How long to build a pedal

lincolnblue

I've had a Fuzzdog boost pedal sitting waiting for me to build it for far, far too long and I'm hoping to make some time in the next few weeks to do so. 
But, having never made one before, how long does it roughly take to make? 1hr, 5hrs etc? Trying to work out how much time I need to set aside

WeZ84

It depends how many parts there are to solder and whether you get it all together right first time.
If it doesn't work first time, the most time consuming part is probably working out why it doesn't work.

A boost circuit shouldn't have too many parts though so hopefully won't take too long.

thermionic

Populating the pcb is the quick and easy bit. What takes time is wiring up the sockets, led, switch and pots. So a boost pedal will take almost as long as something more complex.

Depends on how experienced you are soldering, stripping wires etc. And whether you run into problems you have to figure out where you went wrong! With a bit of luck, a couple of short afternoons?

TTony

My soldering skills are reasonable, and I’ve got a decent soldering iron with appropriate tips for pedal building.  I can also follow a wiring diagram, and work calmly / methodically.

With the above, I’d expect it to take a couple of hours.

If you’ve not got the kit/skills, and try to rush the job (and don’t make the connections properly), it could take forever ... until you chuck the pedal in the bin out of frustration at not being able to get it to work.

stickyfiddle

I can do a single-knob boost in an hour or so. Something like a Rat would probably be double that to do properly, and then anything more complex with bigger PCBs and multiple switches might be 3-4 hours depending on the kit. All assuming pre-drilled enclosure and no customisation. 

If you're new to it then I'd guess on 1.5x those estimates. Don't forget... slow & careful = fast in the end

Mattharrier

I built a Fuzzdog Fuzzrite back in 2020. My prior soldering experience was rewiring a guitar, and my iron was a cheap, basic one. I'd say the total time was probably 3 hours, maybe 4? It's hard to say as I did it in several short stints.

The fuzzrite is a pretty basic pedal, and (to my surprise) nothing really went wrong, so a more complicated pedal would take (me) longer.

tanihhiavlt

I've accrued a lot of kit, pcb stands, solder Station, drill press, center punch, component tester and test harness for pedals.

As a result I populated and assembled a fuzz dog JRockett Blue Note in about 90 minutes.

I fill the board resistors, diodes, ic sockets, caps then wires (basically increasing height order) in component order r1, r2 etc double checking each component as I put it in with the component tester, and then flip the board and solder and trim the legs... then put in the test harness through a pod or pignose 

Measuring the placement of the holes is my only stumbling block, a jig I had 3d printed doesn't fit too well, so it's tricky to measure with the rounded edges and sloped sides. Making the holes slightly bigger mitigates some inaccuracies but it's it's faff about 90 mins again.

I'd suggest jumping in and starting, mistakes will be made and modern fuzz dog pcbs are a lot better at being resolvered

RickLucas

Get one of those "Quincy" magnifying glasses.