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I can't say enough about BYOC! For anyone who is looking to get into pedal building, BYOC is the perfect starting point. Their PCBs are the best in the market, hands down!

Thanks for covering them!

this is awesome. i've been thinking about getting into designing and building some pedals, mostly only because I could not find somewhere with kits. too perfect.

Yeah well, nothin' against BYOC but one should check out more obvious places like generalguitargadgets.com, diystompboxes.com, runoffgroove.com or fuzzcentral.com AND musikding.de!! those were my starting-points with diy-pedals and have way more info-resources than byoc. great infos for enclosure design as well, (lacking at byoc) and many many links. not that commercial as well, very much more encourageing and informative to modify your stuff or develop your own.
and if you want to start the tube stuff (amps & pedals) check out tube-town.de

BYOC is, in my opinion, the best starting point for someone new to pedal building, especially if you don't have a background in electronics. There is also a great support forum where you can ask questions and get help (even help on painting your enclosure).

If you want a pedal kit with everything you need included (except for solder and an iron) and *excellent* documentation for each kit, BYOC is the way to go. Other places have great kits as well, but nobody does the documentation like BYOC.

if you don't like BYOC then you've probably never dealt with them.

Their forum is my FIRST source for information on just about anything DIY guitar/bass/pedal/tube amp related. Keith, the owner, is a joy to work with and his products are far superior to those offered from other 'diy pedal' retailers mentioned in this comment thread. (trust me, i've bought products from almost all of them.) if you want to know for yourself, check out the website and download the instruction manual and build guide for any of the pedals and you'll see the time and documentation that goes into making sure even the most naive of diy'ers can build an above average sounding pedal. as far as finishes, the forum again has volumes of information on all kinds of enclosure finishing ideas from all kinds of paint to waterslide decals to acid etching.

as for the product itself, most pedal kits come with extra components to try out all the popular mods to these classic circuits. the enclosures come predrilled, with everthing you need to build a pedal except a soldering iron and solder.

on a scale of 1 -10, i would easily give BYOC a perfect 10.

I will be forever grateful to Keith and BYOC for getting me started in building. I have used tonepad, and GGG before. Both are very good. BYOC is great. Fantastic support forum, and contrary to what one poster here reports, there is a TON of info available on finishing enclosures, as well as support for each pedal sold. Not to mention, it's a friendly place for newbies, much friendlier than some of the other DIY forums that exist, who expect you to be an expert before you ask a question. Oh yeah, the pedals are the real deal. Believe it.

The sad thing about BYOC is that the more kits I buy, the more I need. I just can't stop building. They have great instructions and I love my BYOC effects!

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