Members DRGUN Posted November 4, 2009 Members Share Posted November 4, 2009 what are some good starting points on learning about such a thing? want to start building myself some stuff but i don't know much about circuits etc... i can solder pretty well and have been wiring my own guitars and fixing my own pedals (broken wires, loose connections etc...) for years. cheers y'all Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Leaves Posted November 4, 2009 Members Share Posted November 4, 2009 A lot of people are going to say Craig Anderton's Electronic Projects for Musicians, but I honestly didn't find it very helpful. It never explained the "why things work" of pedal building. I also couldn't source a lot of the parts I needed in the projects. More Info:http://www.amazon.com/Electronic-Projects-Musicians-Craig-Anderton/dp/0825695023 I would buy it used or cheap if you feel the need to own it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members chakosh Posted November 4, 2009 Members Share Posted November 4, 2009 Float around on some of the DIY forums. :: FREESTOMPBOXES.ORG :: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members pedmands Posted November 4, 2009 Members Share Posted November 4, 2009 There's also our very own Links to DiY Resources that has a slew of great sites to help point you in the right direction. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members H.R. Shove and Stuff Posted November 4, 2009 Members Share Posted November 4, 2009 I would recommend using www.diystompboxes.com as your book about how stuff works. Specifically, look for posts by Mark Hammer, RG Keen and the Tone God. They write volumes on how building blocks of circuits work and what they do together. I would not recommoned freestompboxes.org because a lot of that is geared toward reversing production pedals, not a lot on building your own. I will also recommend RG Keens book on PCB design for Musical Effects (something like that, I have it on my bookshelf but it is too dark to see ). You can get it at Small Bear. Really helpful in designing your own PCB layouts. While I wouldn't recommend diving right into designing your own, the only way to get a good handle on something like layout is to get a PCB creator and work out a bunch of different layouts until it all fits into a small spot. It is a lot of fun actually, designing the layout is just as fun for me as playing the pedal (well almost). Besides that, if you want basic circuit knowledge, I'd guess picking up any electrical engineer book that deals with that would help, but it isn't necessary knowledge for what you really want to do. I'd also start off with a few kits, learning to read schematics, then getting out on your own and making project part lists and ordering and whatnot. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members conky Posted November 4, 2009 Members Share Posted November 4, 2009 Start off with something small like a loop or tap tempo pedal, or mosd something like an LPB-1,SD-1, or a wah. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members soulsonic Posted November 4, 2009 Members Share Posted November 4, 2009 A lot of people are going to say Craig Anderton's Electronic Projects for Musicians, but I honestly didn't find it very helpful. It never explained the "why things work" of pedal building. I also couldn't source a lot of the parts I needed in the projects. More Info:http://www.amazon.com/Electronic-Projects-Musicians-Craig-Anderton/dp/0825695023I would buy it used or cheap if you feel the need to own it. That book is EXTREMELY helpful! It pretty much taught me how to build pedals. It totally explains how everything works as far as the individual projects are concerned.And even though some of the opamps used are no longer available, you can easily substitute in common ones no problem.Don't expect it to teach you everything about electronics, but it has more than enough info to get started building pedals. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members spentron Posted November 5, 2009 Members Share Posted November 5, 2009 Humm. When I got the Anderton book, it still came with a record (one of those flexible things) instead of a CD. I defintely appreciated it as there was nothing else then, but it didn't help me that much. If it had included the Tube Sound Fuzz I would have been all over that though. I liked the Radio Shack electronic sketchpad book as much, later National Semiconductor's Floobydust databook, and of course the best .05% of college. Poured over books on synths, even though wasn't ready for most of it (I was more interested in synths until actually picking up the guitar). I even made Radio Shack replace a burnt op-amp because the pinout on the back of the package was wrong . The building blocks are actually very simple, and tend to cause "why couldn't someone have told me that?", although of course things escalate rapidly from there. Add: what really got me first started was a book "75 electronic projects" I got from a drug store magazine rack. It had a Fuzz face type circuit and even a circuit for intermittent windshield wipers, before they appeared on any cars... and, incidently, my first experience of legal disclaimer as well. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Roc Sound Posted November 5, 2009 Members Share Posted November 5, 2009 "Handmade Electronic Music" by Nicolas Collins does a good job of explaining what various parts of a circuit due. It has a lot on Circuit bending as well as some cool pedal ideas.http://www.amazon.com/Handmade-Electronic-Music-Hardware-Hacking/dp/0415975921 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members wilsoneffectsll Posted November 5, 2009 Members Share Posted November 5, 2009 Anything from Brian Wampler from indyguitarist.com will help you out. He explains the basics really well. Learned a lot from the man. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members kpd78 Posted November 5, 2009 Members Share Posted November 5, 2009 i find http://www.beavisaudio.com to be very helpful... the Tech and Project pages are certainly worth a read; i found them really useful in helping me understand how certain components work, what they do and how they can be used to embellish an existing circuit.there are lots of simple example builds and some more elaborate experiments which are sure to give you plenty of ideas. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Reauchambeau Posted November 5, 2009 Members Share Posted November 5, 2009 Andertons books are worth looking at, he was there in the beginning. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members tape Posted November 5, 2009 Members Share Posted November 5, 2009 great book suggestions i nthe thread one thing I found helpful was simply the willignness to experiment with a circuit on a breadboard. to change values and hear the difference. to figure out which paths the audio goes and which parts and clusters of parts affect the signal how. breadboards make that easy. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members whiteop Posted November 5, 2009 Members Share Posted November 5, 2009 Brian Wampler has written several books about modding pedals and really knows his stuff. I have all three of them and they are excellent. The best book of the trio is "How to Modify Guitar Pedals". It has information on how to modify over 80 pedals and photos of the board on each pedal and the parts to replace are labeled. Very easy to follow and well done. Here's a link to where you can buy them:http://www.indy-guitarist.com/books_ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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