Build Your Own Clone Message Board

Hey, super new to electronics and soldering etc. Just put together a bunch of my own patch cables for my pedalboard (and only burned myself a couple times lol!). I'm now interested in getting into building and modding pedals, and it seems like BYOC would be a great place to start. There are a couple pedals I'm really interested in (Echo Royal, Mega Chorus/Vibrato) but I'd assume that those are more complicated builds and maybe not the best to start off with? Wondering if theres a list ranking the builds in regards to difficulty somewhere.

I've also seen some pics of really cool looking finished pedals with custom artwork etc. Any recommendations on how to do art/graphics on the build when you're done?

Cheers!

No such ranking exists to my knowledge, but if you'll post a type of effect or two that you're interested in, we can certainly reply with opinions on which are easier builds. A number of the "gain pedals" (boosts, overdrives, distortions, fuzzes) are quite straightforward builds with reasonably low component counts.

Re: finishing pedals, do a forum search on "decals" and "etching", as there are multiple posts relating to these methods.

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“My favorite programming language is SOLDER” - Bob Pease (RIP)

My Website * My Musical Gear * My DIY Pedals: Pg.1 - Pg.2

Modulation pedals always seem to catch my interest the most, but I guess my main goal is to start learning the basics so I might be better off starting with one of those circuit types you just listed. I'm not much of a high gain guy, but I did see a video a while ago all about the different types of Overdrives which did pique my interest of playing with those. I saw that the 250+ description says it's the easiest pedal BYOC offers which got me wondering if there's a master difficulty list somewhere.

Thinking of starting off with the British Blues, Optical Compressor, or the 250+ just to get my toes wet. How complicated would the builds for the Royal Echo or Mega Chorus/Vibrato be compared to those ones? Just wondering how many pedals I should try building before tackling those.

Hard to answer until we see how the first "easy" kit turns out! So be sure to post photos of that in the "Show Off Your Completed Build" sub-forum. Or in the appropriate technical help forum if it doesn't go as smoothly as you'd like!

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“My favorite programming language is SOLDER” - Bob Pease (RIP)

My Website * My Musical Gear * My DIY Pedals: Pg.1 - Pg.2

Yep, I would agree with DVM. Build a simple dirt pedal, and then post photos of your work asking for critique. We'll be able to tell if you're ready to move on to something more complicated or if you should do another simple one first.

You can also buy a soldering practice kit (or just some perf board and resistors) and see how clean it comes out. That would be cheaper than a kit, but of course the resulting product is pretty useless.

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Scott

My band, Austin Hollow

I used to say that they are all the same, just some have more parts than others. But the super8 and the mini kits are probably more difficult than others. And the Crown Jewel is a bit of a bear too. But as for the rest of the kits....they aren't more or less difficult. The Analog Delay doesn't require any special skills that you don't need to build the MOSFET Boost. It just has a lot more parts. So the more complex kits do require more patience, which if you don't have can cause a lot of problems, but that's really the only difference. And in fact, in some ways, the more complex kits are actually easier to trouble shoot than the very simple circuits. The more complex circuits are more "compartmentalized" so it's easier to diagnose the problem based on the symptoms. But something like a fuzz face, where there are so few parts and each part affects all the others, it can be very difficult to pin point the problem. So I usually tell people to select their first kit based on what they want to build more than how difficult it is.

All that being said, the less complex kits like fuzzes and boost are usually the way to go if you really don't care one way or the other and just want to try your hand at DIY effects. As anyone who's been on this board for a while can tell you, the overwhelming majority of tech support problems are due to poor soldering. And it's much easier to go back and fix a dozen or so bad solder joints than it is to fix several hundred.

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*patience is a virtue*

Please do not PM me. email is prefered. keith@buildyourownclone.com

One other thing that I've found as I learn (and I'd rate my skills as "advanced beginner" at best ) is that the kits with fewer components give you a bit more room to move, which can be helpful when you're still learning how to get the right amount of solder in the right place to form a good joint.

I'm really a software guy, and one thing I know from that field is that, if you can shorten the time between taking an action and getting feedback on that action, you're more likely to get good results. This might be another reason to think that a build with a smaller component count is a good place to start when learning, as you'll get the feedback as to whether the pedal works or not sooner. It also means that, if you have some issues that you need to work on, you will have spent less time practicing what might be a bad habit.

For someone new to soldering, I would also recommend finding a discarded populated circuit board and practice de-soldering too. Sometimes you can get some useable parts from the exercise, and the practice can pay off later. After all, if you never end up having to de-solder anything, maybe you aren't trying hard enough!

As a non-answer to the original question, I have built 5 byoc pedals so far (Classic Delay, Spring Reverb, Analog Chorus, Green Pony, Analog Delay) and while some had tricky bits the others didn't, overall they were about the same level of challenge. (I came to this with a fair amount of prior experience.)

Thanks for your input everybody! I'll definitely look into some sort of soldering practice kit, making my patch cables was the first time I soldered everything and a lot of the joints weren't pretty! Pretty sure I was doing it wrong lol. I have a solder sucker on the way from Amazon now so at least if I screw up I'll have a slightly easier time fixing my mistakes. Interesting to hear that trouble shooting the more complex builds is actually easier lol. I might have to poke around the boards here and see if I can learn from other people's mistakes before ordering my first build!

I'd highly recommend reading some of the sticky posts, including:

• Stephen's tips for a successful build
• Understanding mechanical bypass switching
• Check your stomp switch
• Prepping and wiring the 3PDT footswitch

The wealth of useful information on this forum is an incredible resource, even before tapping into the people here for help with specific problems

One thing I know that makes my life a little easier is that I sort all the components at the beginning, and measure all the resistors and capacitors (mostly because I don't trust myself to read the colour bands or labels correctly). I just tape a sheet of paper to the desk (so I can't accidentally slide it and move everything on it), write the resistor values down one side, the cap values down the other, and lay all the measured components in their respective places. I'm sure there are better ways of doing this, but it's been good enough for me so far.

British Blues is on the way! Definitely got some reading to do now lol, I also ordered one of those cheapo klone kits off of Amazon. Would I be allowed to both circuits when they're done for feedback or is it strictly BYOC products only on this forum? Super excited to build and paint the British Blues though, have some ideas in my head for the design but still trying to figure out the best way to go about painting/implementing it

I have the British Blues in my "to build" stockpile at the moment, looking forward to it too

In terms of finishing, my approach is pretty simple:

• I spray paint the enclosure with a base colour (I didn't paint the inside on the first ones because I was worried about possible grounding issues, but it does leave a visible line of the bare aluminium showing at the join between the top and the base, so I'm painting the inside first now), and leave it to dry, despite my impatience;
• I design the labelling (having measured the positions of the drill holes on the enclosure, and the diameters of the knobs and washers first) and print it on a water slide decal. They usually come in different varieties for inkjet and laser printers, and the inkjet type typically require a clear coat to be applied to keep the ink from smearing in water, as I understand it. More waiting for drying...
• I apply a couple of layers of clear coat over the top (I find the clear coat takes a long time to be properly dry).

You can see a few examples here: Finally making these things look done...

and I have a couple more (a Large Beaver Ram's Head and an Envelope Filter & Fixed Wah) that will be ready for clear coat in the morning.

The Show Off Your Completed Build forum has lots of examples of what's been done

Post away! We're happy to help. Matter of fact, we'd probably be glad for the chance to give you advice on your technique before you begin one of the kits.

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Scott

My band, Austin Hollow

Not a problem seeking help here. Would just ask that you post in different locations for the two pedals. Tech support for the British Blues would belong in the Op amp based Distortions, fuzzes and overdrives subforum. For the klone kit, please post any inquiries to the general DIY discussion forum, since the subforums in the Effects Pedal Technical Support section are for the BYOC kits. And thanks for asking!

_________________
“My favorite programming language is SOLDER” - Bob Pease (RIP)

My Website * My Musical Gear * My DIY Pedals: Pg.1 - Pg.2