What Happens When A Pro Pedal Builder Builds a DIY Pedal Kit?

What Happens When a Pro Pedal Builder Builds a DIY Pedal Kit? If you ever wanted to know what a professional pedal builder would do differently with a DIY pedal kit compared to most others, or if you're into DIY pedal building yourself, you’ll love this. I’ll be using the StewMac Screamer kit and showing you just what I personally do if I buy a DIY “build your own pedal” type kit, how I approach the circuit, and just why I rarely, if ever, follow the exact instructions and instead I completely change it into something personalized, unique, and inspiring to play.

First, I’m going to get the schematic from the kit documents and decide just what I want to do differently. I’ll use a breadboard for circuit experimentation to do this.
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We’ll discuss how to recognize circuit blocks in order to do these types of changes. We'll look at examples like the Tube Screamer, Boss SD-1, LovePedal Eternity, and Earthquaker Devices Plumes for examples of 4 pedals with similar topologies that all sound completely different. We’ll also compare not only the circuitry of these pedals but also play them side by side for a sound comparison.

Then, it’s time to make the magic happen! I’ll start building the pedal and get to the end, but guess what? IT DOESN’T WORK! 🤦‍♂️That’s ok though - it’s a great chance to walk through troubleshooting the pedal and get it working.

Lastly, the play test! How does it sound compared to the breadboarded Prototype version?

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*Do you want to win this pedal? Here’s how to do that:*
Update July 2024, contest is closed: Congrats to Carl Floyd for winning the pedal!

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*Learn how to do what I’m doing in this video! Go to my course here:*
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Don't miss out on this DIY pedal course—use the discount code! Plus, enter our giveaway for a chance to win the custom pedal. Comment below with your questions and subscribe for more DIY pedal content!
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LINKS:
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Circuitlab schematic links
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Screamer PCB layout:

Timestamps:
00:00 Introduction
00:48 Overview of the Beginner's Guide Course, this will help!
02:45 Tubescreamer circuit walkthrough
03:17 Comparing Tube Screamer and Boss SD-1
03:57 Comparing Tube Screamer and LovePedal Eternity
04:39 Comparing Tube Screamer and Earthquaker Devices Plumes
05:34 Tubescreamer, Plumes, SD-1, Eternity sound comparison
06:39 My custom version of a Tube Screamer circuit
07:08 Stock TS9 compared to my version sound comparison
08:15 Stew Mac Screamer circuit walkthrough
09:26 How are we going to do this?
11:40 Why buy a more expensive pedal kit?
12:19 How to modify a DIY pedal kit?
20:45 Other mods we can do to this type of circuit
22:22 Circuit Analysis Graphs of these circuits
23:42 Building our circuit with the kit, tips and tricks
27:27 It doesn’t work. How to fix it?
29:40 It works! Let’s put it all together
30:48 Naming it: The Not-A-Screamer ;)
31:17 Built Pedal Comparison with Breadboard
34:08 Contest/Giveaway Details and coupon code
35:24 Why would anyone do this?

[BHJ]

Wampler is the coolest guy ever for sharing his knowledge.

[cdhastings]

I'm a retired 67 year old computer programmer who also does some guitar pickin'. Since I now have the time, I decided to start teaching myself some electronics with a focus understanding amplifiers and pedals. You provide a wonderful source of information on this stuff. It is very much appreciated!

[shoehorn]

You and Josh should just film sitting in a room full of parts together, share a few beers, smoke a joint, and build the silliest pedals possible.

[johndelves]

Thanks Mr. Wampler. As a long time musician/gear head/electronic hobbyist (or whatever you call guys like me) stuff like this and what Mr. Scott (at JHS) are doing for people like me is so informative and helpful. Very appreciated.

[Sadlander]

Many, many years ago, I watched one of your videos where you were explaining that a pedal only contains electronic parts and there's no magic, no mystery inside. If you use this part, you'll get this, if you change the value of that, you'll get that... This was like the big boss of Coca-Cola saying _"A secret ingredient?! No, it's just this! You try it!"._
You showed that anyone can create a cool, good sounding pedal as long as you learn the basics and spend time experimenting and I LOVE you for that!

By the way...
What you said about taking a circuit, learn the basics to understand what does what and then change the values or the parts to make it your own thing, it's like songwriting! At first, you learn how to play a song, then you change a chord or a few notes here and there and suddenly, you're writing your own songs, using something you liked about that song together with what you liked about that other song...

[capitanvonchickenpants]

When i was 19 in 1978 my father was into electronics, every month he got a magazine from this he built me two fuzz pedals with BC 108s or 109s they were brilliant especially through the all valve triumph electronics leo amp, ( triumph made pcbs for vox)then the magazine started a guitar pedal series where you could buy a kit and they showed you how to build it, i built a sustainer that had a LDR placed over an led in it, I thought that was amazing, a chorus with two knobs and a soft distortion that sustained into feedback, over the years my experiments with switching pedals had me pinching parts from these pedals, i so wish id saved them

[thedavegoodman]

You’re totally in my head right now. I’ve been thinking about this so much lately. I’ve been teaching myself pedal circuits, built some kits, noticed JHS short circuit live streams, ordered some coppersound DIY stuff and was thinking about your course. Yesterday I was trying to think of how to follow traces on a PCB using a schematic… dude. 😎 highfive.

[barthur]

This takes me back to when Brian used to sell a how-to guide to mod pedals, long before he produced his own brand. I have a copy of that somewhere. Thanks for the video.

[mulletrocker]

After watching your video on changing a metal zone into an overdrive, i'm hooked on modding pedals and my metal zone sounds awesome too !😁

[grahamhart]

Please keep doing stuff like this. You and Josh are easily my favorite YouTube channels right now. I watch everyday 😁👍thanks Brian!

[aaroncurry]

The white paint and Sharpie makes this pedal look perfectly 80’s “generic”. The look is AWESOME! That would be a most unique pedal in any collection built by the man himself. Your playing demos are just amazing! Thanks for such a fun and informative video and giving your viewers a chance to win a real one-off piece of art.

[DCmusic]

One of the best videos I’ve seen in a long time. I’ve messed with pedal and amp electronics through the years. Wish this was presented a long time ago.
Thank you so much.

[kmasek]

FIngers crossed to see some kits from Wampler! Might be a cool supplement to the pedal course. Maybe have socketed components similar to a breadboard in a pedal format to tinker with component types/values. Loving the content!

[anthonydevito]

PedalPCB and the individual/all who run it are exceptional. Their forums are an absolutely priceless resource!

[j.h.leonard]

I am sorry dude. For many of us, a project like this is a wonderful escapist 'off switch'. For you, it bumps the on switch up to a higher wattage. Love your vids, love your pedals. As a high school teacher I feel qualified to say, you're a great teacher.

[maxkatz]

Minute 24.40 – The paintwork can cause ground problems!! Thanks Brian, I've now been able to solve the problem I've had for a long time with my 2010 Silver Faux Spring Reverb that I ordered directly from you. When I turned it on, it started making a loud noise after a while. I replaced the plug but the problem remained.
So I bought the later green Faux Spring Reverb and also the Mini Faux Spring, but neither sounded as good as the silver version - the decay time was far too long for my taste. I bought every spring reverb imaginable on the market, but the silver Wampler pedal remained my favorite reverb.
Last year I noticed that the daisy chain was working correctly and now I knew that it was a ground problem. I recently started building my own pedals and came across your video and was able to successfully repair my favorite reverb pedal.

[inber]

This is an invaluable source of information for those who want to build pedals!

I used to build electronics as a hobby when I was a teenager in the 70s. Wish we would have had YouTube and Brian Wampler back then. 🙂

[L.Scott_Music]

It would be so funny, just for fun, to see a whole pedal board full of breadboard pedals. Just for the pic and fun video.

[Amish_Trivedi]

The Stewmac Screamer kit was my first ever build and it was a blast!

[IvanRecordCastle]

Brilliant mind. Down-to-earth. Coolest guy. I have never played one of wampler pedals but I hope one day I will. Thank you for such great content Sir.