How do they actually work?

[Fred]

Hi everyone.  I am obviously not an electronics engineer but I'm still very interested in learning how these pedals actually work.  It's one thing grabbing a schematic off the internet and building it, but far more interesting to understand what's actually going on.

Could anyone here point me towards some tutorials or sites that give this kind of info.  What would be ideal from a learning perspective would be if someone could take you through an effect from start to finish explaining what each section does (and how).  

Thanks very much in advance.

[Chico]

The net is full of great info.  Did you Google around?

Getting started, I highly recommend

http://www.geofex.com

In particular, read all of the "Technology of" articles.

A real gem is an article under RG's circuit sweepings entitled
"What are all those parts for???"

Best of luck.

Tom

[petemoore]

Click around, starting from the top of this page, and check out pages and pages and pages. Great Stuff.
 ROG's multi Faces article and many others provide info about workings and reworking circuits.
 Links
 DIY FAQ
 Schematics / {Schems II] etc.
 Read over, [or get your math hat on] the equations parts to see what you can gather, rereading them, with your comprehension cap [you may need to do terminology reference searches]...basically it all starts making a little sense after you pull your hair out a few times...very therapudic !

[Khas Evets]

I've also dropped a couple schematics into ltspice. It's free and you can tweek and probe it.

[RDV]

Here it is!
http://www.analogman.com/monkey.htm

RDV

[ryanscissorhands]

To answer your question. . . well, I can't answer your question. It's a very general question. "How do they work?" is much too complicated to be answered in a post. And it can't be answered quickly. It's like, "How do you build a car?" If you're patient and stick around other people who build cars, you'll learn.

I would suggest just reading most threads on this page every day. Even if you don't know what the hell anyone is talking about, eventually you will. I have no experience in electronics at all (heven't even completed the beginner project) but I feel that I have a good understanding of most basic circuits just from reading posts here. Plus it's a great bunch of guys.