Build Your Own Clone Message Board

Hello! I started soldering yesterday. After some practice, I began the confidence booster, and after two hours, I finished it. Please critique my soldering as I am very new, and don't want to learn bad habits. Electronics are cool! Project #2 will be the 250+.

Oh, also on my first try plugging it in, I couldn't get it to work... but then I realized I simply had the guitar going into the output...

Not bad at all for a first go I'd say. Well done!

Great to hear you got it working!

Guitar plugged in to the output? Don't worry, you're not the only one who has done that.

One tip - for ICs, use a socket.

Congrats dude. Clip some of those leads a little lower. Looks great. And yes always use a socket on IC's. Should one not work for some reason I would hate to desolder it. Also heat is not real good for it.

Oh and I'm past 20 builds and still put my tip in the wrong hole

I think TNblueshawk covered it all. Great build, and congrats!!

Nice first build. It looks like you may be using just a tad too much solder too. Not enough to really mess anything up, but it could lead to bridges if you go and modify it in the future.

Well done and welcome. I agree that TN covered the important stuff. It's a horrible feeling when they don't work straight away but a relief when it's something simple. It also means that your build really worked first time.

Thanks for the advice! But as the noob I am, I must ask, what is an IC socket? and what are these "leads" that TN says should be shorter?

An IC socket is a plastic socket with pins in the same layout as the IC. You solder the socket to the PCB then plug the IC into it. They are usually included in the BYOC pedal kits. The leads are the component leads where you have soldered them to the PCB. Snip them as close to the solder as possible. If they are too long there's a risk of them touching something metal inside the pedal enclosure and causing a short circuit. It can stop an otherwise OK pedal from working...

Nice booster. A good next step would be to box that sucker up into a real pedal. Add a stomp switch and a power jack. There is a really long and great thread on how to do that somewhere on here. That is what I did with mine. I still use it years later. It is actually a very usable booster. And also, agreed that the 250+ is an excellent next pedal. Not too hard. I made one of those after my CB as well. I got some great experience modding it and playing with various diodes and component values to make it sound exactly as I wanted.