User:Mitchell

Building Guitar Pedals Workshop

What is this?

This will be a workshop where you can learn how to build your own guitar pedals. I’ll suggest ideas and provide direction, you bring your ideas and vision! We will cover everything from finding or designing a circuit, making a PCB, and putting it all in a box.

Why build guitar pedals?

If you play guitar, or any electronic instrument, you will recognize the advantage of having ways to modify your sounds. Pedals can also be instruments and sound generators on their own.

If you’ve done some soldering and built basic electronics projects it’s time to level up and try some thing new! Audio processing circuits will give you a chance to try new electronic building blocks, like transistors and amplifiers. If you’ve worked with digital circuits, like Arduino, building guitar pedals will give you an opportunity to try out analog circuits!

Guitar pedals are fun, not hard to build, you can use them with your band, play them at open mic night, trade them with your friends, and they make great gifts! It’s way cheaper to make your own pedals rather than buy the them new!

Who should do this?

Anyone with an interest making electronic projects, and an interest in guitars or electronics and music!

What can I Make?

Anything you want! I’ve built boosters, overdrives, distortion, fuzz, delays, phase shifters, and more! The schematics for all of the classic effects like the Big Muff, Fuzz Face, Tube Screamer, and many of the newer pedals are available on the internet. If you can find the schematic for something and the parts you can build it.

But don’t stop there! If you can the schematic for something and like to experiment you can modify it as much as you like to make something new!

About me:

Hi my name is Mitchell, I teach front end web development and have a hobby making things! I have built many guitar pedals, and synthesizer modules. Full disclosure, I majored in art in college, and am not an electrical engineer.

Take a look at my blog: http://www.super-freq.com/

When will we be making guitar pedals?

The first session is scheduled Jan 7.

Where will we be making guitar pedals?

At noisebridge 272 Capp Street, in the electronics room.

What Tools and materials do you need to make some guitar pedals?

Noisebridge has a lot of electronics parts on hand, much of it looks like it would be great for analog projects. That said they don’t have everything. There is probably enough onsite to get started, you may have to order some parts in the future, talk to me I can help you out ordering parts if you have questions.

You’ll solderless breadboard for prototyping, solderiron, wire cutters, and a multimeter for debugging. Noisebridge has most of these things on-site.