I’ve been playing guitar on and off for about 15 years now, but only recently have I discovered the wonders of guitar pedals. My typical setup was just a noise suppressor and a Tube Screamer-like overdrive in front of my amp. However, a few conversations with a co-worker finally convinced me to re-think my usual setup. In the past year I’ve attempted to make up for lost time and have purchased a plethora of pedals. With my newfound love for pedals I decided I wanted to build a few myself for fun.

I had gone down this path before about a decade ago when I was still in college. Many of my friends were electrical engineering majors and so I was always curious about circuit design. I never built any pedals back then, but I did manage to build a dummy load with four 50W resistors to use my tube amp without a speaker.

Fast-forward to today and the rabbit hole has never been deeper. After discovering Mod Kits DIY, I immediately ordered one of their simpler pedal kits to get a feel for what I was about to get myself into. Expect an additional post with some details about this pedal.

My first pedal was a success, so I went looking for more to build. I then came across PedalPCB, where I could buy PCBs of cloned guitar pedals. I’ve now purchased five boards, which you can see below, and am awaiting the final set of parts to arrive so I can begin building.

My plan is to first build the Amentum Boost, a clone of the EQD Arrows. While I have all the parts and components I need to get started, I am still missing the potentiometers for all of these projects. I would have to calculate the exact cost, but for somewhere around $20 I’ll be able to build a pedal that would normally sell for $100.

Expect posts for all of these projects as I get to each one. There are also some enclosures I’m waiting for in the mail. I do happen to have one ready and pre-drilled for the Amentum though.

I’m really jealous of the quality of these PCBs. I certainly wish I was able to design and print my own!