- Feb 16, 2008
- 21,240
- 23,638
- Disclosures
- John K Custom Basses
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Any DIY pedal builders on TB? Strut your stuff!
- Thread starter SubHuman
- Start date
- Feb 16, 2008
- 21,240
- 23,638
- Disclosures
- John K Custom Basses
i just finished my 3rd Equilux (125B Spaceman Equinox clone):
My pile of unfinished or partially-finished Sushi Boxes got a little smaller this week!
Earlier this summer I posted my Space Heater build, which was my first try at a full-voltage tube pedal and turned out amazingly well, with the full fancy enclosure and UV-printed graphics treatment. Also in the queue are the Particle Accelerator and Diplomat, which I've finished with rattle cans and will send for UV printing in the nearish future, and the rest still with bare enclosures for lack of graphics inspiration. Among the latter group was the Black Eye, which up until last month I hadn't even begun to consider accruing parts for. I had had a vague idea what I wanted to do with the graphics, since I liked the concept of the graphics on the production version of the Black Eye but didn't want to borrow too heavily from it. That led me down a huge rabbit hole of perusing art related to the keywords "black eye", but no concepts jumped out at me so I let it simmer on the backburner for a long time. Having a noodle with my Invalid Link Removed gave me the idea that I'd do the Black Eye in a Legend of Zelda theme too. Behold:
For no reason other than lack of patience, I decided I would try my hand (ha) at hand-painting the enclosure for this one. I have a couple of other hand-painted pedals, but normally my partner, who is a fantastic artist and skilled with acrylics, does that work for me, since I'm a complete hack at visual arts. She was too busy this past month to take on this project so I said alright, let's see how far I get with it - worst case scenario I strip it all back and send it for printing anyway, or get an enclosure from Tayda since Nathan was nice enough to make templates for all these builds. The paint process here was
I have to also mention that I did an absolutely poopie job on the art on this pedal. I mocked up the text on Inkscape to make sure I would have the proper spacing to fit all the characters I needed to fit on the face in order to cover the entire area, a la the original Black Eye's hieroglyphic background. But, me being me, I did this job at 3 am, and from the application of the first character measured the spacing wrong, so the text neither covers the entire enclosure face nor completely fits in the lines (you can see that the last two lines have several characters that I squashed in, spacing be damned). The "Black Eye" title is also just glaringly obviously not centered. I want to keep a semi-consistent graphical theme across all my Sushi Box builds, so I had to add my warning label which, as you can see, is also botched because I miscalculated the space it would need to fit:
But the real star of this show is this hand-painted (yes, really) Sushi Box logo, which I had my partner do for me because there was no way I could do this myself. It is seriously indistinguishable from a printed label from a reasonable distance (with the exception of the blowout in the "Y" of "DIY", but you know, these things happen):
I was pretty unhappy with the quality of the paint on this for most of the process, but after voicing my frustrations, my partner told me "art is not perfect and will never be perfect, so you have to make peace with the imperfections and accept your mistakes". So, that's exactly what I'm doing and am happier for it. I also chipped the paint around the toggle switch while trying to install it, but the judiciously-chosen washer and Invalid Link Removed hide that neatly, so we will speak of it no more
So how does it sound? Forking spectacular. It has everything - sounds equally great on guitar or bass; does low and high-gain sounds equally well; crunchy, harmonically-rich distortion; A relatively wide-ranging but completely usable tone knob; I added a bass switch which puts extra 47uF cathode bypass capacitors in parallel with the stock 1uF capacitors at V1a and V1b, which lets you go from tight and focused lows to beefy chunky lows that are GREAT on bass. The Tube Store was having a sale on JJ tubes a little while ago, so I took the opportunity to grab a pair of them for this build, which was one of the catalysts for getting this one off the ground. Following an educated guesstimate of the sort of response I wanted from the pedal from reading other's experiences, I settled for a JJ ECC83MG for V1 and a JJ E83CC for V2. This turns out to be really awesome combination of tubes and I'm super happy with the sound right now. Run, don't walk, to build yourself one of these.
Earlier this summer I posted my Space Heater build, which was my first try at a full-voltage tube pedal and turned out amazingly well, with the full fancy enclosure and UV-printed graphics treatment. Also in the queue are the Particle Accelerator and Diplomat, which I've finished with rattle cans and will send for UV printing in the nearish future, and the rest still with bare enclosures for lack of graphics inspiration. Among the latter group was the Black Eye, which up until last month I hadn't even begun to consider accruing parts for. I had had a vague idea what I wanted to do with the graphics, since I liked the concept of the graphics on the production version of the Black Eye but didn't want to borrow too heavily from it. That led me down a huge rabbit hole of perusing art related to the keywords "black eye", but no concepts jumped out at me so I let it simmer on the backburner for a long time. Having a noodle with my Invalid Link Removed gave me the idea that I'd do the Black Eye in a Legend of Zelda theme too. Behold:
For no reason other than lack of patience, I decided I would try my hand (ha) at hand-painting the enclosure for this one. I have a couple of other hand-painted pedals, but normally my partner, who is a fantastic artist and skilled with acrylics, does that work for me, since I'm a complete hack at visual arts. She was too busy this past month to take on this project so I said alright, let's see how far I get with it - worst case scenario I strip it all back and send it for printing anyway, or get an enclosure from Tayda since Nathan was nice enough to make templates for all these builds. The paint process here was
- Dominion Sure Seal One-Step self-etching primer, bake 30min @ 250-ish F (x3)
- Golden Acrylics So Flat Black #6745-2 applied with a brush, bake 20min @ 250-ish F (x3)
- Golden Fluid Acrylics Interference Red Fine #2469-1 applied with a brush, bake 20min @250-ish F. This paint is a special formulation of mica flakes suspended in an acrylic medium that makes an opalescent colour-shifting finish, so I'm pretty sure I only did one (somewhat heavy) coat of this; I recall that in my testing, applying too thick of a coating emphasized the base colour and diminished the opalescent effect.
- The art itself was done with Posca pens; more details below.
- DecoArt Americana DAS13-IC matte acrylic sealer/finisher (x3)
- Dominion Sure Seal High Gloss Crystal Clear Instant Clear Coat, thin layer (x3). There's a lot of paint on this pedal
I have to also mention that I did an absolutely poopie job on the art on this pedal. I mocked up the text on Inkscape to make sure I would have the proper spacing to fit all the characters I needed to fit on the face in order to cover the entire area, a la the original Black Eye's hieroglyphic background. But, me being me, I did this job at 3 am, and from the application of the first character measured the spacing wrong, so the text neither covers the entire enclosure face nor completely fits in the lines (you can see that the last two lines have several characters that I squashed in, spacing be damned). The "Black Eye" title is also just glaringly obviously not centered. I want to keep a semi-consistent graphical theme across all my Sushi Box builds, so I had to add my warning label which, as you can see, is also botched because I miscalculated the space it would need to fit:
But the real star of this show is this hand-painted (yes, really) Sushi Box logo, which I had my partner do for me because there was no way I could do this myself. It is seriously indistinguishable from a printed label from a reasonable distance (with the exception of the blowout in the "Y" of "DIY", but you know, these things happen):
I was pretty unhappy with the quality of the paint on this for most of the process, but after voicing my frustrations, my partner told me "art is not perfect and will never be perfect, so you have to make peace with the imperfections and accept your mistakes". So, that's exactly what I'm doing and am happier for it. I also chipped the paint around the toggle switch while trying to install it, but the judiciously-chosen washer and Invalid Link Removed hide that neatly, so we will speak of it no more
So how does it sound? Forking spectacular. It has everything - sounds equally great on guitar or bass; does low and high-gain sounds equally well; crunchy, harmonically-rich distortion; A relatively wide-ranging but completely usable tone knob; I added a bass switch which puts extra 47uF cathode bypass capacitors in parallel with the stock 1uF capacitors at V1a and V1b, which lets you go from tight and focused lows to beefy chunky lows that are GREAT on bass. The Tube Store was having a sale on JJ tubes a little while ago, so I took the opportunity to grab a pair of them for this build, which was one of the catalysts for getting this one off the ground. Following an educated guesstimate of the sort of response I wanted from the pedal from reading other's experiences, I settled for a JJ ECC83MG for V1 and a JJ E83CC for V2. This turns out to be really awesome combination of tubes and I'm super happy with the sound right now. Run, don't walk, to build yourself one of these.
My version of the Matchless DC-30 EF86 channel (inspired by suchi box fx):
Many holes that fit precisely thanks to a CNC milling machine.
The most complicated part follows:
The most complicated part follows:
- Feb 16, 2008
- 21,240
- 23,638
- Disclosures
- John K Custom Basses
my last Blackbeard (S&S Bluebeard clone) with a relayed true bypass. this time in a 1590B2 (same outer dims as a 1590B but a few mm deeper):
This is a Nick Williams set that I've been slowly working on throughout summer. My DIY pace has slowed down and I'm taking much longer to paint enclosures. I've been putting more time and effort into painting more elaborate designs with a brush.
G.C.I. N.E.W. C.T.G.
That's acronym salad for: God City Instruments, Nick E. Williams, Cisneros Tone Generator. A multi-drive effect that combines in parallel Boss DS-1, DOD 250, and a FET clean boost. I really like this as a dirty preamp. This is the second one I've built. To make this one a little different I modded both overdrive channels. The DS-1 side uses pre-1994 specs from AionFX Comet:
C11 = 470nF
C18 = 250pF
C20 = 1uF
IC2 = JRC4580D
The DOD 250 side has a few bass mods:
C15 = 10uF tantalum
C8 = socketed to experiment with how the low end distorts.
IC1 = JRC4558D
I ran into trouble using the provided drill template. The pcb conflicted with the jacks. I had dodged a bullet on my build last year by modifying it to side jacks. To make this one fit, I replaced C27 box capacitor with a compact MLCC type and bent the pot leads downward toward the footswitch to improve clearance from top jacks.
G.C.I. N.E.W. HM-2
A Boss HM-2 with extra diode clipping options and a clean blend. Clipping switches make this much more versatile than a standard HM-2. Clean blend also makes it better for bass.
Also had trouble with the drill template here. I had to file the toggle switch holes downward toward the footswitch to make the pcb fit. I didn't have a 1.5uF capacitor on hand so I paralleled 1uF and 470nF dipped film capacitors into C15. This worked well, but made the jack clearance even tighter.
EffectsLayouts Pepperbox
A RAT type distortion with 6 diode clipping options and a two-band EQ, similar to a Dunwich Volt Thrower. I really like the extra versatility of this EQ compared to a typical RAT filter control. All 6 clipping options sound good too. This is my new favorite RAT variety.
EffectsLayouts Widogast
A Muff type distortion with 12-way depth control and two-band EQ, similar to a Dunwich Wizard Fuzz. This was my least favorite of the group. The 12-way depth control is overkill. It adds a lot of parts and expense to the build, while only the four lowest settings are good for bass. I disliked the EQ as well, it really didn't add much versatility compared to a typical Muff tone control.
Usually I'm a bigger fan of Muffs versus Rats, but in this case the Rat won.
G.C.I. N.E.W. C.T.G.
That's acronym salad for: God City Instruments, Nick E. Williams, Cisneros Tone Generator. A multi-drive effect that combines in parallel Boss DS-1, DOD 250, and a FET clean boost. I really like this as a dirty preamp. This is the second one I've built. To make this one a little different I modded both overdrive channels. The DS-1 side uses pre-1994 specs from AionFX Comet:
C11 = 470nF
C18 = 250pF
C20 = 1uF
IC2 = JRC4580D
The DOD 250 side has a few bass mods:
C15 = 10uF tantalum
C8 = socketed to experiment with how the low end distorts.
IC1 = JRC4558D
I ran into trouble using the provided drill template. The pcb conflicted with the jacks. I had dodged a bullet on my build last year by modifying it to side jacks. To make this one fit, I replaced C27 box capacitor with a compact MLCC type and bent the pot leads downward toward the footswitch to improve clearance from top jacks.
G.C.I. N.E.W. HM-2
A Boss HM-2 with extra diode clipping options and a clean blend. Clipping switches make this much more versatile than a standard HM-2. Clean blend also makes it better for bass.
Also had trouble with the drill template here. I had to file the toggle switch holes downward toward the footswitch to make the pcb fit. I didn't have a 1.5uF capacitor on hand so I paralleled 1uF and 470nF dipped film capacitors into C15. This worked well, but made the jack clearance even tighter.
EffectsLayouts Pepperbox
A RAT type distortion with 6 diode clipping options and a two-band EQ, similar to a Dunwich Volt Thrower. I really like the extra versatility of this EQ compared to a typical RAT filter control. All 6 clipping options sound good too. This is my new favorite RAT variety.
EffectsLayouts Widogast
A Muff type distortion with 12-way depth control and two-band EQ, similar to a Dunwich Wizard Fuzz. This was my least favorite of the group. The 12-way depth control is overkill. It adds a lot of parts and expense to the build, while only the four lowest settings are good for bass. I disliked the EQ as well, it really didn't add much versatility compared to a typical Muff tone control.
Usually I'm a bigger fan of Muffs versus Rats, but in this case the Rat won.
@G.Bisson - the enclosures look amazing - well done. What kind of paint did you use?
I wimped out for the next few builds and bought some metal letter stamps to do something a bit Fairfield circuitry
I wimped out for the next few builds and bought some metal letter stamps to do something a bit Fairfield circuitry
I've been using small bottles of acrylic paints from the arts n crafts section. Look for labels that says for use on glass or ceramic. They will also work well on metal.
Primer and final clear coats came from spray cans.
I've also tried stamped letters on a bare enclosure. My attempts were hard to read and didn't look as nice as other examples. Haven't yet learned the trick to fill the impressions with black.
These are all of the paints used on my last set.
Edit: forgot to include the blue used on the CTG and the silver used on Pepperbox lettering.
Edit: forgot to include the blue used on the CTG and the silver used on Pepperbox lettering.
Last edited:
I tried the metal stamps in the past. If you use a block of wood (or whatever you have) to brace the surface you are stamping from the back side, it leaves a better impression. Otherwise, the metal flexes and the stamping is weak or the stamp bounces.
Anyone try an arbor press? I wonder if that would work...
Using a wood block backing is a good tip. Thanks.
Here's another tip when using letter stamps. Use needlenose vice grips to hold the stamps. The stamps are coated in oil to protect from rust, making them hard to hold onto. Vice grips wont slip and they keep your fingers out of the way. Can see your work piece better and no smashed fingers.
Here's another tip when using letter stamps. Use needlenose vice grips to hold the stamps. The stamps are coated in oil to protect from rust, making them hard to hold onto. Vice grips wont slip and they keep your fingers out of the way. Can see your work piece better and no smashed fingers.
I read that metal block behind was best as an anvil wood wouldn’t be hard enough. I’ll see what I can find!
and good tip on the grips - my grandad gave me a pair of mole grips which are surprisingly useful for lots of things
and good tip on the grips - my grandad gave me a pair of mole grips which are surprisingly useful for lots of things
Metal would be better than wood. Maybe a larger socket if you don't have any other blocks of metal handy?
- Feb 16, 2008
- 21,240
- 23,638
- Disclosures
- John K Custom Basses
i've used wood, but agree that a metal block works better (and that's what i use now).
Here’s my latest, Shoe Pedals Pixel.
I decided long ago for stamps but the game changer for me was this block that jewelers use. I like the grips idea, you can see on this one where the stamp wandered in between hits.
I decided long ago for stamps but the game changer for me was this block that jewelers use. I like the grips idea, you can see on this one where the stamp wandered in between hits.
