Introduction: Build an Electric Guitar Pedal

Ever since I was young, I loved Music, from any kind, middle eastern, rock, metal, different languages, basically every genre I could have met with. That brought me up to play guitar, I remember myself begging my parents to buy me my first electric guitar so I could start play.

After few weeks of playing around with it in the 'clean' sound, I got tired of it and wanted something more advanced, to play like the real rock stars of the world, the need for a distortion pedal was too big. Asking my parents to spend more money on 'just a phase' was not an option, but asking them for money to create something of my one, was right on the table.

That need, led me to build my own distortion pedal (my own..... actually someone else schema that I just used :) )


** Be careful, soldering isn't easy and it could be dangerous, I'm not taking any legal responsibility for any damages, and you're doing it with you own responsibility and care **


Supplies

  1. 2n3904 Transistors - X1
  2. 0.1 uF capacitor - X2
  3. 100k potentiometer - X1
  4. 1n4148 diode - X1
  5. 1n34a diode - X1
  6. 680R resistor- X1
  7. 2.2M resistor - X1
  8. 47k resistor - X1
  9. audio input sockets - X2
  10. Breadboard - X1
  11. Hooking wires - few
  12. 9v adapter - X1
  13. Soldering Iron - X1
  14. Soldering tin - X1


Step 1: Soldering It All Out

  1. Place the different parts according to the chart above, make sure to space things out so it would be easy to solder them.
  2. solder each component to it's place on the Breadboard.
  3. connect the different components according to the lines in the chart. the 3 lines that are at the end of some lines, are representing the "Ground", i.e. the negative connection of the battery
  4. connect 2 lines from each input socket, one line goes to the in/out connection on the board, the other one goes to the "Ground"
  5. Connect the battery 9V adapter positive line to the +9V connection on the board, and the negative line to each ground connection on the board.

Step 2: The Fun Part

That's the fun step -

  1. Connect a 9v battery to the battery conneciton.
  2. Connect your guitar to the 'in' line socket.
  3. Connect your amp to the 'out' line socket.
  4. Turn your amp on and have FUN!!