DIY Gear

I just finished putting together a nice little kit from seventhcircleaudio.com and I had a friggin blast. It sounds pretty great, too. I did their D11 direct input module because it's the easiest, and now I'm ready to tackle something more difficult. I have one of their n72 modules up on the bench next. Now I can google as well as the next guy, so I don't need a list of more DIY stuff that's available, but I was wondering if there are any other Reaperites who like to build their own preamps/eq/whatever either from kit or schematic. If so, what do you like? What do you dislike? Got any mind-blowing tips or just plain good advice? I'm currently working with a pretty good spread of quality tools, but supply suggestions are also welcome (especially if you know a cheap place to order eutectic solder...).

I've built some of the Fivefish Studios SC-1 preamps (four channels' worth) from and love them. Clean, eerily quiet, TONS of gain, and pretty darn near impossible to screw up as long as you can solder halfway decently. Somewhat similar to the SCA T15 preamp, if I remember correctly, in that it's based on a THAT Corp. chip. Scott

I built 8 diy pre-amps based on various schematics off the net, but I gather they're in a different league to what you're talking about. (ie 8 of mine + chassis + phantom power cost less than 1 N72 module) I lament that I can't comment on how quiet it is because I have nothing pro to compare it with. see 2nd page for pics

I've built quite a few electret mics in various designs (taking orders again if anyone's interested), some guitar gear (boosters, tube gain stage), a compressor, the same preamp that nerdfactormax built (though never got the phantom power supply to work properly), a JFET based preamp and lots of other little projects. I recently put my hands on a good audio transformer that I'm planning on turning to a passive DI this weekend.

I'd love to build a pre-amp, just gotta save up the money for the parts. I've been building guitar effects pedals from schems/scratch for 6-7 years though, and am in the middle of a big tube amp (thats not going anywhere fast due to lack of space in my current apartment). A nice boutique pre would just be great to get my mitts into.

try these couple of sites jlm audio has some very cool kits and also plenty on here that can be found plus all the help you could need i recon have and most importantly is post pics for all of us to see cheers dave

For anyone doing live show recordings, a properly shielded transformer isolated mic splitter is an invaluable tool. I made a 16 channel two-way splitter based on schematics from the Jensen Transformers site: Pretty laborious and the mic-splitting transformers are still expensive (I got mine from Crimson Audio - very transparent and great service, specs close to Jensens but much cheaper), but if you scavenge all your connectors and switches off old used/not working gear (which is often going for a fraction of the cost of buying the bits new) you can cut the cost of buying a quality pre-manufactured one by half or three quarters. One of the things I like most about DIY is giving stuff that would otherwise be bound for landfill a new life. Bill.

tons of stuff 

Hole E Crap. I finished the N72 a while back and even without a fine bias adjustment this thing is rockin my nether regions. Wow. I mean, WOW. It cost a tenth of what an equivalent off-the-shelf product would and was more fun to build than can possibly be legal. Big thumbs up. NEXT!

I have built the Hamptone JFET and Tube mic pre's and they are incredible....I dig them !!! David B