Even better is to use a stepped drill bit (what's usually recommended when building pedals). Stepped drill bits are self centering and generally work better for larger holes.

I talk briefly about making a pedal from scratch without a kit in this guide: guitargearfinder.com/guides/diy-guitar-pedals/ An easy starting point is to buy a PCB of a pedal you want to build (links to different PCBs and circuits in the guide), then buy the components separately on your own. That's fun and teaches you a bit more about components compared to buying a kit. If you want to go further, you can look at etching your own PCBs so you can modify the circuit as you like. I've tried to do this and had a lot of trouble reliably etching the PCB. Other options such as perfboard are covered in my guide to help you figure out what you might want to try out.

I wish more pedal makers did that. I played around with a rig in AmpliTube like this and it's definitely a great way to shape your tone in interesting ways. Also works great with modulation and delay effects (eg: only have delay/chorus on the lower frequencies). I guess you would split the signal into two paths with a high-pass/low-pass splitter, run both signals into two separate distortion circuits, then mix the two signals back together at the end. Complicated for a pedal build, but very possible.

You can build anything you want. What you are suggesting isn't too hard to do at all. Quad-op amp chips are your friend. [Input buffer] > 3-way EQ with a low, mid and high band pass filter with independent outputs > each distortion stage > summing amp > output buffer. Could probably get away with 6 op amps total. I would imagine it's gonna end up with a good number of potentiometers tho!

Glad you found the video helpful. DIY pedals have quite a few overdrive kits, so you can definitely find one that suits you. Overdrive pedals can range from simple to complex, so have a look around at different options based on what type of effect you want. Fuzz pedals can be noisy, but there's a different reason why this one sounded so noisy when testing (that I didn't explain in the video). The pedal enclosure shields from interference, so when you test any pedal circuit outside of the enclosure it gets blasted from any interference such as the lights I was using during recording. I had two fluorescent lights right above the table to record this video, which creates a lot of interference. The pedal isn't noisy at all when mounted in the enclosure. So if you test a pedal and you hear a lot of humming, that should mostly disappear when it is mounted in the enclosure.

@@AaronMatthies oh thank you so much! can you please make more diy pedals videos? i’d watch you everyday haha

Thanks for the feedback. I'm working on a few more DIY builds so keep an eye out for them!

If you search for "add blend knob guitar pedal schematic", you'll see a few forums where people discuss doing that. I'd imagine it's possible with the right schematic.

They do, check out the link in the description. They have a nice range of pedal kits worth checking out.

The PDF that you can download from the site that sells this kit goes into great detail on different mods you can try. I'd start there.

Depends how you wire it up - it can use either a battery or any standard power supply. It's all covered in the build document.

If you have a multimeter, plug a cable in and use it to figure out which connections are for the tip and sleeve. Then you can use those points to wire it up like a mono jack.

The PCB I used is specifically for fuzz, but there are plenty of different kits and PCBs you can buy for fuzz effects.

@@AaronMatthies thanks! Have a great day!

There are a few different methods that will give you different results. Examples are shown in my DIY pedals guide on the website. You might want to look into waterslide decals or vinyl stickers as two easy options.

That's a strange problem, I haven't heard of something happening like that before. It might be worth messaging Paul on the DIY guitar pedals website where you bought the kit. He designed the circuit so he would know what to do. He's helped me a few times when I had problems.

I'll bet your volume pot is incorrect value

The PDF on the website that sells the kit gives a nice overview of how the circuit works. It also includes different modifications you can try which is a great way to understand how different parts of the circuit changes the effect.

@@AaronMatthies thank you!

No other pedals were used, only the fuzz pedal.

@@AaronMatthies thank you. how about specific voltage of the capacitors? becaus they have voltages too.

The site where you can buy the pedal kit from has all the details you would want including schematics.

@@AaronMatthies thanks.

All tools and equipment are covered in this guide: guitargearfinder.com/guides/diy-guitar-pedals/

It's not labelled but I think it was around 60W. For soldering guitar pedals, I feel buying an adjustable soldering iron is worth it. You can dial in the temperature to suit what you're working on.

Yes you can. In the build documentation for the kit it explains different mods you can do, so have a read of it for instructions.

Yes, be careful to make sure you wire them up the right way.

Some pedals are designed with certain frequency ranges in mind, while others seem to work with anything. So it can be hit or miss to find a guitar pedal that works well with bass or vice versa.

@@AaronMatthies Cool, thx!

There's a schematic in the "Bill of Materials & Build Guide" PDF download on the DIY Guitar Pedals website. I have a link to it in my build guide on my website (check the video description for links).

I would think of it as having the two separate effects installed in the one enclosure. So you would have a separate PCB for each effect, but only one set of input/output/power jacks on the outside of the pedal. Then you can figure out which wires can be connected together inside the enclosure. For example: the output from pedal 1 connects to the input to pedal 2. The +power from pedal 1 can be wired to +power from pedal 2, then connect that to the power source. You can even choose between having two footswitches (one for each effect) or one footswitch to control both effects at once (by connecting both effects to the same footswitch). If you really get into building custom pedals you can get to the point where you can get the schematics for both circuits and create a custom circuit all in one PCB, but that's quite a step up.

@@AaronMatthies nice, ty. I'd love some kind of Tube Screamer/RAT combo pedal to save some space on my board

Yes. If you check out the build doc for the 7-minute fuzz kit, it does go into a lot of detail explaining the circuit and explains different transistors you could use. Worth a read if you're interested in fuzz pedals.

@@AaronMatthies thanks a lot. Very good job. I will try to build one and review this in my Instagram page @weekpedal...

As it's socketed, you could also use germanium transistors or different silicon transistors, to try to dial in a specific tone. HFE values, IIRC, are the main thing that determines how it sounds.

1). Check my guide in the video description for links to the kit. 2). You can, but it depends on what caused the pedal to become inoperable. Some pedals are easier to repair than others.

If you check out the build document for the pedal, it does a great job at explaining the entire circuit and how the components contribute to the sound of the pedal.

Awesome thank you

This is about as analog as you can get :)

Depending on how you wire it up, you can either use a 9V battery or a standard 9V external power supply.

@@AaronMatthies thanks. The amperage matters?

For a simple circuit like this it's not going to draw much current. I haven't measured it but I'd be surprised if it was anywhere near 30mA. So any power supply suitable for guitar pedals should work fine.

The way to wire up a battery to power the circuit is to use a stereo audio jack. A stereo jack will have an extra connection point you can use and when you plug the cable in, it closes the circuit to allow the battery to power the pedal. Because I'm only using an external power supply, I can use a mono audio jack instead. On that kit's website, there's a diagram showing how to wire up a battery as a power supply. Check it out and it should make more sense.

@@AaronMatthies Thanks for the clarification !

What does "crimping the leads" mean? I don't want to make this mistake when building my own pedal.

​​​​@@twojointsjay7330imping the leads seems to be making a little bend that makes the components sit a little bit above the board, causing the leads to act as sort of a spring, providing stress relief. This mainly would be good for the capacitors on this board; the way OP installed them had very little to no stress relief. As far as any cylindrical components, those should have a bend in the lead for similar reasons. At first I didn't notice what the original commenter meant, but now I 100% agree with them, and edited my comment in turn