About Me
I’ve always been interested in building things and DIY. I blame my LEGO addiction as a kid. When I started playing bass and guitar, it wasn’t long before I wanted to try my hand at building one myself. Twenty plus guitars/basses later I wanted to try my hand at building pedals. It took a few attempts, but once I got a simple little fuzz box working, I was hooked. I enjoyed creating my own layouts as it helped me understand the circuits better. That eventually lead to the creation of the Effects Layouts blog, as I was laying out circuits quicker than I could build them. That gets us to the present, where at the urging of a few fellow pedal addicts, I launched this site for fabricated dual-layer PCBs.
Pedal Building Philosophy
My personal approach to pedal building is to keep the footprint of the board small (reduces board cost), have as many components board-mounted as possible (less off-board wiring to deal with), and take advantage of top mounted jacks (or TMJs). Because of the TMJs, I typically prefer building in 125B enclosures, but realize that many prefer side jacks and a 1590B. My preferences in building pedals will obviously influence how I lay boards out, but I always try and make my layouts useable for both top mount jacks and side mounted jack applications.
Special Thanks
Several people have supported and inspired me to do this and I would be remiss if I didn’t thank them. I wouldn’t be doing this if it weren’t for my dad, who taught me how to figure things out and instilled in me a DIY mentality. I’d also like to thank my wife for not being super annoyed at me for this hobby and being excited with me over things she would otherwise not even know existed. And also to my TMJ buddy, Cody, without whom this site wouldn’t exist–thanks for the encouragement and webmaster skillz!