Easy pedal build for a teenager

[glebert]

My 13 old son has always "helped" me with amp and instrument repair, and is super smart on technical stuff. He wants to do some of his own builds. I'm thinking about having him do some clone pedals (with lead free solder, of course) and maybe he can even sell them at the local guitar shop. It seems like distortion pedals will be much easier than modulation effects. He likes fuzz pedals more than overdrive. I have a vintage Schaller germanium fuzz that has about 10 components total, I'm wondering if cloning that might be doable? I don't know about availability of germanium BJTs and how close they are to the old stuff.

Thanks in advance for any advice,
Greg

[Chemtooler]

I have a had good experiences with AION effects.

https://aionfx.com/

They sell boards or complete kits. Great documentation and directions.

[xtian]

+1 for aionFX, great stuff, good documentation. But forget lead-free solder. Are you worried about health effects? Just make sure he has adequate ventilation when working. Lead-free requires higher temps, and is a PITA to rework.

[glebert]

+1 for aionFX, great stuff, good documentation. But forget lead-free solder. Are you worried about health effects? Just make sure he has adequate ventilation when working. Lead-free requires higher temps, and is a PITA to rework.

He had a brain tumor surgery and chemo when he was an infant so his brain has been through enough If he learns with Pb-free working with leaded stuff will be like dancing naked.

[nosaj]

SmallBear was my entry into this profession.....
nosaj

[Mick Bailey]

NOS germanium transistors are very variable and potentially unreliable. I've bought plenty that are useless due to massive leakage - far higher than tolerable for Ge. Quite a few years ago I switched to Soviet-era Ge transistors. These are quite remarkable in that their leakage is about the same as silicon. I had a good supplier in Bulgaria that could guarantee the gain range - many were being sold with very low gain characteristics at that time. The fuzz builds with those transistors are the best I ever made, with really good repeatability and reliability.

[J M Fahey]

The very first pedal anybody should build is Electro Harmonix“s Linear Power Booster, which does not even *require* a PCB, no exotic-unreliable components, eetc.

And works very well.



A practical build using a small piece of Veroboard (he can also use perfboard and bend legs on the underside):

http://www.lonephantom.com/2010/09/e...1-clone-build/

[Mark Hammer]

My frequent recommendation to beginners is to build a loop-selector. It has a few advantages. First, as much of a personal triumph as a distortion pedal of some kind can be, one can grow tired of it VERY quickly, whereas a loop-selector will remain useful for a longer time, especially if your son has an affinity for acquiring pedals. Second, although use of indicator LEDs requires power, this is still something that can function entirely passively with no absolute need for power. Third, there is not much to install backwards, like transistors or electrolytic caps, so there is less to go wrong, and certainly NOTHING to adjust. So, IMHO, as a starter project, it has all that going for it.

Of course, what it has going against it is that you'd have to have the needed equipment to pop the holes into the enclosure where you wanted them, and you'd have to make sure which lug was which. Sadly, there is no universal standard for which lugs on a jack connect to which contact. On pedal forums, it has been the bane of first-timers who wonder why their batteries die overnight.

[Mick Bailey]

My own recommendation is the Bazz Fuss. I've built a few of these for people and they've used them live. Dead easy to build, just a single silicon transistor and plenty of scope for modification. No PCB required - build point-to-point, on Vero or a tag strip.

Demo; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=41iNKgQ_T1A

[glebert]

My own recommendation is the Bazz Fuss. I've built a few of these for people and they've used them live. Dead easy to build, just a single silicon transistor and plenty of scope for modification. No PCB required - build point-to-point, on Vero or a tag strip.

Demo; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=41iNKgQ_T1A

That is a special kind of awesome, and not one I had heard of. Thanks to all for suggestions!

[35L6]

I like the fuzz face / tone bender ( I call it face bender ) circuit . I was attracted to it by the simplicity and keep coming back for the complexity . There is a million ways to build it . And don't forget the stratoblaster / tilman amp J-FET booster . +1 on Small Bear . On my last order they threw in a bag of capacitors , sure beats that candy Sweetwater throws in .