image of semi/populated but uninstalled boards
Mark,
Out of curiosity, could you give a description of some of the stuff we see?
Well, er, um, you see that's the thing...I guess....many of these have been waiting for me to return to them for so long that I, um, sort, of "forgot" what they were, and was hoping to eventually identify them while sorting through things. You know, finding a PCB layout that might trigger a suppressed memory (I'm probably the only guy who could say to a psychiatrist, "Let me show you my etchings...PLEASE!"). I *can* say, however, that the big blue board is a PAiA Phlanger, and that there are a bunch of old ETI things in there, and a Moog ladder filter that Mike Irwin graciously gave me. Sadly, since that photo was taken, there are even more boards that have joined their ranks.
Here is the thing, though. Op-amps? often under $1. Caps? Often $0.10 to $0.30@. Same for transistors. Resistors? $0.02-0.10@. Copper board? $1 a sheet. Glossy photo paper for making boards? $0.10 a sheet. Hookup wire? $0.05/ft. So far so good. Jacks? $1-mono $1.50- stereo...when you can find them. Pots? $0.70@ when I get to my favourite place, but normally $1.49-$2.49@....IF they have that value/taper in stock. Chassis? ?11.00...IF they have them in stock. Stompswitches? $4@.
You can see that making and stuffing a board is dirt cheap, compared to actually connecting it to the controls, switches and jacks necessary to having the board actually DO something. Dead easy to keep the inventory on-hand that will let you populate. Kind of pricey to have the same sort of available personal inventory when it comes to pots, jacks, switches, etc. Of course, even when you have all the parts for interfacing the board with the real world, it takes only a couple of hours to produce and populate a board, and often a couple of months until you figure out why that one problem that one seem to go away is occurring. Boards are easy, comedy is hard,
finished working pedals is REALLY hard and hit and miss.
