New to building pedals

southtone · Post by **southtone** » 12 May 2010, 22:36

So this is my first post here, but I've been doing a lot of research gearing up to start building pedals. I am familiar components in general because I studied them in college; however, I've never purchased them and do not know what the accepted quality components are. Are the futurlec value packs the best way to start accumulating parts? Are these parts good enough quality? What starter packs do you recommend for resistors and caps? Thanks for the help!

JOHNO · Post by **JOHNO** » 12 May 2010, 23:57

G'day Southtone and welcome to the best stompbox building forum on the planet.

Ive never ordered parts online so I cant help you with that, I just go down to my local electronics store and purchase stuff over the counter. I dont think component quality is a big issue. Nearly all the components Ive come across have been fine. And i dont think the big stompbox manufactures go out of there way to purchase top quality components. They just use what ever is avaliable and cheap and sell it for top dollar. As for starting a collection of parts I would suggest you decide on what circuits you would like to build and order those parts. Say you buy 10 packs ( as In 10 resistors per pack) of the resistor values you need, maybe two each of the caps you need and a foot switch or two. Dont forget you need wire to. This way you dont have a heap of values that you arnt ever going to use. And slowly over time you will accumulate so many caps and resistors and stuff that you will be able to build just about any circuit straight out of your parts stash. Anyway hope this points you in the right direction.
Johno.
P.S I recommend you use MKT caps but thats just my opinion.

defaced · Post by **defaced** » 13 May 2010, 12:52

Where are you located? I buy most of my stuff through Mouser, but there could be better options if you don't live in the US.

southtone · Post by **southtone** » 13 May 2010, 13:57

Thanks guys for the responses. I'm in AL, USA. I think I will try a brick and mortar store first. I'm primarily going to start building fuzzes. I'm just blown away at the cost of Ge fuzzes from manufacturers with these simple circuits.

A couple more questions for you good fellas: Where is a good place to buy Ge trans? Smallbear has a descent selection, but is this the cheapest option? Also, I'm looking into getting a good soldering iron. I've had a little butane Weller forever. Is the Weller WLC100 any good?

Thanks again.

JOHNO · Post by **JOHNO** » 14 May 2010, 00:34

I get my GE's out of old transistor radios. I buy them for next to nothing at the market and take them home and gut them.
The only ones I ever bought brand new where some AC128's from rs components and they where rubbish. Really harsh sounding. I guess all you can do is buy a set from small bear and see how you go. For a soldering iron i can definatly reccomend a Goot rx-711. It has adjustable heat range and is just a fantastic iron. It may be a bit expensive though. Weller aiso do make good irons although i havnt tried them, just make sure you dont get a huge one as we are only soldering circuit boards and not the titanic. I think you probably want about a 15w to 20w iron.
Johno

mikemaddux · Post by **mikemaddux** » 14 May 2010, 06:01

If you do go the futurlec route, get the diode pack, resistor pack, capacitor pack, and transistor pack.......a ton of useable parts for really cheap.....

diodead · Post by **diodead** » 14 May 2010, 20:00

I just got the Weller WES51. Affordable and kinda awesome!

southtone · Post by **southtone** » 01 Jun 2010, 20:57

Thanks for all the help guys