New US based kit supplier

This has been requested by lots of people in the US.  Bitsbox are a fantastic resource for this site supplying kits and other parts to many destinations around the world, but unfortunately the insurance requirement for shipping goods to the US became prohibitively expensive for some businesses over here and so they had to make the decision to stop shipments to the US.  Many of the visitors to this blog, in fact the majority of visitors to this blog are US based and I have been asked about kits for a couple of years now by many people, and now you can get them.

MKLEC is a small independent retailer located in Columbus, Mississippi and they have been working hard for a couple of months now to get their stocks up on the components required for the kits, and have now started putting them together.  At the moment only the Deep Blue Delay kit is up on their site, but it will be followed by the Klon very shortly and lots more to follow.  The kits will be posted on this page:

http://mklec.com/project-kits/guitar-effects-kits

The business is run by husband and wife David and Amanda who are lovely people, and I would encourage anyone who is interested in buying kits in the US to contact them to give them feedback of what kits you would like to see first, then they can give some kits priority in putting them together.

As I said they have been putting a lot of work in getting the parts together and David was adamant that he use high quality components throughout, so the kits use Xicon 1% metal film resistors, Nichicon and Panasonic polyester film capacitors, WIMA and Cornell Dubilier for the polybox cap and audio grade electrolytics so even if you are indifferent about component types, you can be assured of quality and longevity of the popular branded components chosen.

If you have any questions then get in contact with us, or even better MKLEC directly so you can hear straight from the horses mouth.

David has sent me a kit to build and when completed this will be given away in a free draw to new customers signing up for an account with MKLEC via this blog, so when you do sign up make sure you note tagboardeffects somewhere in the registration form so you can be included in the draw.  Just pop it in one of the unused form boxes like Fax, Company or Company ID or alternatively send him an email so you're added to the list.

Effect Component Kits

I get asked frequently about where to buy components from, and I know a lot of people, like me, have got together a huge stash of parts so they always have the right resistors and caps at hand.   But others still seem to be buying the exact components as and when they need them, sometimes from multiple suppliers and so I thought it would be a good idea for these people if we could put some sort of kit together for the effects so that you can buy everything you need from one place.  So I had a word with Bob at Bitsbox who sells electronic components at great prices and I know a number of people already purchase from him from all over the world, and he has agreed to put together kits for these layouts which will include all resistors, capacitors, transistors or opamps, diodes, pots, DC adapter, stomp switch and even an appropriately size stripboard. 

I know some people have their own favoured parts when it comes to boxes (size or colour of your choice), indication LED (colour of your choice), input and output sockets (quality and type of your choice) and knobs (design of your choice).  With that in mind, these parts haven't been included in the kits so you can still stamp your own mark on the build, but everything else you need is there.

I'll just add a link to the layouts that have kits available as and when they are available, but if there is anything you want to see then let myself or Bitsbox know and we'll try to get some order of priority in putting the kits together.  I'll update this post as and when new kits are added so that there is a master list to refer to if you're wondering what kits are available.

All Bitsbox kits can be found HERE.


Update 24th April 2014
Kits now available for sale in the US.  Check out:
http://mklec.com/project-kits/guitar-effects-kits
And contact David about what you would like to see next

Man-cave back up and running!

Not everyone will be interested in this, but this post is for those who are, and the people I've been discussing this with! :o)

OK so I don't have any excuses any more not to start verifying at least some of these myself, I've finally got a load of junk moved and a little workshop built up in the garage so I can leave everything permanently setup so I can work on builds whenever I get a chance without having to dig through all my components, get the soldering iron setup on an office desk etc.  It made builds hard work because I had to be extra motivated just to be bothered hauling everything out!  So hopefully I'll be able to start verifying a few more of my own again! :o)

 (empty unit for axial caps)