parts suppliers....

[Mattyboy]

any places i should stay away from? Who has the best bang for the buck?

[GibsonGM]

Don't know of any you should "stay away from", Matty, altho others probably do...some ARE cheaper in quality than others.

I like Smallbear Electric (specifically geared to us here! Small scale/individual service, love to use them for most things incl. enclosures, DPDT/3PDT switches, hard to find parts), Ebay for small basic stuff (R's, C's...kits of R's and C's...breadboards, bulk transistors and the like), Newark Electronics or Mouser and Allied Electronics for harder to find things (odd chips).

Tubesandmore.com for tube stuff, transformers from them or Mojo musical supply, among others...

Overall, I find Ebay to be 'bang for the buck' but am careful not to get things that are 'critical' from there, such as SPECIFIC LEDs, transistors/jfets needed for vintage stuff - Smallbear for that.   Sometimes a few cents more is well worth is as they've already thought about what you're doing with the parts... all of it is cheap enough other than just a few components, anyway...

[mth5044]

Let's not forget the store on the wonderful site you are currently using.

[GibsonGM]

Good call, haven't had the chance to buy anything from here, believe it or not! I'll make a point to! 

[davent]

In NA For one stop shopping in pedal building, getting everything you need to build a pedal, ie., only one shipping charge, i'd only consider Small Bear. Otherwise it's a bit here a bit there, shipping charge here, shipping charge there, wait for this wait for that...
dave

[vigilante397]

I will always be a diehard Tayda Electronics fan. I don't know if they target us specifically as their market, but they definitely cater very well to pedal building with a killer selection and great prices. They don't beat Smallbear's consistency in quality (though I've only had a couple problems with Tayda parts, particularly PT2399's) or customer service, but they're cheap.

[Rhop]

For resistors, caps, diodes (including LED's), common IC's (4558's, TL0XX ect), common transistors (most mosfets, bjts and jfets), pots, sockets...Tayda for me. You won't get any better by paying more somewhere else. Same 1% tolerance metal film Xicon resistors everyone else sells, but for a penny a piece. Same Alpha pots everyone sells for $1.00 or more, for $0.50. The stuff's all made in the Far East, so rather than pay some US distributor/dealer to import them, mark them up and then pay shipping on top, I order from the source.

For hardware (enclosures, jacks, knobs, switches ect.), I go to Smallbear and Mammoth. Smallbear has the jacks, knobs and switches I like, as well as a few of the less common IC's and some other more niche products (not to mention the best pre-tinned wire I've ever used). I use Mammoth's custom enclosure service because they do a great job.

The Far Eastern hardware (jacks, switches) tends to be flimsier and , but a 1% metal film resistor is a 1% metal film resistor, whether you pay $0.01 or $0.10 each.

-Ryan

[blackieNYC]

I'll stretch a point here for arguments sake.  I've ordered from digikey and mouser for decades - but not for pedals, I'm very new to it. There are many, many options with caps and pots, and picking thru the length, width, height, and voltage, wattage, and/or current ratings, shaft length, hole sizes, metric/SAE, and all sorts of other specs, can be a bit challenging. It ain't rocket science, but one might want to let the hard work start at the breadboard. Tayda seems to not have quite as broad an industrial selection (I could be wrong) as the others, but it still offers plenty of opportunity for mistakes.  Dumb mistakes perhaps, yes.  I waited a long time for a Tayda order, my only one so far, to come back, and I found some pots I had ordered had a threaded shaft in which the threads came a little too far up the shaft, such that my set-screw knobs would not fit.  A specification was surely there somewhere and I overlooked it. 
Savings you can evaluate for yourself. You can probably get part numbers - digikey, tayda (a little closer to our needs), and track down the pedal friendly parts, but places like smallbear, this website, mammoth - most of the shopping is done - they don't sell parts, they sell pedal parts.  Uncle Steve went to China so we don't have to!

[ubersam]

Mouser for the most part; Digikey or Smallbear if M doesn't have what I'm looking for (like the long pin pc mount pots), then Tayda for the die-cast boxes.

[davent]

I'll stretch a point here for arguments sake.  I've ordered from digikey and mouser for decades - but not for pedals, I'm very new to it. There are many, many options with caps and pots, and picking thru the length, width, height, and voltage, wattage, and/or current ratings, shaft length, hole sizes, metric/SAE, and all sorts of other specs, can be a bit challenging. It ain't rocket science, but one might want to let the hard work start at the breadboard. Tayda seems to not have quite as broad an industrial selection (I could be wrong) as the others, but it still offers plenty of opportunity for mistakes.  Dumb mistakes perhaps, yes.  I waited a long time for a Tayda order, my only one so far, to come back, and I found some pots I had ordered had a threaded shaft in which the threads came a little too far up the shaft, such that my set-screw knobs would not fit.  A specification was surely there somewhere and I overlooked it. 
Savings you can evaluate for yourself. You can probably get part numbers - digikey, tayda (a little closer to our needs), and track down the pedal friendly parts, but places like smallbear, this website, mammoth - most of the shopping is done - they don't sell parts, they sell pedal parts.  Uncle Steve went to China so we don't have to!

Big plus from me! I order from Mouser and Digikey frequently as well, pedals are only a part of what i build , for pedals, Steve's got it sorted, he's done the leg work, sorted through the myriad of options and narrowed it down to what serves this madness best. Never have to worry about the quality either, that could never be said of some of the other pedal enablers.
dave

[bluebunny]

Where are you Mattyboy?  There are some other options on this side of the Atlantic.

[Cozybuilder]

Theres also Bitches Love My Switches out of Brooklyn, NY. Lawrence will treat you right.

[Mattyboy]

Where are you Mattyboy?  There are some other options on this side of the Atlantic.

Minneapolis, Mn

[darkcity]

I found this guide helpful.

http://www.guitarpcb.com/PDF%20Files/A%20Beginners%20Guide%20to%20Effects%20Pedal%20Components.pdf

[bluebunny]

Minneapolis, Mn

Used to visit the Twin Cities often in a previous life.  Sadly not often enough nor recent enough to tell you where to get stuff locally.      Go with what the other guys are recommending.  For my $0.02, stop by Smallbear if you can - Steve's a great guy and does a lot to support many around here in these crazy endeavours.

[Mattyboy]

In the Twin Cities area, people......go to axeman in St.Paul. They are a surplus store and have switches, resistors, caps, and NOS tubes (GE, RCA, Zenith to name a few) by the millions. Very inexpensive aswell. Not to mention many other assorted weird but cool shit

[overdriver999]

I go with smallbear or mammoth for everything.. Pretty good so far for a noob like myself.

[ASchmalex]

In the Twin Cities area, people......go to axeman in St.Paul. They are a surplus store and have switches, resistors, caps, and NOS tubes (GE, RCA, Zenith to name a few) by the millions. Very inexpensive aswell. Not to mention many other assorted weird but cool shit

Good to know, I'm just south of there and make it up from time to time.

[lapsteelman]

I use Smallbear, Bitches Love My Switches, and Mouser, and Tayda. I haven't had a bad experience with any of them. 

The personal service from Smallbear, and BLMS is outstanding!

[vigilante397]

Bitches Love My Switches

Not only a killer name, also killer pricing and killer service.