Best place for components in Australia?

[bobbletrox]

Hi!  I'm going to attempt to build the foxx tone machine project from General Guitar Gadgets...but I was wondering where the best place is to get components from in Australia.  Oh, and you knew this was coming: what about Germanium diodes?  :shock:

thanks.

[Frankgb]

90% of the components you'll need for the great majority of guitar pedals are availbe from Dick Smith or Jaycar (Jaycar has a bit of a better range).

Farnell has some of the more fancy stuff.

Small Bear has the 'Bootick' components.

As far as the 1N34A's, where you from???  I actually managed to get heaps of them when my local tandy store was getting rid of obselete stock, I got them for $1 a apacket!!!!

[bobbletrox]

I'm in brisbane  

If you've got any 1N34A's hangin' around, I'll gladly cough up some dough for a few!

[RobB]

DSE still have 1N60P germanium diodes. They sound good.  

Farnell are a pain to deal with if they don't have a trade counter in your city.  

I can highly recommend Small Bear for those hard to get parts.

[bobbletrox]

I'll check out small bear then...

Oh yeah, and does it matter which wattage resistor I use, or whether I use carbon, metal or wire-wound?

[Peter Snowberg]

For effects use, 1/4 watt is perfect for 99.999% of what you’ll need. I like metal films the best for low noise, but carbon films work great too. No need for wire wounds in effects. The one resistor family I would avoid would be carbon composition because they don't age gracefully and they have the highest noise.

Welcome to the forums , and take care,
-Peter

[Paul Perry (Frostwave)]

Another Australian DIY source is Altronics
www.altronics.com.au, one store carrying their stuff in Brisbane is Delsound P/L. I get a lot of my stuff for my commercial boxes from Altronics, it is certainly worth having their catalog. ( if one of their retailers doesn't have somethig, then they can get it in).

[bobbletrox]

hey thanks guys!

I checked out Jaycar, and they've got all the stuff...except where I'm after 0.003uF capacitors, they've got 0.0033uF...and where I'm after 0.05uF, they've got 0.056uF.  Which I guess doesn't make much difference.   :oops:

[george]

I'll check out small bear then...

do it - you'll find it's cheaper than dealing with anyone in Australia ... get this, there's this outfit in Melbourne called Rockby Electronics that charges 10 BUCKS minimum postage to Sydney (more if you're elsewhere)

Whereas Steve Daniels charges a minimum of $US4 (about $AU6) to airmail stuff to Australia.

And the actual component prices are cheaper.

And you get stuff that you just can't GET in Australia at a reasonable price.

And he's a nice guy.

Only bummer is he's on vacation right now ...
if you just need one or two 1n34a's I can send you some ...

[Paul Perry (Frostwave)]

http://www.users.bigpond.com/brianswireless/page3.html
a Queensland source for crystal set parts, including Ge diodes (in Rockhampton!)

[george]

hey thanks guys!

I checked out Jaycar, and they've got all the stuff...except where I'm after 0.003uF capacitors, they've got 0.0033uF...and where I'm after 0.05uF, they've got 0.056uF.  Which I guess doesn't make much difference.   :oops:

just use .0033 and 0.047 that's usually what designers mean when they quote .003 and .05

[Peter Snowberg]

Capacitors are generally quite loose in their tolerances anyway so the substitutions you listed are just fine. For some reason, different countries standardize on different values. You could also use .047 for the .05 if you like. Pick up film capacitors when you can. Ceramics will work, but in most applications films will sound MUCH better. The only exception is in fuzzes that make use of the distortion of ceramics. For those circuits, try both styles and let your ears make the choice.

I thought Steve was back and just went to check his site, but it's not responding at the moment. That's the first time I've seen that.

http://www.smallbearelec.com/

Take care,
-Peter

[bobbletrox]

http://www.users.bigpond.com/brianswireless/page3.html
a Queensland source for crystal set parts, including Ge diodes (in Rockhampton!)

Yes!  Thanks for the link!

Thanks again for all the help guys.  I'll let ya know how it goes  :wink:

[ErikMiller]

I thought Futurlec had an office in Australia....

[Paul Perry (Frostwave)]

Another Australian supplier!
http://www.wiltronics.com.au/catalogue/
Wiltronics is in Ballarat (of all places!) but they have IN60 at 33c or so.
I've had good service from these guys, they searched out an eprom eraser for me.

[bobbletrox]

http://www.generalguitargadgets.com/v2/index.php?option=displaypage&Itemid=86&op=page&SubMenu=

I've noticed that the maker of this clone has wired a 2nd DPDT footswitch instead of a SPST toggle switch and added leds for both of them.  Has anyone seen the schematic for this mod before?  It's a great idea!  Although I'm not so great at working out modifications...so does anyone know if it'd easy enough to do?