I’ve been spending a ton of time researching pedal designs, and understanding some ‘basics’ of electronics. It’s a big pill to swallow with what seems to be a never ending list of topics, theories, opinions, etc. But one step at a time, I feel like I’ll get somewhere.
One of the things that I wanted to have before getting too involved with breadboarding a circuit design was to build a prototype board. Basically, this is a ‘Beavis Board‘. Since I’m really a hands on sorta person, and every chance I can get to hold a soldering iron will help improve my skills, I opted to build one vs. buying one.
Basically, the concept is to have a enclosure mounted on a board. The enclosure is wired up with true bypass 3PDT switch, LED, input/output jacks, DC and 9V power. The send/return leads and power/ground leads leave the enclosure and mount to a terminal strip. From there you would connect the terminal strip to a breadboard where you would build your effect circuit. Why I wanted this instead of just riding with a breadboard.. is simple. I want something that I can step on and easily plug my guitar in with out worrying about messing up my circuit. Also, the ability to pick up the unit and take it somewhere is a little easier. This is my phase 1 version. I’m planning on adding a ‘pot row’ where I can mount several pots and wire them into the terminal strip for my circuit. Also, similar to the Beavis Board, I would like to add voltage ‘sag’ control as well.
All the components have been screwed down to the board, with the exception of the enclosure where I used the velcro method to affix it to the board.
It’s a fun project, quick.. and easy, but I know it’ll be very handy when it’s circuit building time.
