There are acid core and rosin core solders. Ask for rosin core solder.

On tubesandmore.com they sell a ProCo RAT kit, so if you like that stompbox it's probably a good place to start. Also I recommend this book by Craig Anderton which is pretty much everyone's First Book on Building Stompboxes. I recommend building a kit or two first before going for schematics so you don't have to worry about not having a PCB, but when you're ready to print your own PCB, MAKE magazine has a great article on it.
Good luck!

That book looks excellent! I think I'm going to order it.

SecondEdition wrote:1) Which kind of distortion sound is easiest to get a quality sound out of, distortion, fuzz, or overdrive?

Well, a really good booster is incredibly easy. Fuzzes vary widely - Fuzz Faces are a pain in the ass.

2) how easy is it to make your own stompbox if you've got no experience?

The first stompbox I made broke. The second has been going strong for two years of constant use.

3) how good do you need to be with machinery in order to do it?

Irrelevant!

4) how much does it cost to get all the components together?

Depends on complexity. The one I use all the time was, say, $30.

5) what kind of stuff do you need to make one?

A good soldering iron.

B_M_L wrote:That book looks excellent! I think I'm going to order it.

PAiA also sells kits for some of the projects in that book here which have premade PCB's.


It would be really nice if all you needed was a soldering iron, but you will probably also need these to make a complete stompbox in an enclosure.

Drill
Needlenose pliers
Wire cutters & strippers
Multimeter
Various screwdrivers
Soldersucker & copper braid
Breadboard

B_M_L wrote:That book looks excellent! I think I'm going to order it.

+1.

B_M_L wrote:I made a Fuzzface - The FAIZFACE. It's super fuzzy...

This always makes me laugh. salut.

Just finished the BYOC Confidence Booster. It works!

What do you do if you get solder in the hole (or an adjacent one)? I did it twice and had to bodge. Tried heating it and getting the soldersucker in but no joy. I don't own a drill. Haven't soldered anything since I was sixteen.

On to the TriBoost tomorrow.

johnnyshape wrote:What do you do if you get solder in the hole (or an adjacent one)?

A little fresh solder in the hole, and then the soldersucker while it's still melted usually works. I prefer to use solder wick for this, though.



If you're using it on a double-sided circuit board, prepare to have your head wrecked.

I bought the Anderson book, and I can't wait.

Is there anything that I might need that's missing from the tool list in that book? Is there something new that's going to be better then the tools avl in the late 1970s?