[sdiy] starter components -- one of everything?

[Paul Schreiber]

As a former poor student DIYer, I survived on the following, and could get 90% 
of Electronotes circuits cobbled together :)

RESISTORS

100K 1%  <<<needed for those pesky 1V/Oct summers. I got some TRW 0.01% 1W parts 
surplus for 10 cents (the 1974, that is. The list price was over $9ea!!)

1K
10K
1M   <<<these 3 resistors (and the 100K) are probably 40% of the resistors used 
in the free world

then get some filler resistors:

3k3
6k8
15k
33k
68k
330k

for caps: youreally only need to get 3 kinds to cover 99% of what you will every 
need

10uf 25V electrolytics << universal bulk bypass cap
0.1uf ceramic monolythic axial caps << universal bypass

get an assoertment of Panasonic ECQP 2% caps from Digikey. These are my 
"universal" analog design cap. VCOs. LFOs, VCFs, you name it, these are easy to 
use, very stable, 2% tolerance (for multi-pole VCFs) and cheap. I used 12 
*million* of them in old Tandy modems :) So, get

1nf
4n7
10nf
47nf
100nf
470nf   <<< these will cover most of the range/values needed

Next you need

1N4148 diodes
2N3904 and 2N3906 transistors
TL072 op amps
TLC555 CMOS times  <<< these 4 items are used in 99% of all synth designs in 1 
form or fashion

All of these together, in reasonable quantities will be <$35

Paul S.
fondly remembers paying $2.85 for a 1% 0.047uf cap in 1979 (in 25,000pc 
quantities)