading back, BOOM kidney stone.  It's not really surprising, considering the dehydration and all the minerals in the re-hydration fluids, but damn, did it suck.

So back to the hospital where they did their cat scans, etc.  10x8mm stone, no way that's coming out of me naturally.  So, they want to so in through my urethra, into my bladder, up the ureter, into the kidney, with a scope thing equipped with a laser and claw, saw the stone up and drag it out piece by piece.  Doing this so irritates the ureters that they then have to put a non-collapsible stint from kidney to bladder that you wear while it's healing.  BTW, if it sounds like I know all about this,it's because I've had it done before.  It was brutal, painful, humiliating, debilitating, and just a nightmare all around.  they refused to even consider the ultrasonic method.

I told them "Hell no."  They kept me there for 9 hours and even had me see the resident psychiatrist (who was actually the most understanding and told the rest of them to quit trying to scare me into a procedure, that I was obviously traumatized by last one).  Finally, I was released and I went home.  I talked to my Dr. and he recommended a urology specialist.

After going to see the urologist, I got set up to go to the hospital for the ultrasonic procedure.  All seemed to go well and later that day, sore, but blissfully unaware of anything that happened, I called a cab and went home.

Since these sorts of procedures can cause blood clots, hemorrhaging, etc. I was out of work for an additional 2 weeks recovering.  

The next day after the procedure, I woke up in intense pain from head to toe, but only when I moved.  I had been sore before then, which was expected after being blasted with ultrasonic waves string enough to crush rock, but this sucked really bad.  I could either lay down or sit in a chair, very still.  Everything else hurt terribly.  Coughing was agony.  Rushing to the bathroom because the procedure temporarily made my ability to hold any mount of urine very sketchy was an ungodly painful thing to have to do.  Pissing in a filter/funnel (to catch the pieces of stone so they could be analyzed) without backsplashing piss in my face (that is no joke) because I could barely hold onto it without falling over.

Add to this a bevy of new drugs.  Antibiotics, painkillers, some stuff to increase urine flow, yahooo!

I went back to the urologist after those 2 weeks to get an all-clear.  I asked about the full body pain I felt and he finally let me know, the normally 20 minute procedure took them 1.5 hours for me.  The stone was in a hard to reach area.  They had to flip me 3 times.  I was, of course, completely unaware of this.  I kind of wonder if they dropped me or something.  Anyway, other than trying really hard not to think of my naked body being trundled around the room with my ugliest, my shameful bits flopping about like a furry sock-monkey and the staff having to grab a double-helping of fat naked ass cheek and possibly experience a ballsack upside the face, it was much better than the former laser-in-the-junk procedure.

I also discovered that I have a 11mm stone in the other side and already a 4m stone in the side I'd just had one removed from.  

Big time.  That's just how I roll.

Honestly I left out a whole lot of stuff, because it's just too long and drawn out... how I had surgery on my big toe while I was between being violently ill, which had it's own issues, and how the constant vomiting dissolved a temporary crown on my back left lower molar, which was covering prep-work for a root canal, and ended up dissolving a pocket of bone which required me to get a bone-graft and sutures in my damn mouth... not to mention my epic battles with the HR department at my job and their crusade to somehow punish me further for getting sick.

[Beaker]

These f*%king company bean counting HR monkeys are a disgrace to humanity. They have absolutely no idea about anything. I would put them on the first spaceship out.

Glad to see you have still kept your sense of humour Heath, even though that is one of the most appaling stories I have heard in a long time.

All the best to you buddy.

[Heath]

rocket88 wrote

 savva's had the huge mess of orange wire, which we all know is the secret sauce to amazing tone.

Dammit the secret is out!  I'm experimenting with using long pieces of raw unshielded buswire to hook up everything and dead crickets for capacitors :D  You say short circuits.. I say you just can't hear the tone, man!!!!

IvIark wrote

It was.  It wasn't actually named that with any intention of being what the site was called, I really didn't intend it to be a site at all.  I just wanted somewhere remote from my home that I could store my layouts in case my house burnt down  and so tagboard effects was literally just the name of what I intended storing here.

Just think, if I'd put them on Facebook instead the site may never have become what it is now

That would have been such a sad "alternate history."  I've experimented with both turrets and tag board, done some layouts on perf, even tried some "project boards," but stripboard is what really facilitated me truly getting into this whole-hearted.  I swear, one day I'm going to make a list of circuits I've built from this site as a memorial, heh.  *spoiler alert* It's a LOT.

Adam_MD wrote

 I was so excited to get it up and running I hadn't even cut the LEDs down to size :-

Finished the board for my 10th pedal tonight a crunch box and it sounds fookin awesome. I've only been here for a few months but man I love this site :-) "

I remember the feeling.  I didn't have anyone around to crow about it, so I was trying to record what it sounded like at 2am, in an apartment with fussy neighbors, so I could post it to Facebook, like "look what I did!!!"

As an aside, one of my rockstar idols on facebook actually liked that post.  I was on cloud freakin 9!

Crunch box, excellent choice!!!!  One of my very favorites.  I've built about 6 of them so far because they keep getting snatched! :D

Definitely stick around, man.  This place has a "purity" about it that is very rare on the webs.

tabbycat wrote

 joe gore's tonefiend is a pretty good site. when i was having an octave fuzz clone phase i must have watched his top octave fuzz clone rundown a dozen times. i think it's the best one out there and definitely helped me compile a shortlist.

Yeah, he's got such a kind and patient attitude, I just think he's friggin great.  If you haven't seen his video demoing the Seymour Duncan SSL52 pickup, you should definitely check it out.  Mesmerizing music.

Ooo, and the one where he plays the left handed guitar upside down.  I didn't know whether to laugh, just let my jaw drop in amazement, or throw every guitar I own out of the window and move to a cave.

tabbycat wrote

re the money you spent, you didn't only get a cheap pedal out of it though, ultimately you were investing in your education as a builder (even if at the time you thought of it as only building to get a cheap pedal).

And that's the cool thing.  I had built a few guitars and it was so empowering because everything about those guitars (within reason) was what I wanted, where I wanted, and how I wanted, and at about a 5th of the retail price.  When I stumbled on Joe's site, my thinking was exactly "it can't be THAT hard.  I SHOULD be able to do this..."  and I'd be lying if it didn't admit to thinking "DAMN, $300 a pedal?"

tabbycat wrote

definitely interested in your guitar collection. some classy leftfield kit on display. is that a pair of teisco samurais? you will have to give us a guided tour one day. am thinking a post modestly entitled ‘heath gets his wood out for the boys’.

I've got a jones for odd guitars, but I'm also quite picky about "beautiful odd" and "fucking horrible odd," which is definitely in the eye of the beholder.  The "Samurais" you refer to are actually a Yamaha SGV800 (blue), a cheaper (stock, at least..) Red EVG103 that has been hot-rodded to hell and back so it feels adequate to sit next to his brother (btw, they are referred to as "Samurais" not correcting you there), and joining them is the white Yamaha SC300T with Boston Blues pickups... it sounds more like a gorgeous strat than most multi-thousand dollar strats do :D

I have several Teiscos :)  I have a nifty little Tulip-bodied one in burgundy red and a blue (supposedly the most rare, no idea) Telestar, both completely stock and both of which sound amazingly good for being "cheapies" from 50 years ago.  I also have beautiful Teisco that was the victim of abuse, but which I am carefully restoring.  It's a large model, closer to the typical American guitar, and a real solid machine.  I think it's this same model.  I need to get the body stripped and repainted (something I am not good at). The metal pickguard has some slice in it, like someone cut through a box with a box cutter and into the pickguard, but I've never seen a replacement pickguard for sale anywhere for this model, so I'm stuck with it.  It's not terrible, but it is somewhat noticeable.  I've also been trying to decide whether to stick with the original pickups or to hot rod it out with some newer surface mount pickups, to keep the look right.  I admit, the wiring confuses the hell out of me.

I love my Yamahas.

I also have a modest collection of "little guitars" :D

I'd probably bore people to tears if I went on and on about my guitars :p

[Heath]

Beaker wrote

These f*%king company bean counting HR monkeys are a disgrace to humanity. They have absolutely no idea about anything. I would put them on the first spaceship out.

Glad to see you have still kept your sense of humour Heath, even though that is one of the most appaling stories I have heard in a long time.

All the best to you buddy.

Dude, I even left a lot out :D

How about this.. the put a stint in from my kidneys all the way down to help the stone fragments pass and.. it's a little TMI, but they left the end of it literally hanging out of my yeah.  Well, I'm in the recover bed, still coming off of the anasthesia and I tell the nurse I have to pee, so they give me one of those jenky bent urine bottle things and I do my best to get in there and relieve myself, but I'm drugged and not as my most agile.  Still I got it mostly right.  I ask for a bath clothe to clean up a little with.  Keep in mind I'm trying to work with with an iv line and a tangled up hospital gown.. and I snagged the end of that stint with the fluffy bath cloth and when I lifted the cloth away to put it aside, I yanked the stint halfway out.  

The doctor got called over, and he just casually looks at it and say "oh, well..." and yanks it the rest of the way out.

Hurt like hell, but it saved me from a return trip to get it removed :D


As far as the HR monkeys go... can you believe that I would have been further written up and fired, even being carried away from work on an ambulance?  I had to file an FMLA leave of absence to protect myself.

Even then, these jackasses kept sending the paperwork to my home address instead of the doctor.  I live in a 2 story townhouse, so I'm up in bed sick, not even thinking about pants, and every couple of days I get a knock on the door.  I have to get up, get unwobbly, put on pants, carefully navigate the stairs, get to the door, just to find a notice from the post office instructing me to come get it there since it requires a signature.  This is while I am, by doctor's orders, not allowed to drive.

After I got back to work, I was on the immediate cancellation list at my dentist because I was in horrible pain, due to the root-canal prepped tooth having the temp crown dissolved and a chunk of bone behind the tooth dissolved.  So I got a call from them at work that they had an opening at 3:45pm.  I work until 4pm.  So, I let my supervisor know, worked through lunch, and left work at 3:30pm, racing to the dentist.

The next day I was back in the HR office for an unexcused absence.  

Yep, your spaceship idea is very humanitarian, and I salute you for that.  My idea would involve a more Stalin-esque approach.

I have every intention of leaving this place, city, state, all of it in a few months.  Maybe get me a place with a garage so I can Rocket-ize it. :D

[Beaker]

If it helps any (I know it won't), my son collapsed at work (at his last job) and had to be taken to hospital in an ambulance.

On his return, he was given a written warning for an "unauthorised" absence.

He told them if it happened again, they had his formal permission to leave him unattended on the floor until his shift ended before dialiing 999.

That did not go down well either!

[Heath]

Dude, the Robots have already taken over :/

I hope your son is okay.  Kind of awesome what he told them :D

[Travis]

Heath! I would give you a big hug if I could, dude. Sorry about all the insane bullshit you are going through. That is unbelievable.

Hang in there!!

[Silver Blues]

Oh my god. I'm so sorry. It's good to see you've kept your sense of humor about this whole thing though. Here's hoping your life equilibrates again soon.

About your job, though... I'd have given them two fingers and an earful and gladly taken my leave long before now. You are a stronger man than I.

[rocket88]

Can't really say what hasn't been already, it's just fucked all the way around. the important thing is that things seem/are getting better.

At one job I was once brought into a meeting and saw the head of hr and supervisor sitting there. At the time the principal I was working with started to come after me for nothing, literally nothing. I was the golden boy, and she just decided she didn't like me or something. Lied on an observation of me, it was so obvious. She added that another teacher was in the room working with me and amongst other crazy things. I could tell something was up. The principal started to say something about me coming back next year, I didn't let her finish, cause if it was good it would just have been me and her. I started to curse off the principal, saying how unprofessional she is, and that she's suddenly coming after me, that she's lied on my observation, which is all in my 4 page rebuttal, and that I can't work for someone like her, so she can take my job and shove it. Then walked out. I did this all in front of the head of hr and supervisor, who loved me. My supervisor came running after me saying he couldn't do anything and knew nothing until she called the meeting 10min earlier.

While own of my proudest moments, it's probably one of my worst. But, still proud as all hell that I had the stones to do that.

[Silver Blues]

As well you should be. That kind of thing shouldn't be tolerated.