DIY Guitar Pedals

I tend to get really deep into my hobbies. This is no less true of guitar than it is of headphones.

One of many reasons is that I tend to think constantly about work if I'm not mentally engaged, so doing new and complex things helps provide wonderful distraction.

I've modified my guitars (everything but the wood itself, basically) and I started building pedals a while back. I was initially discouraged by the hobby until I discovered I misread exactly one resistor in my first pedal build. Fixing that yielded an outstanding result, so I naturally built another immediately thereafter.

This is a Guitar PCB "Zenith Pro" with the transparent mods. It's essentially a Zendrive circuit with some more Dumble-oriented modifications.


Here are some build progress shots of an MKC3 (modified Klon circuit) build that I completed last weekend. You may notice some disconnected wires in the "completed" shot. I grabbed an incorrect switch at Fry's and need to pick up a DPDT switch so I can swap between two different resistors. Luckily, I socketed the resistor and can just swap them by hand if I feel like it.

Day 1: Resistors, Sockets, and Sorting


Day 2: Capacitors, Integrated Circuits, Diodes, Trimmers, and Transistors


Day 3: Wiring, Potentiometers, Enclosure, and Installation


How I keep track of what the heck I'm doing:

 

Nice! I have plans to make a tube pedal from a 12ax7 and the korg nutube. RS Components has a series on designing one.

https://www.rs-online.com/designspark/design-of-a-korg-nutube-amplifier-part-1-tube-basics

 

Very nice! Guitar pedals are fun and rewarding little projects.

Here's a couple of mine:
http://www.diyaudioblog.com/2017/11/big-muff-clone-coda-effects-dolmen-fuzz.html
http://www.diyaudioblog.com/2017/11/matsumin-valvecaster-guitar-effects.html

I have an overdrive I'm working on now, nearly complete. The most fun for me is picking the powdercoat finish

Cspirou be sure to try and damp the NuTube, it picks up microphonics like crazy! I'd imagine stomping on a pedal with one in it would cause a few seconds of ringing.