Yeah! My first mod was wiring up a SNES pad with a USB PCB. Was a bit hacky, was a bit shit, but either way it worked alright!
The issue is that usually to begin with you're terrified of making a mistake. Eventually you get over that and it's like, fuck - this is easy. In fact, on a similar point (as much as some posters will hate me) I just ordered a load of EEPROM chips with SNES rom hacks on them to then solder in as repros. It's awesome.
Dammit my first hack was soldering one of these retrousb chip in an SNES pad too! definitely a wonky job, I ain't opening that controller ever again lol.
This is good advice, definitely mess around with old electronics, solder random stuff on it, unsolder chips, etc. You will get to know your tools and build up confidence and steady hands. You won't only need a soldering iron, you will want desoldering copper braid and/or pump, pliers of various sizes and use, some flux (that magical liquid which turns a hot mess into a dream job) and other stuff I don't think of yet. Oh and a third hand. And a fourth. So many times I wished I had someone to hold that damn cable while I was busy with the soldering iron in one hand and the lead in the other, over an unstable tiny board that wouldn't stop wobbling as I was breathing over it.
My advice would be to do it like batman: use prep time. Read about your project again and again, mentally process what you have to do at each steps, visualise how you would do it with your hands, what tools, etc. At first I was eager to get on it and have things done, using the how-to as a step-by-step process that I could follow blindly. I ended up forgetting something crucial most of the time because no matter how detailed the procedure is, there is always something unclear, or missing.
