Build kits
- Thread starter Alex Kenivel
- Start date
laxu
Rock Star
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- 3,608
In EU, musikding.de sells kits from various vendors. I bought a couple of PedalPCB kits with parts, enclosures drilled etc. Built myself the Browne Protein (each side a separate pedal) and Hudson Broadcast. They turned out pretty great in the end but I definitely had some issues.
Do NOT buy any little PCBs that go on the footswitches! They seem convenient but are way more pain in the ass than manually soldering those together. When something didn't work, it was a nightmare debugging those tiny wires and the solder joints or trying to get the PCB off the switch.
When putting the board together, build with the smallest components first, then the next size up. Makes it easier if you have to go back in there to redo stuff. To make it a bit faster, consider where you can put a few components so you can easily solder them one after another. I had 2-4 components with their legs bent to hold them in place at once to solder. Then flip the board, put in more components and repeat.
I honestly should build more pedals as it was fun. I spraypainted and clearcoated mine, no labels or anything tho.
Most of the kits out there will be drive pedals and those are definitely easiest to start. Fuzzes especially are often minimal number of components.
- Musikding sent me momentary instead of latching footswitches by accident. They would have replaced them but I had already bought replacements so I asked for a future purchase discount instead. The latching and momentary 3PDT switches look identical so I can understand the mistake.
- The LEDs were extremely bright, think MXR level nonsense. I had to take some time to figure out the correct resistor value to dim them to a comfortable level. Different LED models will also require different resistor values.
- I had issues with the pedals working and definitely had to debug a good bit. PedalPCB didn't have schematics for the Protein at the time so I used the schematics for their Bluesbreaker and Nobels ODR-1 boards. They are probably like 80-90% the same as the Protein, just a bit different component values. I think in most cases the problem was with the 3PDT switch soldering, either on the switch or on the small cables going to the board.
Do NOT buy any little PCBs that go on the footswitches! They seem convenient but are way more pain in the ass than manually soldering those together. When something didn't work, it was a nightmare debugging those tiny wires and the solder joints or trying to get the PCB off the switch.
When putting the board together, build with the smallest components first, then the next size up. Makes it easier if you have to go back in there to redo stuff. To make it a bit faster, consider where you can put a few components so you can easily solder them one after another. I had 2-4 components with their legs bent to hold them in place at once to solder. Then flip the board, put in more components and repeat.
I honestly should build more pedals as it was fun. I spraypainted and clearcoated mine, no labels or anything tho.
Most of the kits out there will be drive pedals and those are definitely easiest to start. Fuzzes especially are often minimal number of components.
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- 2,951
Thanks for the detailed advice, I especially appreciate the smallest-component-first route.
I hear sanding the surface of the LEDs can help tame the brightness
I may have accidentally ordered another more local, cheaper pedal kit too. Second cancellation email sent. Won't be mad if I end up with it
laxu
Rock Star
- Messages
- 3,608
Yeah you can sand them to diffuse the light more but the proper solution is the right resistor(s).
norminal
Rock Star
- Messages
- 3,483
#1 Advice for your first build. I learned this the hard way.
SillyOctpuss
Shredder
- Messages
- 1,072
Oh and blu tack is fantastic for holding parts and pcbs in place while soldering. I get a huge blob of blu tack, mount the parts, turn the board over and then get to soldering.
- Messages
- 2,951
Oh man that's a good one. We're teachers and have it in bulk at home and work lol
SillyOctpuss
Shredder
- Messages
- 1,072
It's probably the best tip I've ever been given. I bought one of those helping hands when I started building and it was pretty terrible. The blu tak is really stable and made pedal building much quicker for me.
Tape also works really well to keep tension on leads while you solder them to switches/pots/jacks etc.
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- 125
I like kits from them personally (as I am in Europe)
www.musikding.de
Pretty fast shipping, nice service
Fast answers when you have questions
The pedal ends in my pedalboard
Musikding Kits
Ready to solder kits for effect pedals for guitar and bass. You can find all documents linked inside the article description, in the tab Documents and schem
Pretty fast shipping, nice service
Fast answers when you have questions
The pedal ends in my pedalboard
- Messages
- 125
I Hope to build a second one too. But the problem is that the diagram are complex for what I like and I’m not really able to read circuit without visuals . Musikding provides visuals in the easiest one, but then ….I told myself I was fine building pedals. That is until this f*****g thread. Looks like I’ll have an order from Pedal PCB coming soon.
