I’ve never built a kit before! How do I do it?
You can do it! Building effects pedals isn’t easy, but anyone can do it. The most important skill is the ability to solder – if you’ve never soldered before, you can learn it, and there’s a world of resources on the net to do so. We’ll include a blank circuit board for you to practice on before you tackle the effects PCB. Just follow our instructions, and you’ll be ready soon.
I’ve got a show Friday night – can I get it express mailed?
Well, yes, you can for the predictable extra charges. However, if you’ve not built one before, please don’t rush it for your show. Building can take time, and even the most experienced builders often need to de-bug their pedals. Rushing yourself will only lead to frustration.
I built it, but it doesn’t work! WTF?
First, go back and recheck all your parts – did you inadvertently put a 220k resistor in for the 220 ohm? 47K resistor for a 4k7, or vice versa? Got the right polarity of your polarized caps? Yes? Okay, now check again. 95% of bugs are in one of these two areas. Checked it twice? Good, now check again. If it still doesn’t work, check that you didn’t wire the pots backwards? Yes? Check your resistors. Yes, again.
The other main problem area is with soldering. If the solder didn’t get hot enough or flow well enough, you might have a cold joint – get the iron nice and hot and go over all the solders again. Then recheck your resistors. Yes, again.
Customp has gone over and over all of our circuits, and they work, we’ve built them. If you’ve checked and rechecked all your circuits and pots and all your solders look good, then take a picture of the board (top AND bottom) plus the pots and the switch and send them in. We will work with you as best we can to solve it. Please don’t send in low quality, cell phone pictures – if we can’t read the resistor values, we can’t help you. Also, please do not get offended if we comment on the quality of your soldering – its not a personal attack, hell, our own soldering could use improvement, but a bad solder joint will result in a buggy pedal.
Why should I buy from you? I can get a DS-1 off of my cousin’s buddy for like $20.
Don’t buy from us. If you want a DS-1, buy it – it’s a great pedal. Hell, if you can afford it, and you can find it, go buy a late 60’s Octavia. You want a computer chip to spit out a model of what it thinks a guitar should sound like? By all means, buy it – you won’t find it here. But, if you want the finest in boutique pedals, or you want the satisfaction of building your own and customizing to be exactly how you want it, then don’t go anywhere else. We’ve got the best around. Maybe you can find it elsewhere for less – quality costs, and you get what you pay for.
I burned my board – can I get another?
Unfortunately, we can’t give you another board – they’re really quite expensive. We might be able to sell you another one if we have any in stock though – let us know. We regret that we cannot guarantee your success – the boards are correct, but we can’t control if you put too much solder on, or burn the traces. Once you’ve soldered it, its yours. We will do our best to help you but we can’t control it.
What is your return policy?
Custompbox will allow unopened returns, if you contact us first and let us know it’s coming. However, once its opened, we can no longer accept returns, especially for kits that have been partially or wholly soldered. If you are having difficulty completing a build, please let us know – we want you happy with the purchase (and want you to buy more!), but we can’t accept returns after opening.
If you are missing a piece, let us know. However, please check the package carefully, especially if you’ve already put parts on the board –you may have already put the part on the board, but in the wrong spot – this is highly common with resistor values that differ by factors (i.e. 220 ohm resistor is ‘missing’, and you’ve got an ‘extra’ 220k resistor – but the 220 ohm is on the board in the 220k spot).
