Recomendations for a begginers build?

[obblitt]

I'm thoroughly intrigued by electronics and love the idea of making my own stomp boxes and screwing around with everything tweakable.

But I obviously need to get my feet wet.. I wanna build something more than a volume pot connected to two jacks (doing that today for my amp's effects loop), and I'm not sure where to start.

I guess what I'm asking is for the most exciting, but simple enough to do project. Ideas? I'm open to most anything..

Thanks!

[MusicAudio]

http://www.diystompboxes.com/smfforum/index.php?board=33.0

The DOD 250 is a good one to start with. Not terribly difficult, but sounds great, plus the beginner's project boards are full of useful info!

-mike

[Hanglow]

http://www.diystompboxes.com/smfforum/index.php?board=6.0

There is a beginner project forum here, it's a booster. If you look at the stickies, they are numbered, just have a look through them in order
If you don't fancy that, have a search in the layouts gallery for a fuzz, they tend to be fairly easy too.

good luck, it's addictive. Take your time and you shallbe rewarded

[jayp5150]

The excitement will come from the fact that it works lol.

So, don't write off boosters, and the like (besides--very useful effects).

Also rummage through the project pages at muzique.com.

I built the muffer as my second project, and it's a cool little build.

[Boogdish]

If you've got no experience with sourcing parts and such, I'd suggest getting one of the kits from General Guitar Gadgets.  They give schematics and wiring diagrams for everything they sell there on the site, so you can look and see if something is too intimidating for you.  They even come with solder and several short pieces of different colored lead wire.

[Renegadrian]

Sparkle boost or Rocket boost - both easy but great effects...
You won't regret it...
Else if you want to impress people, go tube...Valvecaster, 4 res. 3 caps and the tube...

[frank_p]

The first thing not to do is taking effects that are a too big step at first.  There are some guys that get turned down after we help them: they get discouraged that it don't work on in a "snap".
Second: what do you want to study (FETs, BJT, OPAMPs, etc.).

A booster is probably the easiest way to go.

Use the "search" function, than go pick some schematics in the gallery or the www

You can find schematics for about 25 flavours of boosters here.
Read the topics.
Go see (and print) the ones that seems interesting and come back to ask if it's a good choice.

[spenwah]

I've just gotten started myself, and now I'm hooked! My first build was the Tweak-O distortion from Small Bear ( http://smallbearelec.com ). It's an easy circuit to build, comes with great instructions and there are about a thousand options for mods and improvements once you finish it. And it sounds really good, too! The AMZ Mosfet booster is another great choice--easy build and a really, really useful pedal. I'm putting one inside my Small Stone to fix its low output.

There are also tons of options from BYOC ( http://buildyourownclone.com ), but some of these might be too involved for a first time build. But, I hear they throw in their "Confidence Booster" boost pedal for free with your first order.

[cab42]

I'll vote for the beginners project (Gus Smalleys NPN boost)

It is very well documented and easy to build and you have a forum dedicated to this specific build.

Also it sounds great, there is definitely nothing "beginner" about the sound!!

Regards

Carsten

[deaconque]

My first two were Joe Davisson's Easy Drive and a GGG LPB.  Both of these were easy, had very useful tones and helped me learn what each components job was within the circuit.

[Mark Hammer]

Passive loop selector.

Why?

1 - Only needs jacks, a box, and a switch; no need to fret about component values or frying components

2 - Will ALWAYS be useful; if not to you then to someone else

3 - Dead easy to troubleshoot in the absence of a scope or meter or signal generator

4 - Will address the inevitable request for "how to true bypass......<pedal X >"

5 - If you have a drill, takes only one evening to make

[MikeH]

Boosters or routers are the best way to go for sure, but honestly if that totally bores you, there are other projects that are pretty simple that do a little more.  The 250 dist was already mentioned, and I'd also suggest the MXR dist+ (Basically the same thing).  My first build (I think) was the parallel universe on veroboard- the original design, which I think is still in Dragonfly's layout gallery.  It's about 8 components, but it has 5 controls, so it's very simple but there are a lot of sounds in there; everything from thick nasty fuzz, to crazy, oscillating, weirdness.  It has a good "Effort to Result" ratio. 

[Drake120]

NEVER start with the Scrambler or Small Stone If I was starting now, I would start with the beginner project. Otherwise, you migh get discouraged by the fact it didn't work "just like that".

Anyway, I'm not discouraged The time spent with my first build told me a lot, but I'm kind of a patient guy.

Good luck with your first build, whatever it would be

(JD)^S