Coffin Shaped or Custom Pedal Enclosures?

[teej]

I've been working on a custom pedal board for my wife, who recently started learning the guitar and eventually dove head first into pedals. She's all goth, loves bats and skulls and coffins, so I thought "wouldn't it be cool if I built her a coffin-shaped pedal?"

Christmas and her birthday (Dec. 20) are probably too close to find a coffin enclosure or have one custom made but I'm thinking Valentine's Day is 2 months from now or there's always the random "just because" gift.

I know at least one company, Invalid Link Removed, makes the coffin-shaped [This invalid link has been removed] and [This invalid link has been removed] pedals, but she already has a fuzz pedal so I'd like to source just the enclosure in case I wanted to drop a different circuit (reverb, delay, whatever) in there.

So with all that said... Anyone know where I might find a custom-shaped enclosure? Fine a metal fab shop and have them CNC mill one for me? I've thought about repurposing a metal coffin trinket box but those are surprisingly hard to find. Seems they're all wood or resin.

 

[teej]

I reached out to VVco Pedals to see if they could sell me just a bare enclosure so I could do my own pedal. Nik over there was SUPER friendly and helpful. Said he would have no problem selling me one EXCEPT they come to him already finished and laser engraved.

On the upside, I may have a new freelance client. He noticed in my email signature that I do freelance design and printing and said he may have a project in 2022. So that's cool.

We got to chatting a little and he told me the AfterLife and AfterLite pedals are a limited run so once they're gone, they're GONE. Considering that the AfterLite is currently on sale ($119 instead of $199) and considering how nice a guy Nik seems, I decided to buy one. Only the volume is adjustable from the outside but there are trimpots internally that adjust the gain. I'm going to see if I can replace these with pots adjustable from the outside. Nik gave me his blessing to mod it and was eager to see what I came up with.

 

[teej]

The AfterLite arrived today. The post office delivered it while I was home on my lunch break trying to squeeze in a little work on a pedal board I'm building.

To be totally honest, I don't plan on giving this pedal to my wife until Valentine's Day. It might sound material but I've already spent WAY more than I can afford on her birthday (the 20th) and Christmas (the 25th) gifts. This pedal was an impulse buy so I need to space things out.

Anyway, here it is.

Build quality is top notch. It's machined aluminum, not cast. The toggle switch feels very robust, the volume pot turns smoothly with a nice amount of resistance to it that gives it a solid feel. The foot switch also feels solid. Nothing is loose. It all feels like quality parts. I can't speak of it's tone, however, and it's possible I that I won't since it's not my pedal but from what I can observe it's a solid pedal. I'm about to undo the 4 screws on the back so I can see what the internals are like.

Oh, I must note because I'm a sticker slut that VVco included a sticker. Sadly, some companies -- I'm looking you dead in the eyes, Electro-Harmonix! -- don't include an inexpensive little sticker with their brand new $189 pedals so it's nice to come across a company that does.

 

[teej]

There is definitely room for modding.