I don't know if this has been asked before, but, have any of you ever heard of a company that sells all the individual parts, pieces, components, etc... where you can actually BUILD your own guitar pedal?

http://www.buildyourownclone.com

My first reaction... Is this for real?

Second reaction... I don't think I could do something like this, because I'm totally clueless with circuit boards, transistors, capacitors, etc...etc...

Has anyone ever built one of these before? That "buildyourownclone" website has some pretty cool stuff. But their kits look a little expensive to me and almost cost about the same as a brand name pedal from Guitar Center, Musician's Friend, etc...

Hi Butch: it's an absolutely legit company and several Forum users here have their pedals and swear by them. I'm sure a few of them will be along on this thread shortly to tell you more.

If your soldering skills are up to scratch then it is an ideal way of getting into the weird, wild world of pedal innards. Click on their PDF instructions and see how helpfully they guide you through the business of what goes where. Their kits contain everything you need to build a given pedal aside from the solder and iron. And for the quality level effects you get it's a good, cost effective way of aquiring them.

Give it a go, why not?

And if you get a taste for it, why then there are "build your own amp" companies out there too.

Who knows: this could be the beginning of a beautiful friendship...

Cheers - C

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Thanks, Ceri.

I was wondering about it. It does look kind of cool, because I guess you could customize the pedal, and maybe substitute a diode or something for something else - (i.e. "tweak" the pedal to your own taste and make it different from the next guys' pedal).

{thread within a thread}
If I remember right, back in the late 70's or early 80's when the band Boston broke up and/or got sued by CBS, Tom Scholz went on to found Scholz Research or something like that. He designed/created the small headphone amp called "Rockman" out of a bunch of transistors, capacitors, diodes, etc... and made a small fortune for himself. I also read somewhere that Tom Scholz has a Masters degree in electronics engineering from MIT before his Boston days. Even today, all these years later, with the latest incarnation of Boston, they said that in the concert I went to, all the amps, pedals, and even the PA system, were custom built by Tom Scholz!

Anyway, I am going to look at that "Build Your Own Clone" website and really read up on the stuff, because I wouldn't have a clue. I mean, yeah I can solder, but with elementary skills (i.e. I replaced the 100k wah pot in my Dunlop Cry Baby). I simply unsoldered the black wire, the yellow wire, and the blue wire. Removed the old pot, installed the new pot, and resoldered the 3 wires back onto their appropriate terminals.

But, custom build my own pedal? Um.... Hmmm....

Hey ButchA,

from what I have seen on that site and from other 'kit' suppliers, I think your soldering experience should be enough as it is just that, I think, a kit.

Go for it man, get building!!

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speak slowly I'm a drummer too!!

And I proudly lack a stick or a kazoo up my arse...........

Forum member 63Supro swears by these kits.........

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The blues ain't nothin but a good man feelin bad.

Yep. Great kits and great sounding. If you never tried a kit before or soldered, I'd recommend the Confidence Booster kit. It's just a simple boost circuit and I think it costs around $15. I've built two British Blues Overdrive pedals. It's a clone of the Marshall Bluesbreaker pedal. One's modded for my single coil pup guitars, one for my buckers. I also did the Confidence Booster and the Reverb too. The Reverb I may mod because I really don't need as much reverb as this thing produces. It sounds great though. Look at the instructions on the website. I would also recommend a third hand and a magnifying glass to read the color code on the resistors and the cap values. Just watch the polarity of the electrolytic caps, diodes and be sure to install the IC properly and you'll be fine. I have a couple of old Craig Anderton pedals I made from scratch including etching and drilling the boards. The kits are way easier.

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Life...... It's sexually transmitted and always fatal

I am definitely going to try to build a Mosrite Fuzzrite Clone in the near future. There was a guy i used to work with that built his own and they were pretty interesting. he made one that simulated a sitar... very funky. I work on arcade and pinball machines so i am pretty good with soldering and fabrication.

i need a hint of reverb for the rebel20. been thinking about......

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TMCgzoYT-1I

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63supro
"The good thing is in a club situation, most of the patrons are trashed and really can't tell the difference."

Many folks have built their kits with great success. They also have a Forum for folks who are building the kits and who have questions. Very helpful bunch there.

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-T

"You can't spend what you ain't got, you can't lose what you ain't never had" ~ McKinley Morganfield

Can't beat the EH stuff. Like I said the BYOC has way more reverb than I'll ever want. Still sounds great in the loop of the rebel with no digital artifacts.

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Life...... It's sexually transmitted and always fatal

After checking that BYOC website and even their users forum, I am going to get that "Confidence Build" kit, that looks very easy - and it's only like $15 bucks.

When you read about it and look at it from a guitar effects/electronics standpoint, all it is, is an extremely simple volume boost. No pots, no housing, no anything, but a bare circuit board, some wires, and the misc electronic pieces (diodes, capacitors, resistors, etc..), and two jacks.

If I can put that together without going brain dead I will then look at the "clone" called the 250+ and use the mods to make it into an MXR Distortion+ unit, since they said that one was very very easy too.

Yea, their kits are good, I have a Foxx Tone from those guys. Sounded good but too noisy so I'm selling it.

I've built two, the overdrive 2 and the muff, sound great, use them regularly. Up next are the vintage compressor and analog delay.

I've never soldered before these kits, burnt my fingers a couple of times.
Did have a couple of expenses I wasn't counting on. Magnifying glasses, eyes aren't what they used to be. Parts are tiny and these glasses helped a lot. A multimeter, the resisters are very small and the markings hard to read, a meter takes the guess work out of this. The meters are cheap from radio shack.

I used a $3 can of crylon and a xtra fine sharpie to provide my custom finish. I achieved a kind of a punk / road worn look. Some people spend more time and money on finishes and produce excellent work. The forum is useful.

Good luck.

Butch, the confidence boost does have a pot. Mine sounds really good. You can turn it into a pedle if you want to.

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Life...... It's sexually transmitted and always fatal

Have you heard of / tried GeneralGuitarGadgets. Their boss JD Sleep has a wide variety of kits available for all skill levels and is reasonably priced. His BSIAB pedal sounds awesome. There's also OfficiallyLicensedCircuits and Runoffgroove.com to look at if you really get the bug to build your own, and Runnoffgroove have decent sound samples as well.
Have fun,

Jim