I dont recommend the small clone as a first project.
Build a fuzz, or a booster first. The small clone involves adjusting bias for the BBD.
If you dont know what a trimpot or a rev log pot is, I think you should definately attempt to familiarise yourself with the components by building other projects.
A trimpot is a PCB mounted mini pot that is usually set with a small screw driver in order to compensate for variable tolerences within factory made components, ie BBD's, JFETS, Germ transistors. In order to adjust for optimal performance, ie lowest distortion in the BBD.
a rev log pot is a reverse log potentiometer.
I would explain but the secret life of pots at
www.geofex.com explains much more eloquently and with graphical representation of the pot sweep.
a 1m linear pot will work fine in the small clone, or alternatively you could wire a normal 1m log pot backwards, ie swapping the connections to lugs 1 and 3.
Good luck with the project. The small clone is a great effect.