What's Your Main Motivation For Building Effects

[Paul Marossy]

I ask out of curiosity. It's a variety of things for me...

[MartyMart]

Good Poll Paul !
I did'nt want to select "all" of the reasons, but most of them count for me.
Above all, i'm "addicted" and really enjoy "making" something that produces a very cool noise  
I just recorded a new band called "Emersion"  kind of "hard indie rock" and we used a few of my builds on the recordings, that made me very proud indeed !!
They were "blown away" with the sounds we got
I'll post up a few clips next week on my website.
www.martinlister.com

Marty.

[Johnny G]

i selected all of them because they all do (except "because everyone is doing it") applied to me. i love the challenge. im a poor student, sort of. i love learning. and next year when i go to do electrical engineering at uni, hopefully i will have coveredenough to spend the first two years doing sweet F.A. lol

[panasonic_youth]

i do it because i want to get really messed up sounding effects, ones that cant be found in stores because no one else wants them.

[lightningfingers]

Because it's cheaper? Thats how it started anyway, I have since become addicted and can't stop. :?

[1wahfreak]

1st to learn and have fun, but also because the price of some of vintage pedals are just outrageous. I saw Clydes this week going between $650.00 and $800.00!! Once I saw this forum, I thought why pay the extra $600.00 when I can make it for way less than $100.00 and be able to tune it exactly to my liking. Can't beat that......!!!!

[Dan N]

I chose the "save money" one. It comes from wanting to hear what vintage-famous effects sound like, but unable to afford them.

If the poll was for favorite user names, panasonic_youth would get my vote!

[javacody]

I too started out to save money and got addicted. Now I probably a thousand dollars worth of assorted parts here. How's that for saving money? LOL

[petemoore]

without sorting for priority...
 I'd never even seen a FF around, and built a 'few' I use, that I'd never be able to buy.
 Because I can take almost any effect and tune the thing to work 'better' at least with the rest of my rig.
 Price / Selection absolutely can't be beat.
 If I'm unhappy with one of my selections, I can change it.
 I can 'build and couple effects much better than what I could if I were to buy them. I can put a voltage divider between them for example.
 I can keep noise floor extremely low.
 I can choose what I want the knobs and switches to do, then cause them do it, within limits.
 I can get what I want just about every time...
 DPDT or 3PDT
 Solid Box
 The Circuit I want, tweeked to preferences.
 anything else
 Now I'm trying to think of an effect I desire that I can't build...Hmmmm

[al3151]

To learn and have fun best sums it up for me.I find wah wahs  completely magical and interesting  

[bluesdevil]

I started out  seeing about how to repair my old Maestro Fz-1a a few months ago, but quickly got sidetracked when I discovered all the great schematics, resources for parts and help to build lots of other cool things. Now I think I'm gonna have to sell my fz-1a just to help pay for the parts I need  for various clone builds, haha!!  Irony is a bitch.  As far as the poll, I guess now it would be "all of the above" for me(with the exception of "cause everyones doing it).

[Johnny Guitar]

I too started out to save money and got addicted. Now I probably a thousand dollars worth of assorted parts here. How's that for saving money? LOL

:lol:

Yep! That was me too. At lest how I got started building synth stuff. I'm going to go broke saving all this money!

Making money is the only one which wouldn't apply to me I think.

Really as for making effects, if it wasn't for the net and sites like GEOFEX, GGG, ROG, Tone Pad and this forum I wouldn't be doing that much of it now.

John

[Marcos - Munky]

I started to save some money, because effects are really expensive here. After this, I build because "a cool guitarist uses a ___", then to learn and have fun, and now to find my tone. But I'm addicted too .

[squidsquad]

First it was because cheap pedals suck...and good ones are SO expensive.
So, I wanted to save money.  I also wanter to re-visit my childhood...& have a fun hobby.  (Made a shortwave reciever w/my dad when I was young)
Of course...you end up spending more than expected...once addicted.  But STILL less than buying a half dozen *botique* pedals.  And I've had SO much fun...learned TONS (thanks everyone) and am SO proud when running thru a booster, distortion, tremolo & amp...all built with my own two hands.
Also worth mentioning...I'm a pro guitarist...and my tone has improoved dramatically!

[spongebob]

I'm a confessing colophonium addict!  :lol:

And when I got into DIY electronics building I actually thought I would save some money, haha!

[Jason Stout]

I build because I want what doesn’t exist.

[panasonic_youth]

in response to dan or whoever complimented my name:  panasonic youth is a song by dillenger escape plan. their guitar sounds are a main motivation for my building. they use crazy ring mods w/ distortion. its really cool.

[Paul Marossy]

I thought this would be an interesting poll. So far, it is.  :wink:

I'm going to go broke saving all this money!

He he. I know exactly what you mean! Actually, once you get a certain amount of parts stockpiled, you can build stuff fairly cheaply - probably for less than if you bought the real thing. It seems to me that the one offs will  cost you as much if not more than the real thing.

I build because I want what doesn’t exist.

Aha! Very good point! That is actually one reason that I build stuff. (I guess I should have thought of that category, too  :oops: ) I think that a lot of these DIY circuits sound better than what is commercially available in a similar category. Viva DIY!  

[george]

I build to
- save money
- tweak to my own taste and do other mods with a clear conscience about losing resale value etc

[RickL]

Like the majority I build for fun and to learn, but saving money and the challenge are also high on my list. I particularly like being able to build effects that I will never be able to afford. Fender Blender, Roland Bee Baa, Ibanez Flying Pan (wait for it), MXR Blue Box, Roland Funny Cat...

I actually have originals of the last two but I can't imagine destroying the value of them by modding.