! (Been a heck of a year :o))

[mat]

Well, cannot never thank enough You all.

Just a year ago my knowledge about DIY’ing guitar pedals/amps was just a round zero. Then I did ran into a site that adviced how to mod a RAT to sound more bluesy â€" just snip one resistors end off. After that it suited much better for my purposies. Nice sound trough Fender Twin with strat.

After some deeper investigation of DIY sites I ran onto runoffgroove, Arons page + forum, GEO, Ampage, GGG, Tonepad, Paul Marossys site (that was a big influence to me. To actually see so many good looking DIY pedals !)
My favourites folder overflowed DIY information. But it was very hard to adopt the available information because of one’s noobines. But slowly step after step something did stuck on the few grey cells of mine =o) After many stupid/annoying question I got few great sounding working pedals built. I never forget the feeling when my first booster made sound… After that I’ve had many feelings like that. Even today when I finished the Peppermill-overdrive in  one hour it gave me the same feeling. Maybe not so strong as the first time but very nice feeling after all. And very nice circuit also by the way.

Well now I remember (as a long time Guitar Player Magazine subscriber) many years ago I tried to build an overdrive/preamp with the GP’s instructions. It had so many little parts that it was just overwhelming. I got sound from it but as I now think it was misbiased badly â€" ugly fizzy overdrive. Many times I tried to figure out what would be wrong with it. Did not have anyone to ask what might be wrong. (did not have anyone to send the pinvoltages ;o)

During the Year I’ve built 30+ pedals, one electric guitar, 3 amps + one 1 x 12’’ cabinet, cabinet simulator, line out-box, mic pre-amp, winded one pickup, built a power supply and pedalboard + cords between the pedals… maybe forgot something. Lots of money have been spent on these but not nearly as much if I had bought all of the stuff from boutique pedal and amp makers. And when You have built the effects by yourself, then that IS your sound )

The main thing for me is that playing nowdays is much more enjoyable with all those wonderfull sounds. They are very big inspiration for making music.

For the future builds the amp-bug has bitten me guite hard )) That is another very nicee terratorio to study besides the DIY effects. Tube reverb unit, Deluxe Reverb Amp, 18Watt Marshall clone â€" some of  my future builds. My todo-pedal-list is very long too. Shakatube, Tubedriver, plus lots of non-tube circuits. Lots of etched boars waiting to be populated.

I’m still lightyears behind the most of guys/gals here. So there will be lots of learning ahead â€" but I am enjoying every minute of it.

So here is my big warm thanks for the great people here and of course a special thanks for Aron to providing the wonderfull forum + the information for us all.

My holiday will be over at 10. August and after that I will be at work for 12h\day  6days\week for some time. So I’ll have to stop building for a while. But after that ;0)))))


           Yours, Matti T.  (mat)


ps. If You like to peek some of my newest builds, go here: http://koti.welho.com/mtiilama/

[robotboy]

Well, the year isn't over yet, but I share you sentiment. I've come from a near zero experience background as well, and I'm just finishing up pedal #15. I couldn't have done any of it without all the helpful folks at this site to inch me along and all the awesome builds to drool over. Congrats on a lot of great builds (looked at your pics), and may the rest of this year bring lots more learning and fun projects to us all.

[puretube]

The -!- Thread

:lol:

[mat]

The -!- Thread

:lol:

Sorry puretube (and all). I have missed that rule. Well as I said, learning all the time ;o)

Thanks,

mat

[puretube]

just joking...  :oops:

[aron]

Thanks Mat and everyone else!!!!!!!!!!!

Aron

[Paul Marossy]

After some deeper investigation of DIY sites I ran onto runoffgroove, Arons page + forum, GEO, Ampage, GGG, Tonepad, Paul Marossys site (that was a big influence to me. To actually see so many good looking DIY pedals !)

That's the whole reason I created the site - to hopefully inspire someone to build their own stompbox, and whatever else. I'm happy to hear that I have accomplished my goal.  :wink: