Sample Video From This Course
"Beginners Guide To Breadboards"
Click the video above to play a segment from Section 1 of this course
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A message from Brian Wampler
What's all in this course?
Before we begin...
Updates to the course
Warnings and Precautions
Important! Join the Wampler Community Here (Included with the course)
Parts and Tools Needed - List of Links
More Links for Part Suppliers
2025 Update: Parts list and links for all projects
FAQ
Introduction
Switches
Power Jacks and Battery Snaps
Audio Jacks
Breadboard and Wires
Breadboard Modules
Soldering Irons
Third Hand Tool
Wire Strippers
Solder
Needle Nose Pliers
Multimeters
Parts Storage
How can I improve this section for you? (Tools and Materials needed)
Introduction to How to Read Schematics
Ground
Voltage Signal Source
Node References
Input and Output Jacks
Resistors
Capacitors
Bipolar Junction Transistors (BJT)
JFET's (Junction Field Effect Transistors)
MOSFET's (Metal Oxide Semiconductor Field Effect Transistor)
Op-Amps (Operational Amplifiers)
Diodes
Switches
Potentiometers
Lets put it all together
What questions did this section solve for you? (How to read schematics)
Introduction to "All About Components"
Resistors
Capacitors
What is Clipping
Diodes
Transistors
IC Chips and Op-Amps
Switches
Potentiometers
Watch This If Using PCB Mounted Potentiometers Instead of Soldered Lug
Breadboarding
How can I improve this section for you? (All about components)
How to Solder
Please read before watching the de-soldering video
How to De-Solder
How to Use a Multimeter
Make Led Light Up
Connecting Switches
How to Use Potentiometers
Using a Switch to Control LED Brightness
Creating a Master Volume Control
Creating High Pass Filters
Creating Low Pass Filters
Creating a Voltage Divider
Before We Continue... IMPORTANT
Part List Needed
Additional Parts List (on going)
Parts Suppliers world wide
Additions to this course
How can I improve this section for you? (Beginner Projects)
All About Impedance, Headroom, Clipping, and EQ
The "Audio Probe"
Getting Power To Your Breadboard
Explaining Vref (4.5v reference) a bit more clearly
JFET Buffer Type "A"
JFET Buffer Type "B"
BJT (NPN Transistor) Buffer
JFET Gain Stage
JFET Gain Stage With Bypass Cap
Common Emitter BJT (NPN) Gain Stage
BJT (NPN) Shunt Feedback Common Emitter Gain Stage
MOSFET Shunt Feedback Common Source Amplifier Circuit Explanation
MOSFET Shunt Feedback Common Source Amplifier Circuit Demo
How can I improve this section for you? (Basic audio circuit blocks)
Introduction: Adding gain stages for more gain
BJT (NPN) Transistor Cascaded Gain Stages, Introduction
BJT (NPN) Base Circuit Demonstration
BJT (NPN) Hard Clipping Explanation and Demo
BJT (NPN) Soft Clipping Explanation and Demo
JFET Circuit Base Explanation and Demo
JFET With Output Buffer Explanation and Demo
JFET With Soft Clipping Explanation and Demo
JFET With Hard Clipping Explanation and Demo
MOSFET Base Circuit Explanation and Demo
MOSFET Soft Clipping Explanation and Demo
MOSFET Hard Clipping Explanation and Demo
Wrapping Up This Section - Overall Thoughts
How can I improve this section for you? (Cascading gain stages for more gain)
What is an Op Amp (Operational Amplifier)?
Basic Op Amp Buffer Explanation & Demo
A Non-Inverting Op Amp Gain Stage Explained
A Non-Inverting Op Amp Gain Stage Demo
A Non-Inverting Op Amp Gain Stage Deeper Dive
How can I improve this section for you? (Creating circuits using Op-amps)
Introduction to the tone control section
"Rat"™ Style Tone Control
Modified "Rat"™ Style Tone Control
"SWTC" (Stupidly Wonderful) Tone Control
"Typical" Passive Tone Control
Introduction to "Big Muff™" Tone stack (Or "Tilt" Tone Stack)
Stock Big Muff/Tilt Tone Stack
Modifying the Big Muff/ Tilt Tone Stack, Part 1
Modifying the Big Muff / Tilt Tone Stack, Part 2
A Quick Tip on Troubleshooting
Simple Bass / Treble Tonestack
The "James" Bass / Treble Tonestack
Adding a "Make Up" Gain Stage
Bonus Video: About the Tone Stack Calculator
How can I improve this section for you? (Tone controls and EQ circuits)
A personal message from me to you
Access to our community!
Can you help me out? Write a review here
Before you go...
(23)
Sample Video From This Course
"A Non-Inverting Op Amp Gain Stage Explained"
Click the video above to play a segment from Section 5 of this course.
Robert
Grateful
Jim
Great Beginner course
This is a great introduction into pedal building for the complete beginner. No experience necessary.
Dylan
Extremely helpful!
I highly recommend this course! I now understand how it works and how to make a pedal do what I want it to do.
Antonio
Excellent Course
Very clear, fun and fascinating. This really helped me understand how these circuits work and allowed me to build some of my own.
Michael
Great Course!!
Well done and easy to follow. You will love it!
Nathaniel
A must for those wanting a start into the inside world of guitar pedals
I can't say enough about this course. I learned all the basic building blocks to create may own distortion. Brian covers all the important topics needed to get a grasp on what is inside these little boxes we are addicted to using.
Fabian
Beautiful
Simply beautiful, I understood everything and am eager to start prototyping
Alan
I feel like I just leveled up
I took this course to be able to move forward from paint by numbers type pedal building, That goal has been achieved.
Stephen
Truly One Of A Kind Masterclass
This course has everything you need to start building your own guitar effect circuits. Highly enjoyable, incredibly educational, and exceeded my expectations in every way. Cannot recommend this course highly enough.
Dave
Awesome blossom, with extra awesome 👏🏼
This helped me so much with understanding schematics and bread boarding circuits! I hope there is a continuation of this in the future. Thanks Brian 😎
Brian
Wampler Pedal Course for Beginners
At last something that you can get your teeth into without choking on mathematical formulas, well structured and well thought out, is helping me to find a lot of the answers to the questions that were bogging me down and has helped pointing me in the direction i needed with a better understanding of what i was looking at
Archil
Awesome course for beginners!
Even though I've had researched all of the circuits and blocks discussed in this course on my own before discovering this course, it still provided lots of useful insight and practical instructions on how to get started with actually building and testing the circuits. For me, there were many "A-Ha!" moments, where a more concise and useful/practical explanations and solutions were offered for the concepts that I knew before, but still was not sure I understood well. A great resource for those who want to start making their own pedals.
Jordan
Informative and Reputable
Brian does a great job at exposing you to the basics, and then takes you a little bit further down the rabbit hole.
Lee
Loved it!
I loved the course. It allowed me to go at my own pace to understand and then implement the examples. It felt different to watching a random you tube clip having it structured the way it is. I felt it was great value for money and I finished wanting more. Thanks Brian
Christopher
Amazing course!
Simply put, this course packed a ton of experience-based knowledge from an expert. Brian Wampler took the time to share his passion and insights from decades of experience to accelerate my understanding. I found it focused and without a lot of confusing, unimportant, information. I highly recommend this to anyone interested in building their own pedals.
Fernando
Pure Gold!
This is just great. A must have for DIY guitar pedal enthusiast. I'm looking forward for more courses like this one from Brian.
Kenneth
I cannot explain how much this course did for me
I’m 72 years old, slept through electronics in high school and later kind of felt like was missing out on something. Schematics were Sanskrit to me. I started building kits and realized the schematics were useless to me if I had a problem. I saw a Facebook ad for Brian’s course and figured I’d give it a shot. What I have learned from his engaging and highly informative course cannot be overstated. I now design and build my my own pedals from what Brian has taught me. I would pay for the pedals I’ve built. Highly recommended. Mores please!
Teylor
Worth every penny
As an EE student, I had doubts about this course because I figured I could easily find this information online by searching through forums. Little did I know the specific details and knowledge I would gain from Brian through his experience in this field. That's what you're paying for, and it is sooo worth it. Took the information from this course, expanded on it, and I'm working on my own overdrive design. Could not have been done without this course.
Bill
Fantastic Course! I Highly recommend this to anyone curious about getting into pedal design.
This was great! Truth be told I was not a complete beginner, but I'm definitely a beginner. Brian's explanations were very easy to follow and very informative. If you are looking to break into building and designing pedal circuits this is a great way to do it. I will likely reference this material for a long time. Thank you Brian for putting this together!
Bertie
Outstanding course
This course is incredibly good for beginners, everything is clear and concise. Brian explains every part and how to put it together perfectly making it easy to learn how to build your own guitar pedals. I highly recommend this course to anyone wanting to learn to tinker with guitar pedals.
Jay
Pedal Building Made Accessible
This course is pure gold. Brian’s causal and conversational style combined with his “Lego block” approach made me feel like I can do this. In the past, I’ve worked through multiple books on the topic, but always hit a brick wall. This course not only breaks down those barriers, but Brian also shares little nuggets of wisdom throughout on how to tinker and experiment with the designs. I highly recommend for anyone wanting to get into pedal building.
Aron
Total confidence boost.
Brian hits the nail on the head in as simple of terminology as you could hope for in a course. The video lengths and topics are all laid out and explained exceptionally well making it easy to go back and forth within the course. I have built numerous pedals in the past from kits and while cool I still had no idea what was going on so I took it even further purchasing great PCB’s, sourcing all of my own parts, enclosures etc… and building alongside supplied documentation. Basically painting with numbers. You simply find “R19” on the parts list page and you plug that value into the board and solder it in, learning nothing about why or how the part or value effects anything. Schematics still resembled cave paintings to me and troubleshooting was a nightmare when a build was finished and something was wrong. I might as well have been looking at a completed circuit from another builder as I still had no idea where to begin or anything that I had done aside from soldering parts. Long winded but if you happen to be a Tinkerer and want to know why something ticks I cannot recommend this course enough. Well done Brian W.!
Charlie
A Must-Take Course for Aspiring Pedal Builders!
Brian Wampler's "Complete Beginner's Guide: How To Design Your Own Guitar Pedal Circuits" is an absolute gem for anyone interested in building guitar pedal effects. As someone who has been dabbling in pedal design, I found the content incredibly accessible and informative. The step-by-step instructions are clear, and Brian does a fantastic job of breaking down complex concepts into easy-to-understand lessons. The practical examples and hands-on projects make the learning experience both engaging and enjoyable. I highly recommend this course to all aspiring pedal builders!