What to Buy to Start Building

Tools, parts and boards for noise synths and pedals · By Onion Madder · Mess O' Pedals

You do not need a bench full of gear to build the things on this site. You need a board, a handful of parts and a way to power them, and for most of it a soldering iron. This page is what to buy, in the order you will need it, and how to read the parts list that comes with every guide.

The short version: if you want to make something that works, get a soldering iron first. A multimeter can come later. A solderless breadboard is great for kids and for trying a circuit out. Buy the chips a build needs, five at a time, in case you mess a build up - they are cheap on AliExpress and Tayda. Every guide's What you'll need list is the shopping list for that build.

Start here: one build and an iron

Pick one build and get a soldering iron. My paper and stripboard guides are soldered, and a soldered board is a thing that works and keeps working.

A solderless breadboard is great for kids and for trying a circuit out first. Parts push into it and pull back out, so nothing is permanent and nothing can be soldered wrong. My Breadboard Series is written for that: every guide places each part hole by hole, and none of them needs an iron.

For a first build, pick one on a 555 timer, like the 555 Optical Theremin, or the Atari Punk Console, which is two of them in one NE556. A 555 is cheap, hard to kill, and makes a noise the moment it is wired right, which is the fastest feedback you will get.

What a bill of materials is

A bill of materials, or BOM, is the parts list for one build: every part, its value, and how many. On this site it is the What you'll need section near the top of every guide. Reading one is mostly knowing how parts say their own values, because the BOM says “10K” and the resistor in your hand says brown, black, orange.

Resistors

Values are in ohms, written with K for thousands and M for millions, so 4K7 or 4.7K is 4,700 ohms and 1M is a million. The value is printed as colored bands. On a four-band resistor the first two bands are digits and the third is how many zeros follow: brown (1), black (0), orange (three zeros) is 10,000, or 10K. The fourth band, usually gold, is tolerance and you can ignore it. Five-band resistors have three digit bands before the zeros. If you cannot tell the colors apart, a multimeter on resistance reads the value straight off the part.

Capacitors

Small ceramic and film caps carry a three-digit code in picofarads: two digits, then how many zeros. 104 is 10 followed by four zeros, 100,000 pF, which is 100nF (or 0.1µF). 103 is 10nF, 102 is 1nF, 105 is 1µF. Ceramics do not care which way around they go.

Electrolytic caps (the little cans) print their value plainly, like 10µF 25V, and they do care. The stripe down the side marks the negative leg, and the longer leg is positive. Backwards, they fail, sometimes loudly. The voltage on the can is the most it will take; anything at or above your supply is fine.

Chips

The number in the middle is the part: 555, 4093, 386. The letters around it are mostly who made it and what package it comes in. An NE555 and an LM555 are the same chip from different makers, and a CD4093BE is a CD4093 in the through-hole package these builds use. Sometimes the letters do matter: a TLC555 is the low-power CMOS version of the 555 and behaves differently in a few circuits, and a 74HC14 has the same pins as a CD40106 but tops out around 6 volts, so it will not live on 9. When a guide names a specific version, buy that one.

Everything else

Diodes and LEDs have a direction too. A diode's band is its cathode, the end current leaves from. An LED's longer leg is the positive one, and the flat on the rim of its body marks the negative. Pots print their value with a letter: B is linear and A is log, so B100K is a 100K linear pot.

Tools, by stage

You do not need all of this at once. Buy each stage when you get to it.

Soldering, first

A soldering iron with temperature control. Not the plug-in pencil kind with no dial. Being able to turn it down matters more than the brand. Mine is a Silverflo 982-I station from AliExpress, with the C210 handle: it heats up fast, goes to sleep when you set it down, and shuts itself off if you forget it.
Solder. Thin rosin-core solder, around 0.8mm, for through-hole parts.
Flush cutters. For trimming legs close to the board after soldering.
Helping hands. Something to hold the board, or the chip on a dead-bug build, while both your hands are busy.
Desoldering braid or a solder pump. You will need one of them on your first board. Everybody does.
A track cutter, or a 3mm drill bit turned by hand, for cutting the copper strips on stripboard.
Power. A 9V battery and a snap. Check what voltage the build wants first: most of mine run on 9V, a few want 12V or more.

Breadboard, for kids and for trying things out

A full-size solderless breadboard. The 830-hole kind, often sold as MB-102.
Jumper wires. A box of precut solid-core jumpers lies flat and is easier to read than the floppy kind with plugs on the ends.
A breadboard power module that clips onto the rails, or the same 9V battery and snap.

Later: a multimeter

A multimeter. Not the first thing to buy when all you want is something that works, but you will want one. A cheap one is fine. It reads resistors, checks a supply before you plug anything in, and finds out which of two strips is actually connected.

Boxing stage

An enclosure. Aluminum pedal boxes come in standard sizes: the 125B is the tall one most of my stripboard builds fit, the 1590BB is wider, and the 1590DD is wider again. Each guide says which box it was drawn for.
A step drill bit. One bit drills every hole size a pot, jack or switch needs.
The panel parts: jacks, pots, knobs and switches. The guide's list says which, and most of my stripboard guides come with a 1:1 drill template you print and tape to the box.

A starter parts stock

This covers most of the guides here. Resistors and capacitors come in assortments. Chips are different: buy the ones the build you are doing needs, five at a time, so one mistake does not stop you. They are cheap enough on AliExpress and Tayda that there is no point stocking chips you may never use.

Starter parts stock
Part	What to get	Spot it
Resistors	A quarter-watt assortment, 10 ohms to 1M	Small beige or blue bodies with colored bands
Ceramic caps	An assortment, 10pF to 100nF	Small orange or blue blobs with a three-digit code
Electrolytic caps	An assortment, 1µF to 470µF, 25V or higher	Little cans with a stripe down one side
555 timers	NE555, or NE556 (two 555s in one chip), five at a time	8 pins for the 555, 14 for the 556
CMOS logic	Five of whichever your build uses; CD40106, CD4093 and CD4024 come up most here	14-pin chips with CD40 on the label
Op-amp	TL072, five at a time	8 pins, TL072 on the label
Amp chip	LM386, five at a time	8 pins, LM386 on the label; drives a small speaker
Diodes	1N4148 signal diodes, 1N5817 Schottky for power	1N4148: tiny orange glass with a black band. 1N5817: black body with a gray band
LEDs	3mm or 5mm, a few colors	Longer leg is positive
Photocells (LDRs)	A small bag	A flat disc with a wiggly orange track under the clear face
Pots	10K, 100K, 470K and 1M, linear (B)	Three legs and a shaft; the value is printed on the back
Switches	SPDT toggles, a few on-off-on, momentary push buttons	A toggle's legs: two for on-off, three for a changeover
Jacks	Quarter-inch mono for audio, 3.5mm for CV	The guide says which goes where
Power	9V battery snaps, a DC jack	The snap is the red and black leads on a battery clip
Wire	Solid-core for links on the board, stranded for off-board wiring	Solid holds its shape; stranded flexes

Board formats

The same circuit can go on several kinds of board. They trade ease against permanence, and every one has its own shelf of guides here.

Solderless breadboard - push in, pull out, no iron. Great for kids and for trying a circuit out.
Permanent breadboard - a solderable board with the same layout and the same holes as a solderless one, so a breadboard guide moves straight across and you keep the result.
Paper - circuit boards you print, four sheets of paper thick, with common parts. A printer, a glue stick, scissors, pointed tweezers, a cardboard box and an iron are the whole kit. It is the fastest way I have found to prove a circuit works.
Stripboard (also sold as veroboard) - copper strips you cut and solder to. Small and tough enough to go in a box. Every stripboard guide here comes with a layout file for Copper Bottom, the free editor I wrote, which checks the board before you cut anything.
Dead-bug - no board at all. The chip goes legs-up and the parts solder straight to its pins.
PCB - a printed circuit board with every connection already made. See below.

My kits

If you would rather not assemble a parts order, I make kits for the builds I have verified. Every part in them is brand new.

Breadboard and permanent breadboard kits - one for each of five builds: the 555 Optical Theremin, Bazz Fuss, Hive Drone, Atari Punk Console and Opto Duet, with free shipping. The breadboard kit is solderless: a full-size MB-102 breadboard, a power module, a 9V battery and connector, jumper wires and every component, in a hinged case, with the off-board parts wired to push into the board. The permanent kit has a solderable breadboard instead, with the off-board parts loose for you to wire. Or buy just the parts and the printed bench guide for any of the five.
Stripboard Kit - on the kits page; email me to ask.

PCBs, coming

I am having PCBs made. The first run is the Opto Duet, the Spider Sequencer, the Dragonfly VCO, the Cicada NAND and Grubworks. No dates or prices yet. This section gets them when the boards are here.

Where I get my stuff

People ask what I use, so here it is. No affiliate links, no sponsors. These are just the shops I actually order from, over and over, sometimes against my better judgment.

The short version

Tayda: cheap colored enclosures, knobs, specialty pots, stripboard
Amplified Parts: Hammond boxes, transformers, power stuff (my local shop, I'm in there every week)
Love My Switches: knobs galore and raw enclosures to finish yourself
AliExpress: bulk pots and bulk chips
Electronic Goldmine: surprise boxes, for chaos

Enclosures

Tayda 125B, 1590BB2, and 1590DD diecast in every color they make: metallic candy, hammer, matte sand, glow in the dark, you name it. The cheapest way to get a colored box.
Amplified Parts Hammond 1590B / 1590BB / 1590DD: the real Hammond boxes, raw or colored.
Amplified Parts Hammond aluminum chassis, 13x7x2", with cover plate, for when the build gets big.
Love My Switches unpainted enclosures: for when you want to paint, drill, or finish them yourself.

Pots

AliExpress: bulk linear pots (B100K and the other values you burn through).
Tayda: the specialty tapers like A10K and C500K, when you only need a few of something.

Knobs

Tayda: Davies 1900H clones (pink, clear), knurled aluminum, silver audio knobs, Boss-style clear knobs, and little colored knobs.
Love My Switches: the biggest variety. Go here when you want a specific look.

Chips

AliExpress / eBay: bulk 555s and cheap CMOS. For noise boxes, the cheap ones work just fine.
Mouser: only when the circuit is really finicky about the chip.
Amplified Parts: CD4040, CD4051, and other CMOS when I need them now.

Switches

Tayda: mini toggle SPDT on-on (I buy these 50 at a time), mini rotary 1P8T
Amplified Parts: rotary 1P12T, 1/4" shaft, non-shorting

Transformers

Amplified Parts: 42TM022 audio transformer (1.5k:600Ω, a favorite) and the Hammond 12VCT filament transformer

Power

Amplified Parts: DC jacks (rear panel, 5.5/2.1mm) and Dunlop M239 barrel cables

Stripboard & Hardware

Tayda: copper stripboard, big (110x93mm) and small (93x55mm), plus LED bezel clips and grid parts boxes for sorting
Amplified Parts: stripboard in a few sizes (including white and phenolic), Hammond screws, solder tags, chrome handles, Eurorack blank panels (10HP/20HP) and M3 screws

Grab Bags & Chaos (Electronic Goldmine)

Box of Capacitors (4x4") and Super Box of Capacitors (6x4x4"): my repeat buys
Surprise boxes: Inventor's, 4x4x4, Super, Mystery, Semi Treasure
LED boxes: Mysterious Box of Beautiful LEDs, Color Blast
“Blind Box of IC's”
SMD vials and jars

Tips: watch for their weekend deals (I've gotten boxes for half price) and bundle orders, because shipping adds up.

Other people's guides

If you would rather start by bending a toy than building from scratch, go and see circuitbendingfool's circuit bending page at 7th Chord Studio. Its Circuit Bending Basics sheet fits the whole hobby on one page: the tools, the controls you can add (pots, switches, push buttons and photocells), and the bends to try with them, from pitch bending and touch contacts to voltage starving, crashing and glitching. There are video tutorials on the same page and more on the circuitbendingfool YouTube channel, which is how we found each other.

If you try the voltage starve, my Power Starve is a version that cannot burn out its pot.