1. Watch these videos:
http://www.eevblog.com/images/Dave555.jpg
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J5Sb21qbpEQ
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fYz5nIHH0iY
In fact, watch all of this guy’s videos (Dave Jones). He’s fucking awesome. Don’t turn it on–take it apart!
2. Buy one of these:
http://www.amazon.com/Digital-FX888D-CHP170-bundle-cutter/dp/B00AWUFVY8/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1404357127&sr=8-1&keywords=hakko+888
Or a used one of these:
http://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_trksid=p2050601.m570.l1313.TR0.TRC0.H0.Xweller+wes51&_nkw=weller+wes51&_sacat=0&_from=R40
Don’t get the shitty cheap ones with fixed temperature, they SUCK! And are also fire hazards. Buy a good soldering iron and make sure to follow Dave’s advice and get a good chisel tip.
3. Buy a good multimeter, like this one:
http://www.amazon.com/Extech-EX330-Autoranging-Multimeter-Thermometer/dp/B000EX0AE4/ref=sr_1_1?s=hi&ie=UTF8&qid=1404357191&sr=1-1&keywords=extech+ex330
Cheap ones (80V)
4. Read this:
The first 10 chapters will give you an extremely good grounding in practical analog circuit design, with 80% of the higher math cut out. Excellent book, one of the standard texts of the industry.
5. See these fuckers?
And these?
And these assholes?
These are aluminum electrolytic capacitors, or just caps. These guys are responsible for about 30% of electronics failures, and are piss-easy to replace. You can get Japanese replacements that will last forever for cheap, and shitty Chinese ones for cheaper. I once fixed a $500 LCD TV for $12 worth of parts and an hour of my time.
Make sure the replacement voltage rating is equal or higher, capacitance is as close as possible, ESR is equal or lower, and ripple current rating is equal or higher.
6. Pick up an Arduino board:
A lot of pros sneer at these things, but they’re very handy for a beginning electronics guy. Once you become knowledgeable enough you can ditch the mediocre software and program it direct as a quality general purpose microcontroller!
7. Collect old electronics for parts and projects
You never know what you might need!
8. Buy your components from places like this:
http://digikey.com
Or Farnell if you’re in the UK. Don’t buy parts on ebay unless you have to.
9. Finally, join a decent electronics forum for help with your questions as you go.
Follow these steps and you’ll be fixing TVs, stereos, and computer parts in no time! Eevblog.com is a good forum choice.
Also, It never hurts to check Google for schematics and measure voltages. I wouldn’t recommend taking apart CRT’s or any kind of power supply equipment without proper training.
Remember: Don’t turn it on–take it apart!
FP Edit: I’d like to thank the community for spreading knowledge through your upvotes and hopefully this helped someone else pick up a new skill. Three viral posts in a week and no nudes in my inbox, but that’s cool. I still love you all.