Do It Yourself Pedal Kits - anyone ever give that a shot?

I've been intrigued by the idea of putting together a DIY kit - the kind you mail away for, and they send you a bag of electronic bits and parts, a circuit board or two, etc. and you, armed with the instructions and soldering tools - do your best to put the thing together without destroying it in the process.

Anyone here ever try that? I ordered one today, and thought it might be fun to see if anyone else has ever done that on the board.

Dan,

I have wanted to do one as well, but not sure I want to invest the time. I did buy used one already built and have been pleased with the outcome. It's a BYOC OD-2 that kind of covers all general distortions. They have a few youtube videos, which I am sure you have seen similar before. Which kit did you order?

[url][url=https://flic.kr/p/XfaBsG][/url]BYOC OD2 by asatsam, on Flickr[/url]

Years ago I was quite the expert solderer and was taught by the guy that invented the Rockman, way back in the day. He actually invented it to give the guys in Journey a device they could plug into on the bus, and using headphones could get some pretty cool sounds from clean to crunchy distortion. this way they could practice without disturbing the rest of the band, like those pesky, pertinent drummers. He showed me how to make my own for a couple dollars in parts. Small little box with an I/O, a couple opamps, caps a pot and a few other gizmos and you put a 9V on it and taped it to the top of your headphones and rocked away down the hi way.

I did not know people were making peddle kits like this. Can you give more info on a site or brand name. It sounds like just the thing I need to keep me busy.

Tom

Tom,

Mine is by Build Your Own Clone "BYOC". They have kits all over eBay and have their own site. Their are other kits on eBay you can get an idea of other kit makers.

Dan,

I have wanted to do one as well, but not sure I want to invest the time. I did buy used one already built and have been pleased with the outcome. It's a BYOC OD-2 that kind of covers all general distortions. They have a few youtube videos, which I am sure you have seen similar before. Which kit did you order?

[url][url=https://flic.kr/p/XfaBsG][/url]BYOC OD2 by asatsam, on Flickr[/url]

I also bought one that was already built that must be based on exactly the same kit as yours. Mine was customized with one more feature with a toggle switch on the left, which controls the sequence between the OD and the boost. This sequence switch actually makes a significant difference to the sound of the pedal. And this, along with an echo pedal, are the only pedals I use when playing my electric.

I have three BYOC pedals. Years ago I bought and built their British Blues Overdrive, which is based on the Marshall blues breaker. A couple of years later I bought their reverb pedal based on something called or nicknamed the " Belton Brick " and also their analog chorus pedal which has the same chip set as the original Boss CE-2 . Never did get the chorus to work, which was disappointing. I find I like building them but I don't use them a lot. The BBC is a great OD though and you get extra capacitors to beef up the gain if you so choose. Buy a decent soldering iron if you don't have one already. A good multi meter is handy too.

Sam - The one I ordered is also a BYOC brand - the pedal is their "Large Beaver" - a fuzz pedal similar to a 70s era Big Muff. The kit allows you to either build a Ram's head or triangle variant (I'mma go with the Ram's Head). It's way to expensive to pick up an "authentic" 70s Ram Head Muff, and even if I was willing to shill out that much, the pedals were built at the time using whatever was cheapest that week for parts - meaning that you might go through a half dozen before you found one that met your expectations (or so I have heard).

It was either this or a Vick Audio 73 Ram's head - and this was half the price of that, plus I get the joy of putting it together and making it my own, as it were.

Well - The kit was delivered to my mail box this morning, but my eldest is getting married on Saturday, so I'll probably not get around to putting that together till the middle or end of next week. I plan on painting the enclosure (I ordered an unpainted enclosure to save money, and because I wanted to paint it myself!) first anyway, so I have a few things to gather (primer, some white enamel - and a clear coat finish)

I'll probably spend more time and effort painting the enclosure than wiring up the circuit. I think I'll take pictures as I go, and post them when I'm done. I'll also do a quick video with the new Comanche. Nothing fancy mind you. Just fun.

One of my buddies is part of the foursome that is Victoria Amplification. He loves these little DIY boxes and states that the components are top quality. What can you say, the Chinese know how to make electronic components. Good luck with your new stomp box.

AND Congratulations on your son's new marriage!

~JagInTheBag

Thanks Jag.

I opened the box and took a peek at the kit and was surprised to find that the enclosure was not the plain steel box I (thought I) had ordered, but was plain steel with the stenciled labels, brand marking, and model name. I think I'm still going to paint it, but that means a bit more steel-wool work on my end.

Because BYOC Inc (an american company out of Washington) has a Canadian distributor, my order shipped and arrived very quickly (I'm in Canada).
To be sure, I got my shipping notice within 15 minutes of ordering it - which (for me) never happens.

I will have to fight the urge to assemble it right away, since I am committed to painting it - even if that will take longer and require more finesse - I think the end product will be worth it.

I'm back from my mini vacation (my son was married out of town, and my wife and I celebrated our 25th a few weeks before the wedding, but held off on celebrating till after the wedding. So I'm back in town now, and looking at my next project with interest.

I figure I'm going to buy some primer and white paint (enamel) on the way home from work today, and some steel wool to strip and prep the enclosure. Hopefully I can get a couple of coats of primer on tonight, and maybe a few coats of white on tomorrow. That'll give it lots of time to dry before I'm ready to try my hand and putting on a home-made decal.

I'm inspired by the customized pedals over at Kitrae.net (URLVOID: No active threats were reported by the scanning engines.). I was originally thinking of hand painting my pedal, and was researching what kind of paint I ought to use, when the linked site came up in my search results. Apparently you can use iron on transfers, as well as water slide decals etc. so I ordered some water slide decals from Amazon, and will give that a shot. On a white background I think I can fake the "Pink Floyd the wall" look similar to what is seen at the linked site.

When I start the work, I'll take pictures and post them here.

When I start the work, I'll take pictures and post them here.

Better yet, post your project in The Project Page ("The place to post your DIY music related projects.") and add a ink to it here.

Right you are, Craig! I'll make the post there when I start the pics. I'm all for keeping it proper and tidy.

-Dan

Dan, you (and others) have inspired me to relive my soldering days and skills. My BYOC Green Pony arrived today and I will get to putting it together real soon. I am no artist so I got the already painted box. If I tried to paint something it would end up looking somewhat like a Dali and Picasso mash up without the extreme price. Not sure If I will post pics, we'll see how it goes. Maybe a before and after but I will post my thoughts on the process and experience.

Tom

Dan, you (and others) have inspired me to relive my soldering days and skills. My BYOC Green Pony arrived today and I will get to putting it together real soon. I am no artist so I got the already painted box. If I tried to paint something it would end up looking somewhat like a Dali and Picasso mash up without the extreme price. Not sure If I will post pics, we'll see how it goes. Maybe a before and after but I will post my thoughts on the process and experience.

Tom

Tom, that's just plain cool!

I hope you post a pic or two and maybe an audio sample or video to show how the new box sounds. You should make a post in the project forum too!

I'm not going to get much done on mine this weekend - really just going to put the primer and base coats on the enclosure - and hopefully design something that joins "awesome" with "functional" in the "what's it eventually going to look like" department. I probably won't start in on the electronics for a couple of weeks yet, depending on when certain items I'll need for the enclosure arrive in the mail. I'm also busy on the weekends (I'm a pastor), but I am pretty stoked about it - half the fun is in putting a project through the, "dream about it, buy the parts, figure out how to make it personal, and slap it together" process.

After all that, I sure hope it lives up to my hype.