Creating my own line of custom pedals...

Some friends of mine and I have been mulling around the idea of creating our own custom line of guitar pedals. The group of us go through so many different versions of our boards that we thought it might be a fun project to learn exactly what all goes into making our own stompboxes.

So I'm curious if anyone has attempted making their own pedals and what advice they'd give to someone starting out. I'm not looking to just make my own clones of existing pedals, but instead my very own signature pedals. Who knows, maybe someday I'll start a company and sell these things. I want to make sure it's even possible first.

So what advice do you have, and what resources are out there for building your own stompboxes? (Again, not simply clones...even though it may start with a deconstruction of a clone.)

Thanks!

I won't go into my credentials, since I'm not an "official anything" around here. If someone else wants to do that on my behalf, that's cool. But I can't (and don't want to). And what they say is their perception alone.

That said, I can give you some generic advice that you can either take or leave; it might be useful to you, or it might not help at all.

First of all, if you are doing it for fun or to learn, you are doing it for the right reasons, IMO. The $ thing can come later (if at all). So have at it, and have FUN. IMO, any upshot beyond ever making a profit is that YOU will eventually be in control of exactly what is on your board, and how it works for you.

Second - if you aren't out to copy or pattern your stuff off things that are familiar, IMO you probably won't sell much of anything. That doesn't mean you have to resort to building clones - you just need to be aware that "unique" isn't really appealing, but another repackaged TS is, another repackaged Tonebender is, and so on.

...I don't mean to discourage, because I personally don't have any desire to really use anything common (in the pedal world) as a foundation for most of my "experiments." But I'm not out to ape Jimi's tone in a box, or anything like that.

With that in mind, my advice would be to (after learning the electronics and audio design fundamentals first) analyze circuitry/preamps/etc. that have little or nothing to do with pedals. IMO, that is where you will find something "new" that will probably satisfy your self-imposed challenges. For me, that means analyzing audio preamps of any kind. IOW, they typically aren't crude little 9V powered circuits that a guitarist finds at his or her feet. :razz:

...If you do something like that, you will almost certainly not come up with a retreaded design, and you'll probably learn more electronics audio stuff (faster) than guys who have only had their noses inside of traditional pedal enclosures.

My only other advice is that unless you are business savvy or just driven to almost the point of madness, it might be better to keep it as a hobby. It's a tough racket if you aren't willing to sacrifice a LOT to get back a little, and there's obviously no guarantees. IOW, there's really no glamor in it, from my perception.

As far as DIY sites, they are easily found. If you are driven, you will find them. I only like to mention the less common ones or super geeky ones, like runoffgroove.com and bossarea.com as being two that are really DIY to the core, and have no association with anyone turning a buck. There are others that are not "business associated," but some folks from that realm sneak in on occasions, and it just kind of taints the learning process, IMO.

The other issue with the DIY sites IMO is that it's easy to pick up on bad habits or start believing things that haven't been proven, like the 4558 chip is the best daggone OD op amp of all time, or germanium transistors always sound best, or whatever. It is also easy to imitate people at those sites who you admire, in spite of not wanting to do exactly that (I witness it all the time).

So that's my little bit of useless advice, for whatever little bit it might be worth. I don't mean to sound deflating or uber geeky, but that is my own perception, so IDK any other way to really see it.

Whatever you end up doing, good luck, and HAVE FUN.

11 Gauge is pretty modest, he makes great pedals, and best of all - for us - is willing to share information.

I honestly DON'T have credentials outside of my education and life's experiences, but I'd concur with his comments. What I might add though, is that it also doesn't hurt to know people in music. I think it's fair to say the pedal builders who got past their garage or kitchen tables did so because at least some of them picked up notice somewhere along the line from a big name. Some people just step in the right puddle, others fall backwards into money.

Look at the Timmy pedal. It has a huge following. The developer has hinted about a new design coming out years ago. There has been plenty of time for most business type people to build an empire out of that kind of following by now, but there is still just the Tim and Timmy. Not even a web site! With low overhead, a spouse that has insurance, buying in quantity, etc., I gotta believe someone in a position like that can probably make reasonable money.

There are many formulas to success, and a good design with a little exposure is one way. Pouring over schematics of all kinds is also a good way for ideas to get there.

ill take a solasound mk1.5 thanks.. for under $200. 0c75s are just dandy.

I am actually in the process of designing a pedal right now. I already have two prototypes, and I'm pretty sure the next will be my V1. Then, who knows? Make a batch, slap a price sticker on em, throw some demos on YouTube, website,...etc... Then just hope and pray that somebody cares as much about my pedal as I do.

Wow guys....thanks. That's going to take a little while to pour over. I'm definitely looking into this as a hobby first, and to develop my own sound. That said, I'd love to look down and see my very own design staring back up at me from the pedalboard.

Thanks again...and any more words of wisdom are greatly appreciated!

You'll probably want to read up on electronic engineering if you want to design your own circuits. Lots of books out there on that subject, none of which are very light reading. I hope you like mathematics!

I hope you like mathematics!

If not overly used as a crutch, computers can help a LOT. I also don't really want to plug them (since I typically still scribble my equations on paper), but look into Wolfram for electronic tools with math.

If not overly used as a crutch, computers can help a LOT. I also don't really want to plug them (since I typically still scribble my equations on paper), but look into Wolfram for electronic tools with math.

Programs like Pspice for circuit simulation/analysis are very useful too.

Wow.... I'll just stick to stompin' them..... Sounds too much like work!! :shock: :mrgreen: :lol:

If you want to learn exactly what all goes into making your own stompboxes, you might think about starting with a kit from one of the well-known pedal kit makers. Find out how pedals are built, wired, and what works and what doesn't, and what sounds good and what doesn't. I started with a kit from Moody Sounds, although I added a known mod. I also built a kit from Build Your Own Clone.

My third pedal was based on a circuit board from BYOC, but I did everything else that wasn't on the pc board.

I'm in the process of building a clean boost and a tube preamp. I've found the clean boost to be the most useful pedal. The tremolo pedal is great, too, as it's a much better trem sound than amp modelers, although still not quite the grid bias trem that I build in my amps.

I agree that learning about electrical engineering, math, and circuits is important. PSpice is a useful tool, and there is good layout design software out there, too. Go to the Beavis Audio (http://www.beavisaudio.com/) site; Dano has a wealth of information on pedal building. Get or make a breadboard prototyping setup to test designs. Here's what I put together using a spare breadboard, a couple of parts, and scraps of wood and metal. I use it to test my circuits.
http://www.tdpri.com/telephoto/data/539/medium/bb01.jpg
http://www.tdpri.com/telephoto/data/539/medium/bb02.jpg
.

yeah, Im def not buying that :lol:

http://www.tdpri.com/telephoto/data/539/medium/bb01.jpg
http://www.tdpri.com/telephoto/data/539/medium/bb02.jpg
.

I'm not selling that. As I said, I put that together with parts I had lying around the house. I use it to test circuits and it works great for that. My pedals look like this:

http://www.tdpri.com/telephoto/data/539/medium/KickBox01.jpg

http://www.tdpri.com/telephoto/data/539/ArmadilloTone02.jpg

http://www.tdpri.com/telephoto/data/500/medium/SwampBox_R.jpg