Getting BACK into pedal building

[motterpaul]

Based on Heath's post about his first pedal, I have a similar story. I just spent a solid four months or so moving to San Diego and selling an old house, and hence had to pack up all my pedal building and also concentrate on tons of painting, fixing, and other distractions.

Let me say that once I laid off for a few months, I could see why some people never come back. I started gaining more interest in other things, and just didn't feel the same compulsion to turn on the soldering iron.

However, I "forced myself" to build a rangemaster yesterday, and it went fine. Next I dug into all of the circuits I have not yet boxed and tested many and they also work fine, and many sound better than I remembered. Now I want to box many of them.

Bottom line - I am back in it. But it can be hard getting used to a new spot, buying a new desk, getting the lighting right... I am in very cramped quarters now, unfortunately, but I do have everything I need. I think the hardest part was that my test rig sounds different. Test rigs are everything. I am in a soundproof room, but it is small and has hard walls. I also need it for storage space. But I finally got it "tuned in" where I am happy testing my pedals on it again.

Another thing is the new look at the site that happened while I was away. Rockett, you have done a very fine job of updating the forums and site in general. And to have Alex and others contributing new layouts also breaths life into the blog, which I feel is vital.

But, boy, the new layouts look complicated for me, especially just getting started again. The last one I had tried before packing up was an old Mutron II, which is also VERY complicated, and I never got it going right (frustrating enough). Now I see a dozen new builds that are also very daunting, to me anyway. The point is that taking a break can make it hard to get going gain, but once you are back in the saddle, it isn't as complicated as it seems.

Now, I just like to post my personal thoughts - this is not a criticism. What I think does not apply to everyone. And mostly I am just happy to see Tagboard alive & well and I will be here. Its a good thing the site was given life support.

Even more important - to help my build my new man cave I ended up givng a friend my old gigging pedal board - so now I have to create a new one, and I plan to start using my test rig as my gig rig, so I can build wht I need and I will really know what I am getting. I should be quite an experiment since I will be using a pedal for gain (other than a two-channel tube amp) for the first time on stage.

[Frank_NH]

Nice to see you here, Paul.

Your post gave me an idea about how we can further tag the projects on the main page.  It would great for new builders if we could have a tag associated with project difficulty.   For example, a one transistor boost could be tagged "Easy", a tube screamer "Medium", and something like the Sagan delay "Hard".  I know this would be subjective but in searching the site for fuzzes or overdrives, easy projects could be readily identified.  Just a thought...

[Kinski]

Welcome back, Paul!

I've not had much time the past few weeks to dedicate to circuits. But I have managed to build a few things.

However, things should be clearing up soon. Then I'll be building some more. I've got a GE transistor order coming in which I will be using for some fuzzes. Also want to build a Maestro FZ-1S Super Fuzz. And a big synth I've been planning.

Also want to build some stuff for friends for the holidays.

Not a bad idea Frank. Sabrotone site has difficulty categories (easy, moderate, hard). I'm sure this would be useful to some users of this site.

[Chris60601]

I agree - I like the idea but, let's be creatively silly *insert sheepish grin*
For example, use imagery instead of words;
This build is rated 4 guitar picks out of 5
Insert diode, cap, pot, resistor - whatever.

Or even more impractical (or not, lol) using the 1 to 5 scale;
This build is pentatonic 3 of 5

[tabbycat]

@paul. hey paul, welcome back. you bounced back quick. when i move i get introverted for months and months. as if, by putting all my stuff in boxes, part of me gets compartmentalised and stacked into a corner awaiting unpacking. very disconcerting state.
the layouts are monsterously big of late, but i think that's just because a great number of the smaller ones for which schematics exist have already been covered. still a ton of small things out there but tracing reliant on gut shots and gut shots not forthcoming for a lot of things at the moment.
but time will out. maybe it's time to review your unboxed builds and get into modding and tweaking them to a boxable quality. modding is a shallower curve back into building than slamming straight into a sagan etc. set your own pace.

@frank. good idea. like madbean. gets my vote. though some builds look simple but are bitches so not always straight-forward. vox repeater looks simple but can be a pain if you get ticking. i imagine some of the small germanium fuzzes that have low parts counts but require fiddly biasing can be deceptively troublesome too.

@chris. the plectrum idea, maybe colour-coded: green-beginner, amber-intermediate, red-ninja master.
but if it gets too cryptic or complex it would defeat the object. am thinking of mfos. as much as i want to get into synths i sometimes find the tone of the site offputting and confusing, especially as a beginner. when a simple volume or gain pot is labelled ‘wicky wacky crazytimes’ or something. i appreciate the effort that has gone into getting that stuff up and out there, and once you can read a schematic you can get past a lot of that pitch. but when you are coming to it looking for simple explanations and getting kooky jargon it does make it that much harder to understand exactly what is going on. not to say it isn’t a great site. it is an excellent resource. but can be frustrating.

[Silver Blues]

Welcome back, Paul. I was wondering where you'd gotten to. I share your sentiment to an extent because a) I've not built anything in months b)yes the layouts are getting more complex but only because of reasons previously mentioned and c)I've got a good handle on technique and building practices. There's lots of small and smallish but great-sounding and highly functional layouts here so perhaps build one of those, maybe start with something simple and then build something you always wanted to but never did, etc. That should help you get back into the rhythm quick. Of course actually having time to do anything is helpful

[Beaker]

Good to see you are back and on the horse Paul.

Totally agree Tabbycat.

Bear in mind that any difficulty rating system has to be aimed at beginners, we know which builds are a PITA, 'cos we use the forum. Most beginners only find the forum after a few builds.

A rating system needs to take into account, size, exotic parts (like vactrols), difficulty in getting circuits to work correctly (like some of the Jfet amp emulators), and difficulty de-bugging if you make a mistake (like multiple ICs).

So easy builds that take a lot of time or experience to get sounding right (like Tonebenders) need to to be rated as difficult.

Builds like some EQD, DBA circuits look easy, but have a high failure rate, even from experienced builders. They need to be rated as expert.

Things with unobtanium parts, that are not easy to substitute effectively, need to to be rated higher, due to the time and effort needed to find parts.

Alternatively some of the new monster boards, look intimidating, but are not really that hard - time consuming and needing a lot of concentration maybe, but not especially difficult if you are methodical.

[motterpaul]

Thanks, all - it's good to be welcomed back.  

I don't want to create the impression that I am complaining about the new layouts, because I know I have more than enough to keep me busy on the site. Plus I have  a new focus in trying to do pedals more for actual use rather than just learning how different circuits sound - so I need to focus on other things like long-term reliability, etc.

But it doesn't surprise me that other people have noticed the complexity. But I agree there is certainly a place for ALL kinds of builds here, and there are plenty of older builds.

But it seems to me some older builds made some effort to offer a simplified version - to leave out some of the more complicated aspects of a build. Like if there was a speaker emulator or a rotary switch, to also offer a version with an alternative build that left some of those things out.

But, I don't want to dissuade Alex from making more builds. He is obviously very talented. I did his EarthQ Talons last year and still love it. And it was not as complex as it looks. I know Alex tries hard to make a layout that in the end has most of the pot leads in close sequential order, which is better in the long run.

I guess I was just curious if others were finding these as daunting as I do currently, although I have done big builds before successfully, and in time might try  some of these once I am back in the swing.

Tabby - I fully understand that thing about moving making one morose, luckily I have moved myself to "strange" cities five times now in my lifetime, and I have learned that the sooner you get involved the sooner you like it. Fortunately this is a very friendly city.

[Beaker]

I understand yor points Paul, but put simply, all the easy pedals have already been done.

The original remit Mark and Miro had was "no standing resistors, and 1590B friendly", which meant stuff like flangers were off limits. Requests for oversized builds were often met with a "Sorry, too big" response. Please note that I do not mean that as a criticism.

Now the fearless young blades have joined the site, these big builds are being tackled.

Vive la revolution!

[rocket88]

Well as one of the new admins I have to say it seems like we are the four horseman. Nothing is offlimits, and we are a little on the crazy side.

[motterpaul]

I do understand. And as I said nothing wrong with it. It really is hard to argue there is anything new under the sun, in the analog pedal world of fuzzes & ODs, that was not already here. So, if bigger builds are all that is left to tackle then that is as it should be.

I am just wondering out loud if I am personally ready, in my freshly recovered stage, to tackle any myself. I mean, troubleshooting is a bee-atch, and with these circuits I definitely would not be able to knock it out & box it without rockin' it first.

Maybe someday soon though. I sometimes surprise myself with what I can do (These pedal mods are going pretty easy breezy). But then again, sometimes I still get just plain stumped.