freestompboxes.org

I've been lurking long enough, so I thought I would celebrate my first pedal by engaging in the forums finally.

Forewarning: I learned to solder 2 weeks ago, so the gut shot may induce vomiting among seasoned pros.

Here are some pictures:



Gut shot:

Just wanted to say thanks to everyone involved here, otherwise I wouldn't have found the info I was lurking for.

That said...anyone see areas for improvement?

Some things that make sense to me would be:
- Stamp letters and cut holes more precisely.
- Use shrink tubing on the LED joins.

Other thoughts?

That looks pretty sweet for a first build.

My first pedals looked like spaghetti stuffed in a box LOL. My proto-types still do!!!

That looks great - I love the pinecone graphic !
Can't say I've ever been a fan of red knobs But , I couldn't imagine that pedal with anything else.

Looks like You've had a little bit of trouble getting the solder to take on the jack socket tabs.
Don't be scared to get a bit of heat into them before applying the solder.
Also , Some items like that can benefit from being 'scuffed up' a bit , with an emery board or a scrap of sand paper - And cleaned with a cotton tip and alcohol.
I clean the leads and tabs on everything - But , I'm like that.
Otherwise - Well done.
More importantly , How does it sound ?

That looks great! Must be the Instagram
No, but really, good job for a first build. I think I need to up my game to not embarrass myself.
How did you finish the pedal, just use regular stamps with ink and clearcoat over?

tonecut wrote:- Use shrink tubing on the LED joins.

That's a good idea, makes everything look even more neat.

bato001: Thanks for the kind words!

tasteless: Thanks for the advice. I've been turned onto doing more linking next time around via the ground strip of the board and via general linking from lug to lug, etc. I think that'll help with the "let's solder 5 leads to one sleeve tab" issue I ran into this first time around. Oh, and for the how does it sound? Pretty darn good!


Seiche: For the finish, I used StazOn ink and rubber stamps. Worked out beautifully and no clear coat, as I don't mind the worn look and the ink holds up really well over time. I kind of like that about the stamps.