I'm a newbie & have been building FX for a while but a recent illness have slowed me down. 

I was particularly interested in Dean's "infinity sustainer" project but that thread seems to have dried up. How's that project going?

Are there many members that build FX?

Jim

 

I've already answered by PM, but the prototype http://www.progarchives.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=47359 - sustainer is fitted in my Squire and it works - not great, but it works. I admit that I spent more time (and money) making the finished guitar look good than I did on the electronics of the sustainer circuit. I never did get the Class D amp I designed to drive the coil working properly, but as the LM386 amp worked okay I gave up trying.

 

The real problem for scratch-built FX peddles is the cost - it's cheaper to buy a good one than it is to make a poor one. And factory made ones tend to look better and be far more reliable.

 

The other "downer" is the boxes available to home-builders to put the FX into - they are usually pretty horrible and don't like being stomped on. Of course you can buy a broken used peddle and put your own electronics in it, but when faced with a busted unit my first instinct is to fix it.