# Wall of Shame: pedal abominations



## Harry Klippton (Nov 30, 2021)

In the spirit of fun, post your horrendous builds in this thread. I'm a big proponent of learning by making mistakes, not just learning from them. Go on and pony up, too. Don't make me repost your own work in this thread! 😂

This was the first non kit build I ever did. It's a generic silicon fuzz face. No build doc, no drill template, no nothing- just all mistakes! The only consideration for the enclosure I made was for the pot placement and was frustrated to find no place to put the PCB when I was done. This is where I ended up. This pedal also has some heinous hand painted stuff on the other side but I couldn't readily find a pic of it. 

I did several builds like this before I found sites like Madbean and started making halfway decent pedals. Let's see the skeletons in your closet!


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## JamieJ (Nov 30, 2021)

My first PedalPCB build.

Awful wiring. Awful solder joints. Transistors loose in their sockets. What more could you ask for?


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## Harry Klippton (Nov 30, 2021)

That's the spirit @JamieJ !


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## daeg (Nov 30, 2021)

Mine is a bucket of Boss pedals I "modded" that now barely work. Very shameful indeed.


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## Diynot (Nov 30, 2021)

One of my first, but probably not my absolute worst. It’s a buzz box (2 Bazz Fuss in series) that I modded to put a foot switch between the individual bazz fuss circuits along with a gain control on the first stage (red knob) that was an after thought, and a diode switch. The mix of solid core and stranded wire was a special touch.


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## peccary (Nov 30, 2021)

I've shown this one before, but it's my first pedal ever. Same as @Harry Klippton - no drill guide and really only considered pot placement, which is why I went with the giant enclosure. I also put the power on the input side to remind me that it's the input side 

I also went with full size pots because I didn't trust the little 16mm ones for some reason.


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## Diynot (Nov 30, 2021)

@peccary i think I had the same issue for awhile stemming from the fact that up that point all I had worked on was guitar electronics and if I saw a tiny pot under the hood it meant “cheap”. Gotta have them honkin CTS


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## daeg (Nov 30, 2021)

peccary said:


> I also went with full size pots because I didn't trust the little 16mm ones for some reason.


Well obviously; they sound sterile and digital.


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## daeg (Nov 30, 2021)

My first 7 years or so of this hobby, I only built circuits on perfboard. I thought I was too good to buy PCB's or even vero layouts. It led to lots and lots of hours poured into failed projects and constant repair on the ones that did work. Among sketchy soldered component lead connections, lack of a ground plane, wiring noise issues, my biggest problem was connecting wires to the perfboard.

A couple years ago I swallowed my pride and started buying Aion and PedalPCB boards. Now here I am with like 30 successful builds.


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## Blooze (Nov 30, 2021)

I’ve only built 10 pedals so far. This was my first and probably my worst wiring job. Just had to use a 1590A  but here’s a CMoy amp from 15 years ago or so and was my first project.


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## spi (Nov 30, 2021)

Blooze said:


> I’ve only built 10 pedals so far. This was my first and probably my worst wiring job. Just had to use a 1590A  but here’s a CMoy amp from 15 years ago or so and was my first project.


those don't look bad at all


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## blackhatboojum (Dec 1, 2021)

I’ve talked about this one in other threads before.  This was my 2nd official pedal build.  The little angel chorus.  Crappy wiring, burnt out solder pads, and some 3M foam tape holding the pcb in place.  I tried 10 different pt2399s before I found one that wouldn’t latch up constantly and on top of that… it sounds like shit.


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## Matmosphere (Dec 1, 2021)

If they are loud I see nothing to be ashamed of  I think we've all seen gunshots of, sometimes pretty expensive, pedals that are no better.

So keeping with the spirit of the thread I'll share mine once I can snap a pic of it.


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## Barry (Dec 1, 2021)

blackhatboojum said:


> View attachment 19380View attachment 19381I’ve talked about this one in other threads before.  This was my 2nd official pedal build.  The little angel chorus.  Crappy wiring, burnt out solder pads, and some 3M foam tape holding the pcb in place.  I tried 10 different pt2399s before I found one that wouldn’t latch up constantly and on top of that… it sounds like shit.


And a White Washer to ice the cake!


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## Big Monk (Dec 1, 2021)

thewintersoldier said:


> Very early build for me. GGG fuzzrite. Hot mess of spaghetti in there. It worked though. I'd like to think im a little better now. View attachment 19356



This made me think about how long it's been since I ordered from GGG.


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## Matmosphere (Dec 1, 2021)

As promised for your viewing pleasure. I swore I would never open this box (held together by tape because I lost the screws) again and well… I didn’t have to.

As you can see my sloppy construction is on display for all to see in glorious blue transparent plastic. This is a Devi Ever Hyperion (great circuit) that’s been in a couple different boxes. For that matter it isn’t the first pedal that was in this box, so naturally that faceplate is covering some extra holes.

The first in a series of many, many facepalms was the fact that I put the switch and controls on the bottom plate to avoid the manufacturers label in the middle of the other side. This of coarse led to the long wires, but also cause me a problem with the placement of one of the jacks and the stomp switch. The are way to close together, and it took some experimenting to find a combo that actually works. 

I gutted it last year and decided I’d finally make it look nice. Much foul language and many facepalms later this is what I ended up with. It’s better, by far, than before but… well….

I even board mounted the pots (facepalm of shame).


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## Matmosphere (Dec 1, 2021)

thewintersoldier said:


> Very early build for me. GGG fuzzrite. Hot mess of spaghetti in there. It worked though. I'd like to think im a little better now. View attachment 19356


Uh, I think you might have missed a couple parts in there, that bird is 3/4 empty.


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## Paradox916 (Dec 1, 2021)

My first attempt at a pedal amp It not much to look at but it works surprisingly...🤣


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## daeg (Dec 2, 2021)

Matmosphere said:


> If they are loud I see nothing to be ashamed of  I think we've all seen gunshots of, sometimes pretty expensive, pedals that are no better.
> 
> So keeping with the spirit of the thread I'll share mine once I can snap a pic of it.


The worst I've come across was BJFE. I traced the Honey Beest and posted the gutshots. Bent, inconsistent components. Rats nest of light gauge wires. I was shocked it even worked. Apparently they're all like that.

That said, I was able to resell it for like $200 after I was done. Often in the guitar world, mojo and name recognition matter much more than build quality.


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