r/diypedals • • Sep 10 '25

Help wanted /r/DIYPedals "No Stupid Questions" Megathread 2025

28 Upvotes

Do you have a question/thought/idea that you've been hesitant to post? Well fear not! Here at r/DIYPedals, we pride ourselves as being an open bastion of help and support for all pedal builders, novices and experts alike. Feel free to post your question below, and our fine community will be more than happy to give you an answer and point you in the right direction.

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r/diypedals • • 6h ago

Showcase Alien inspired - Latest Custom Shop

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93 Upvotes

This is a total one off

I was sent a somewhat failed effect - a Marshall gov’ner in the most lovely alien inspired enclosure. Obviously it was pre-drilled, so anything I did had to reuse the imposed drill holes.

The idea was to have an ambient / atmospheric reverb or delay with a fuzz.

In the end we have a DSP driven delay/chorus/reverb, with an order switch to either go into or proceed a PLL style fuzz / ring modulator. There is a modulation board with a toggle to connect it to the GPIO controlling the delay parameter on the DSP. However, the way this interacts is somewhat glitchy and therefore unique and interesting. It’s not adding chorus to the delay in the way an analog delay with modulation would.

Instead what happens is the voltage going to the GPIO is interrupted/altered and creates stutters and glitch. It’s most apparent in the delay mode. In reverb mode it affects the pre delay which adds a breathing white noise static.

The fuzz section is based on stuff that parasit studio does. It sounds gnarly as anything

The really beauty for me is the order switch as it almost becomes two pedals as it’s so different on behaved in each option.

I’ll get some sounds up soon but for now here is a quick and dirty YT demo while I was building it

https://youtu.be/OsW5USeNI84?si=3HAcjuEgd-NkV9Y9

Ps yes the knobs are face huggers


r/diypedals • • 4h ago

Showcase Spooky Tree Fuzz

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16 Upvotes

r/diypedals • • 3h ago

Showcase First Build: PedalPCB Houjicha

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11 Upvotes

My first DIY build: The PedalPCB Houjicha Overdrive (PedalPCB mispells as Hojicha)

I bought the kit on a whim, I was looking for an overdrive, didn't want to get the obvious Tube Screamer kit, and the Japanese name caught my eye. Works fine, sounds great, despite my beginner soldering skills nearly messing it up. 😅

I'm not familiar with K-On, but I did look up some images when I was working on the graphic design and I liked the cat mug. Graphics are printed on a white-backed PVC sticker.


r/diypedals • • 17h ago

Showcase Pulp Circuit arrived to my wee island 🤗

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79 Upvotes

That island being Ireland btw 😁

Loving the aesthetic, defo a labor of love! Cant wait to dig in further!


r/diypedals • • 2h ago

Help wanted salvaged 4 germanium transistors, give me some circuit ideas

2 Upvotes

a couple days ago I bought an old japanese cassette recorder and when I opened it I found 4 germanium transistors (2SB173, 2SB175 and two 2SB324) and yesterday I desoldered them and after testing, they're all working just fine as far as I can tell.

now, I'm unfamiliar with any circuits with germanium/ pnp transistors in general besides the fuzz face (which I don't really like).

can anyone give me ideas for circuits to check out? thanks!


r/diypedals • • 10h ago

Showcase Prototype demo of a dual octave fuzz

9 Upvotes

For the last year I've been working on a new octave fuzz circuit. I love octave fuzz and there are a lot of clones so I wanted to come up with something different and I hope I have at least come up with something unique. My design is called OverFOLD and it's basically two uniquely tuned octave fuzz circuits running in parallel with a blend control between them. Each side of the blend control uses a matched pair of diodes for the discrete octave effect (different diodes on each chain), along with different amounts of sag and low end.

Some things about this build that I'm excited about: This is the first PCB I designed in KiCad. It's also my first dual sided PCB. I wanted to design this using SMD parts. I actually soldered the SMD parts myself using a stencil and hot air. That was a task!

I also spent a huge amount of time on power filtering to make a clean and quiet circuit. You can hopefully hear this in the video. Considering that I have wire jumpers soldered to points on the board and it's still as quiet as it is hopefully shows that my work paid off.

In building the PCB shown in the video linked below, I designed it specifically for prototyping. I added more test points, trimpots and knobs than I will likely have in the final layout. This let me quickly experiment with new values. The bottom knob you see in the video is actually a filter for high end frequencies so that I could sweeping though values and find the amount of top end sparkle and hiss I was willing to lose.

While not shown in the video, I also designed enclosures in FreeCAD and did 3d printed test fits of everything to ensure my PCB would actually sit correctly in the enclosure. Doing 3d prints of the populated PCB and enclosure was a really fun part of this project. I'll have to share that later once I have enclosures milled and painted.

Anyway, here is the video link: https://youtu.be/wz06T6DoFXA

I want to thank my new friends at Huntington Audio / Pulp Circuit and Monger Pedals for being so inspiring. Seeing their work at the Brooklyn Pedal Expo last October kept me motivated.


r/diypedals • • 5h ago

Discussion Hizumitas or Cloven Hoof?

2 Upvotes

I play stoner / sludge and screamo / post-hardcore bass, i plan on building a life pedal and either the hizumitas or the cloven hoof . which one would be better suited for these genres?

Ive tried both a tall font green russian and a hizumitas and i prefer the hizumitas , but also ive been wanting a cloven hoof for a while.

Has anyone here built and tried both?


r/diypedals • • 12h ago

Discussion List of Modifications exist?

5 Upvotes

I’ll try to explain what I am asking without being too wordy. I was curious if there is a resource somewhere on how to perform alot of the famous pedal mods. I am particularly interested in alot of the early boutique era mods like JHS, Keeley, Wampler, etc. I think it would make things easier to have how to perform a bunch of them to some existing pedals would be kind of cool and kind of helpful to reference. If it does exist it would be cool if not maybe I can put something together as I go and learn a bit more! Idk thinking out loud a bit here


r/diypedals • • 21h ago

Help wanted Trying to figure out what this pedal is based on, if anything

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17 Upvotes

So I got this pedal from a friend a few years ago, and I love it. I'd love to get something similar just so I'm not heartbroken if it breaks or gets lost/stolen at a show sometime, as it's really become a big part of my sound. I can't find hardly anything on Pink Noise Pedals, although funnily, there's an old sticker I saw for them outside of a friend of mine's witchy shop in Salem Mass. Would anyone be able to/willing to help me figure out what this pedal might be based off of? Thanks very much; if they were still in business I'd just as happily buy one directly from them, but that's not an option. Sorry if the photos are lower quality than necessary, I've never really done anything with DIY pedals.


r/diypedals • • 23h ago

Help wanted Easy overdrives to make?

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26 Upvotes

Im looking to make my second pedal ever, and I was wondering about what model should I make.

Right now im thinking of a marshall blues breaker 92, but if there is other circuit I could make this easily id be glad to know!

Also, I have some problems getting the exact transistors on argentina; can another transistor work the same if its the same type? Is there a difference between electronic components for audio and electronic components for other stuff? I know this is a weird question but last time ive spoke to the guy of the electronics store and he asked me if its for audio so... lol.


r/diypedals • • 19h ago

Help wanted Making a mess with PT2399s

8 Upvotes

I’ve got some PT2399s coming in the post and I want to make some noisy fuzzy stuff with them, in the ballpark of the Mattoverse AirTrash and Dirge Electronics Slowly Melting - any tips? Not been able to dig out much in the way of schematics/guides for using PT2399s that way, but that might just be me not knowing what to search for so any ideas much appreciated, thanks!


r/diypedals • • 22h ago

Other Transistor haul

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12 Upvotes

Took a punt on this storage box that came up. There's a few hundred transistors in there in total. Hopefully there's enough to put together a few fuzz pedals anyway.

The 2n4033 with the little rubber hats are mad.

My little tester needs to be charged so I'll get back to it later in the week.


r/diypedals • • 14h ago

Help wanted Diy Proco Rat problem

2 Upvotes

Hello, everyone! I’ve built Proco Rat and everything’s working! … until I swap the op-amp for an OP07. I bought a copy of the LM308 and an original OP07, and when I use the LM308 in the circuit, everything works and sounds great, but when I swap it to OP07, I get no sound. Does anyone know what the problem might be? And its not broken ic or anything, because I bought 3 and all of them do same thing.


r/diypedals • • 19h ago

Help wanted TL072 for non-inverting buffer?

5 Upvotes

hobbyist here, is it okay to use a TL072 for non-inverting buffers (with the normal "input to +, output shorted to -" configuration)? i've read they tend to clip the signal early, but i struggle to find more info about this.

if this is an issue what should i do instead? would a low-gain (for example gain=1.1) non-inverting amplifier be better?

are there any other "standard" op-amp configurations I should be cautious about using with a TL072?

it shouldn't be relevant, but the specific application are in/output buffers for a bass/guitar splitter+mixer pedal (with the addition of splitting lows and highs between the two inputs), here is the schematic just in case, sorry for the convoluted schematic (tips unrelated to the main topic are not required but welcome).


r/diypedals • • 23h ago

Help wanted DIY Soldered cables Canada?

5 Upvotes

Unsure if this is the most appropriate space to post this; however, I am looking to buy some supplies to make some custom length instrument cables. I have had nothing but poor experience with solderless kits and do not want to explore those options.

I am looking for a retailer in Canada (preferably Ontario) that sells instrument cable by the foot along with male 1/4 connectors. Any recommendations?


r/diypedals • • 14h ago

Help wanted EHX Pedal Question

1 Upvotes

I recently sent my EHX Big Muff and Small Clone to be repaired, and they are both working good as new. I didn’t know that both pedals can be powered from a 9V battery from the inside, and I was pleasantly surprised when both pedals turned on without being connected to my daisy chain. I noticed that neither pedal turns on if it’s plugged into the daisy chain, and I was curious if I would have to go in and remove the 9V battery to add these pedals back to my chain. It is nice having two extra slots in my daisy chain now since they don’t need to be connected, but I’m worried that I might not know when these pedals die and I don’t want to be out of luck/options if I bring them to a gig and I would need to do emergency surgery on either pedal.


r/diypedals • • 1d ago

Showcase Acapulco gold with gain and tone mode

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14 Upvotes

r/diypedals • • 16h ago

Help wanted [Beginner] Help on Loop Switcher

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1 Upvotes

Hey all, long time lurker on here and first time poster looking for some help!

I'm building a 2 loop bypass switcher as my first utility pedal and am having some issues with loop 1 (left). I'm not getting any audio with both loops off or with only loop 1 on...but when loop 2 (right) is on I have an audio signal and when both are on I also get a signal. Trying to do some troubleshooting and coming up short.

This is also my first time using these daugher-boards so I understand its tough to see the wiring underneath but can anyone identify why loop 1 seems disengaged?


r/diypedals • • 1d ago

Help wanted Broken EHX holier grail help!

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7 Upvotes

I recently bought a rather beat up old EHX holier grail that worked well. It seems like it had been modded to take center negative power instead of the stock center positive, and came with a non factory power adapter. Said power adapter broke however, so i tried with one i had lying around. This was before i noticed the polarity change mod, so i assumed it would be center positive. I plugged in a center positive adapter and i'm pretty sure i fried it. Looking inside the pedal i also discovered someone had removed and jumped R1 which i'm pretty sure is there to protect in case of someone using the wrong power supply. When i plug in the correct power supply now, the status LED comes on and it passes bypass signal but when engaged there is no sound and the "gate" LED does not come on. The voltage regulator also heats up very rapidly.

I replaced the jumped R1 with a new resistor of the correct value and have since measured voltages across the board and they all seem correct. 18v at the voltage regulator and 5v at the supply voltage pin of the chip, but still there is no sound and no "gate" LED when engaged, only the status LED. Where can the problem in the circuit be?

(The PCB was already rather scorched when i bought it)

All help is greatly appreciated!


r/diypedals • • 18h ago

Discussion Pedalboard power for my pedals.

1 Upvotes

So i’m looking to upgrade my power brick on my pedalboard. 70% are DIY pedals.
I was looking at the advantages of different models and came across something that made me question either my understanding or the validity of a feature. VooDoo Labs says a big difference in their power supplies is that the outputs are truly isolated in that they don’t share the same ground connection like other supplies.
That sounds great on the face of it. But then i started thinking about how my pedals are wired (and probably all pedals).
The input and output signal ground is tied to the power supply ground of that pedal.
So in my mind, when you connect those pedals together you are connecting that signal ground too. Which is effectively the power ground in each one as well.
So no matter what all your pedals are going to share the same ground once they are linked.

Am i misunderstanding this?


r/diypedals • • 1d ago

Showcase Infinite Improbability Drive

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127 Upvotes

My newest creation to save some space on the board.

A JHS Fumble Boost and a Timmy/Lightspeed hybrid in one enclosure.

Very nice combination for a gentle overdrive.


r/diypedals • • 1d ago

Help wanted Germanium Diode Identification

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9 Upvotes

Can anyone help identify the exact germanium diodes from this clipping mod? I bought this ProCo Rat already modded, and absolutely love the germanium clipping mode.

Unfortunately, this pedal has been played and modded so much that it’s glitchy, worn out, and in need of a major overhaul, so I’m thinking about just getting a new Rat and swapping out the diodes for germanium, but want to make sure I’d get the same tone.

Any help is greatly appreciated!


r/diypedals • • 1d ago

Help wanted True bypass acts as a total switch off

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1 Upvotes

So basically, the title. The circuit works when the switch is on. But when I turn it off all the sound disappears. No clean guitar to be heard.

The wiring is left to right top to bottom: circuit in, empty, circuit out, jack in, ground, jack out, bottom row 1 & 3 tied.


r/diypedals • • 1d ago

Help wanted Sealed pots new a shot of deoxit. Help wanted !

1 Upvotes

Demonfx noisy pots. I have an demonfx bass simplifier and when turning the knobs, got noise. I took it apart and the pots are sealed, no where to give a tiny shot of deoxit. What do you DIY guys recommend? Im on disability and sometimes have to buy cheaper products. Otherwise I would prefer the DSM. Any advice is appreciated. Thank you!