Tech tips

Some Basic Technical Tips Related to Pedal Making

What does what??

• Some reference books to check out

Wiring It Up

• Switches, Bypass, Etc...

• NPN 3PDT Wiring

• PNP 3PDT Wiring

• DPDT Wiring

• Using A DC Jack And Battery

• Preventing Popping from an LED

• Balanced wiring info

• Ground

Batteries

• How much current drain is normal
• How to Calculate Battery Life

Power Supply Filters

• Power Filter Design
• Power Supply Filter Question

Power Supply

• Adjustable Voltage Regulator!

Transistors

• Some Transistor Basics and Some More Details

• How to adjust gain in FET based circuits

• Testing Germanium Transistors (further down the article)
• Why Germanium Transistor Leakage Matters

• JFET Switches

• Cool site regarding FET amplifiers - Design Guidelines for JFET Audio Preamplifier Circuits
• JFET biasing

Gain Devices

• FET vs MOSFET vs TRANSISTOR vs TRIODE

Amplifiers

• IC audio amplifiers
• Transistor Audio Amplifiers
• FET audio amplifiers

Capacitors

• Testing, Discharging and Related Info
• Old and Bad Electrolytic Caps

Switch Tricks

• SPDT Diode Switching Trick

• DPDT Input Cap Switching

Adding An Expression Pedal

• Easy Mod To Add A Rocker Pedal

Potentiometers

• Secret Life Of Pots
• Volume Pot Values

Input Impedance

• See Niftydog's 2nd to Last Post

• Diminishing Returns
• ... and output impedance

Recognizing snippets

• Good assortment of clipping circuits - GM ARTS!
• GEOFEX.com distortion 101
• Blackstone effects distortion primer
• General Guitar Gadgets introduction to parts
• Richardo's cook your own distortion

Creating Original Effects

• Cook Your Own Distortion
• How To Design A Pedal By Zachary Vex
• Simple Mods
• TZF: Excellent discussion on TZF techniques
• A Challenge ... by Jay Doyle

Tone Controls

• Stupidly Wonderful Tone Control

Rules Of Thumb

• What Matters and What Doesn't
• What Have You Learned?

Layout Techniques

• Perfboard Layout Techniques
• Through-Zero Flanging (TZF) Layout Tips