Building a Boost Pedal

Well here we go, my first DIY electronics project in over 20 years. I tried to build a pre-amp out of the "Electronic Projects for Musicians" book by Craig Anderton way back in the day. Dismal. Truly dismal. This little jewel of a project I found here. DIYstompboxes.com is pretty awesome, and I'm really impressed with Aron Nelson and the rest of the folks on that forum.

I bought the Beginners Project kit. It was like 25 bucks, shipping and all. It arrived in a couple of zip locks. Of course, I neglected to take a pic of that.

I was reading on GEOfex  and saw where he had made some enclosures out of steel stud track. So off I went, with the intent of getting some material and doing the same thing. No. None of the hardware/lumber/diy stores had any. None. Home Depot, Lowe's, Do It Right... Lumber #2, no one. Wasted the entire afternoon driving around. I did get to eat at Del Taco though.

Finally, I went to Radio Shack and wound up with this little 3 dollar box.




Bah.
Not what I wanted at all, but better than building it in an electrical box I suppose.

As soon as I got home last night, I got myself a bottle of Evan Williams Black and proceeded to solder.

Umm..uh oh. I'm 43. I'm realizing my eyes ain't what they used to be.  I can barely make out the little colored lines on the parts, and the labels.  I'm gonna need some magnification I'm thinking.

I managed to get this far. I just hope I put the right parts in the right place. I did get my oldest daughter to read the colors on a few parts for me. heh. That was a big help.

She then distracted me and I hung out with her and her BF for the rest of the evening.

Here's a couple more pics of the mess I got going.

As soon as I finish up, I'll post some pics of that as well.