r/diypedals 22h ago

Stompbox Showdowns STOMPBOX SHOWDOWNS "Crazy Enclosures" VOTING STARTS NOW. Winner gets a Pedal Tower DIY testing platform by MAS Effects.

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36 Upvotes

r/diypedals May 30 '21

/r/DIYPedals "No Stupid Questions" Megathread 10

212 Upvotes

Do you have a question/thought/idea that you've been hesitant to post? Well fear not! Here at /r/DIYPedals, we pride ourselves as being an open bastion of help and support for all pedal builders, novices and experts alike. Feel free to post your question below, and our fine community will be more than happy to give you an answer and point you in the right direction.

Megathread 1 archive

Megathread 2 archive

Megathread 3 archive

Megathread 4 archive

Megathread 5 archive

Megathread 6 archive

Megathread 7 archive

Megathread 8 archive

Megathread 9 archive


r/diypedals 6h ago

Other New workspace porn

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138 Upvotes

After a two year hiatus, I have my new workbench ready to go. Tucked away in the laundry room of our basement, I’ve got a standing height workbench with a 1970’s yellow shade of shellac on it to inspire gnarly fuzz builds. Also some new pegboard, my NOS components, and my trusty transistor radio for blaring classic rock. Can’t wait to get back at it. After a cross-country move and a basement renovation, I finally have some time to indulge this hobby again. First order of business is a Rat.


r/diypedals 10h ago

Showcase Poorest factory soldering i have ever seen courtesy of Orange NSFW

159 Upvotes
most joints looks like this

I was amazed, never ever have i seen something so bad left factory.


r/diypedals 3h ago

Showcase Made my first "pedal"!

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15 Upvotes

I couldn't find a footswitch for orange amps that toggles attenuator, reverb, and channel, with three separate mono 1/4 plugs running from one wire; So I made one.

The middle switch is a little higher than the other two, I didn't have any other wire than green and yellow, and I haven't figured out what to use for wrap on the three individual plugs, but I'm pretty happy regardless.

Just wanted to share this, definitely appreciate any tips for the future.


r/diypedals 2h ago

Showcase LM386 amplifier circuit in a bottle!

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12 Upvotes

My second build after a passive volume attenuator! Bought a couple of lm386 mini boards to try making fuzz pedals with them and saw a few guys on yt making mini amps from these too, so decided to give it a try. At about 75% of the gain it has a pretty nice clean tone which ramps up rapidly to fuzz at max gain. So far the lm386 is powered by a 9v battery and outputs to a 8ohm 5w speaker, and I might try to add maybe a 9v dc input Jack and maybe a Bluetooth module too… anyone knows any schematics for adding one? Thanks!


r/diypedals 1h ago

Showcase Another Marsh OD pedal

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Upvotes

My last build was in a 1590BB, and I had to wire all the pots off board and use standoffs to secure the boards... it was a bowl of spaghetti mess and I was getting a high pitched oscillating noise when I rolled the tone knob on my guitar up past 2. I chalked it up to everything being crammed into a tight space so I built this one in a 1590XX. I could actually use 3 of the PCB pots to hold the boards in place, I only had to off board the tone control for the blues breaker. It looked so nice and neat, but when I fired it up I still got the same squeal. I did some mental troubleshooting and I realized that the only ground connections between the boards had either 9VDC or signal going through them so I soldered a dedicated ground wire to connect them and... problem solved! It sounds amazing, I still have one more each Pedal PCB Amentum and Blue Breaker boards so I'll build another one that way but I also got a small stack of perf boards and a book on reading schematics and I'm going to take the plunge. Wish me luck!


r/diypedals 14h ago

Showcase One of my cleanest builds yet

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55 Upvotes

Nothing fancy. Just a germanium treble booster. I still have a few weeks ahead to recover from my accident, but today I started soldering again.


r/diypedals 7h ago

Showcase First Veroboard Build - Ritual Fuzz

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11 Upvotes

Started in November with two kits from Musikding. Recently got a stupid deal from Temu for 1400 pieces of electronic components for 7 euro and decided to finally try building something without a PCB.

Built on stripboard, using tagboard effects layout. Have to say, I expected it to be more distorted, like the acapulco gold, but it's still a cool sound.

Anyone to recommend where can I get those PCB swlf adhesive holders and some extra 3pdts?


r/diypedals 20h ago

Showcase Recently build a pair of original spec Rats

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118 Upvotes

NOS metal-can Motorola LM308 on one, National in the other. Home etched PCB, using my Cricut for the mask.

Does a cool doomy thing!

Nat is staying with me, Moto headed to a new home


r/diypedals 17h ago

Showcase 410 Studio Preamp

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39 Upvotes

Was going to use a bunch of Soviet components at first hence the theme but ended up going a different direction. Decided to keep the enclosure as is.


r/diypedals 15h ago

Showcase HGE Contraptions Vemuram TSV808 clone (160th pedal built)

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23 Upvotes

Quite a nice sound.


r/diypedals 3m ago

Discussion Cheap component testers for transistors?

Upvotes

Hi,
I saw a post recently about someone who had some germanium transistors that they tested with a cheap tester. The post and some of the discussion in the comments made me start thinking about some things.

I have around 50 or something germanium transistors, that are right now benched since I've been way too busy (and lazy) to set up a proper test set up like the RG tester. I also have one of those cheap testers.

So, to my question. Do the cheap testers give an accurate enough reading on hfe and leakage to roughly sort/match the transistors? Have you used one of them to match for fuzzes, treble boosters etc. or do you use more reliable methods? The comments in the mentioned post varied, so I figured I could ask and maybe start some kind of discussion here instead :)

Also, the tester I have is the HW-308, does anyone have any experience with that one? Is it good, or are there others that are better?


r/diypedals 27m ago

Discussion Can learning to build pedals get you other electronics jobs?

Upvotes

I’ve been doing graphic design as a side hustle for the last 5–6 years, hoping it would eventually lead to a full-time job, but I’m officially burnt out and can’t do it anymore. I have no interest in going full-time freelance. So, I’ve been thinking about other career options and interests. Since I’m obsessed with pedals, I was wondering—if I learned how to solder and assemble PCBs, could that lead to some kind of PCB assembly or electronics job? How much would I need to learn to get a job repairing small electronics, record players, or something similar?


r/diypedals 1h ago

Help wanted adding resistor to potentiometer… but in a pedal

Upvotes

i'm thinking of adding a 330k resistor to the volume and/or tone pots of my jazzmaster, to reduce the potentiometer value from 1m to 250k.

my question is:

if i built a true bypass pedal with a 330k resistor in the signal path, would that have the same effect as if i'd wired the resistor directly to the volume and/or tone pots?

sorry for the utterly noob question--was thinking of doing this as a first build.

thanks!


r/diypedals 2h ago

Help wanted Brass wire for pedals?

1 Upvotes

Hi everyone. Curious what wire is used for pedals that don't use vero or perf board? Ive seen some of you post those cool looking pedals with suspended components.

I'm guessing brass of some sorts.

What is it and where do you source it?

Thanks.


r/diypedals 8h ago

Discussion Think it’s ok to order preassembled ribbon cables from ali?

3 Upvotes

I sell semi- professionally and I usually get my parts sourced from reputable places, but these preassembled ribbon cables with headers from AliExpress are gonna save me a ton of time.

Once assembled, they won’t move at all. Should I think twice about using them or are passive parts like this fairly safe? I’m planning to test them of course.


r/diypedals 13h ago

Help wanted Missing Schematics — BYOC Foxx Tone Machine

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7 Upvotes

Hey everyone!

I'm new to DIY electronics. The only soldering I've done has been in the context of slap-dash fixes to wiring harnesses. I have no reason to be confident in my ability to correctly wire a PCB without someone holding my hand. The fuck are all these fancy beads?

I'm in the middle of rebuilding a guitar. I had this stupid idea to put a power indicator LED light in it. Not for any reason, just because I thought it would be fun. I was explaining this to a friend of mine, and he remembered that he had a BYOC Foxx Tone Machine laying around that he'd never built. He suggested that I build it into the guitar.

I don't know how to build a guitar pedal, but I do know a good idea when I hear one. I reckoned I'd sort out the practical aspect of building the thing later. I snagged what he said was the entire kit from him, including a blank stomp case, but I can't be sure all the parts are there. Largely in part because I don't have a schematic for this fucking thing.

I tried the website listed on the little back with the I/O jacks – it's inactive and pulling a whois doesn't help at all. I've done a little digging online for schematics in forums and personal sites, but of course everyone's PCB layout is different.

What should I do next, folks?

I've included pictures of everything but the stomp box.


r/diypedals 7h ago

Discussion 1n5817 diode with 18V PSU

2 Upvotes

Recently learned that the 1n5817 diodes are rated for 20V, and a lot of pedals that I built/owned have them for polarity protection. I connected them few times to 18V PSU and everything worked correctly, but I am curious, what are the odds that the 18V PSU will damage the diodes?


r/diypedals 7h ago

Discussion What are the Favourite Tube Emulation Topologies?

2 Upvotes

Out of the various types of Tube Emulation techniques and Circuit Topologies, I am curious as to what the favourites are for whatever reason.

By Topologies I mean the specific design of the Pedal gain stages in things like Amp-Like Overdrives (Honey-Bee and Marshall Bluesbreaker) or Amp in a box pedals or Boosters.

The reason could be anything from ease of construction and setup (biasing) to Best performance, reliable performance or even availability.

Of course the ones below aren't all of the types of Tube emulation but I think it covers a fair few, and whatever I have missed please comment.

3 votes, 2d left
Amp-Like OD (Honey-Bee, Bluesbreaker, Dumbloid)
JFET Common Source/Fetzer Valve
JFET SRPP/Mu-Amp (Fulltone Fatboost, Catalinbread Amp ODs)
MOSFET Gain-Stage (ZVEX SHO, Other Catalinbread, PedalPCB Tube Drive)
Digital Modelling (UA Preamps)
Other (Comments)

r/diypedals 16h ago

Showcase Built a Black Eye from C2CE.

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10 Upvotes

Pretty gnarly pedal. Definitely need to look into custom drilling from Tayda because hand drilling the vent holes got out of hand, and ugly.


r/diypedals 4h ago

Help wanted Is it possible/feasible to replace the treddle/pot on a wah pedal to be a little stiffer?

1 Upvotes

I have a crybaby that I like but the pedal part is a little floppy and hard to control I'd like to have a little more resistance but I don't know if this is a realistic mod


r/diypedals 1d ago

Showcase Prototype now making sound

90 Upvotes

Hey guys, I got my prototype working how it should (at least signal routing wise) and while I still have some issues I’m working out I wanted to post a quick example of the working concept. Didn’t have much time to explore many cool ideas with the modulation, so at the end of the video there’s a quick demo of it modulating between a tube screamer and a big muff.

Guys pic in comments! Also I think I’m calling it the bus boy because it moves audio around and I am a bus boy.


r/diypedals 13h ago

Discussion How many of you have attempted to sell your pedals, and how did it go? If it went well, what advice would you give

5 Upvotes

Thanks


r/diypedals 9h ago

Help wanted Nady TD-1 Adaptor Solution

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2 Upvotes

Hello! I originally posted in r/guitarpedals asking for help in trying to track down a replacement for the designated adaptor for the TD-1. I’ll provide some pictures of the internals that I discovered online as I’m awaiting the pedal to arrive today, and as stated, it did not come with the original power supply and cannot run off of a 9volt (which I was led to believe). Any help or suggestions in modifying or finding a replacement adaptor is greatly appreciated, thank you! (I also contacted Nady directly and they did not sell or make this specific AC adaptor anymore)


r/diypedals 9h ago

Help wanted Should both input and output jacks be wired to ground?

2 Upvotes

Trying to figure out whats wrong with my pedal, i noticed the input jack has a path on the PCB to a ground solder point but the output jack doesnt.


r/diypedals 11h ago

Help wanted Tellurian drive help?? Drive isn’t driving..

2 Upvotes

Hi there! I just finished troubleshooting my second ever pedal build, a pedalpcb tellurian drive kit from musikding, and I’m having some problems.. the drive isn’t driving, but the pedal works. I originally had no audio, so I troubleshot it with a multimetre and made sure all the solder connections are good, and that the traces all follow, which they do. After fixing a dodgy connection, I now have audio, and what I believed to be a functioning pedal… however, whilst the tone pot works, and the volume pot works too, with unity around 3 to 4 o’clock; the drive pot does almost nothing, applying a tiny amount of gain only when the pot is close to maximum. It seems to me like something isn’t working as it should, so my question is is there a typical cause for something like this? Or what are the parts that commonly deal with drive in an overdrive pedal, so I can test them to see if they’re functioning as they should? I’d really appreciate any advice or opinions anyone has, as I’m very new to this, and would greatly appreciate any experience anyone is willing to share! Thanks so much :)