Sopping Wet Pussy (Surprisingly SFW)

[juansolo]

Sopping Wet Pussy

Madbean's Aquaboy Deluxe. Essentially a fettled double delay Aquaboy + Modulation. It's a good 'un too, even with V3205 BBDs as it is here.





Here it is with it's brother, the Wet Pussy (currently sporting the wrong knobs which are a bit too big as I had to pinch the chicken head knobs for something else).




...and now for a rant: This is the last BBD delay I'm building. I'm done.

It's a culmination of things really. There's the whole MN3005 thing, which has been discussed to death. Then there's my seeming inability to build one of these things without having problems. I'm starting to think that they're out to get me. This one was particularly bizarre. Also some of the PT2399 effects 'Bean, 1776 and Grind have done recently are so very good, that I prefer them to the BBD effects!

Anyhow, I built it with a pair of MN3005's and a charge pump (Road Rage with an LT). Rocked it out of the box and it sounded absolutely bloody marvellous. So decided to box it.  

Roll forward a couple of weeks and I come to drop it in the box, but the charge pump is too tall. So I build another one with little caps, transfer the LT and the reg over and test it, all hunky dory, 15v right there.  

All in the box and it's motor boating like a good 'un... checking the pump and when connected to the circuit the current draw is pulling the output down to around 13v (the 18v pad on the RR is running at 15v). Which would mean that it's now somehow drawing more current than the LT can provide. What really got us scratching our heads was that it was working, and working perfectly only a week before.  

To prove it, we bypassed the pump and plugged a 12v PSU straight in. Motor boating gone and it's all working fine again. So I decide to run it at 9v and change the resistors to do so... and somehow manage to fry another compander (they appear to be made of cheese as I've done this before).  

I'll admit that I threw my toys out of the pram at this point (bearing in mind we went through all this with the multi-effect also...). So I decided to pull the MN3005s as their biggest benefit is gained through running them at 15v anyhow, and stick some V3205's in. Which thankfully sound pretty good.  

So there, spleen vented.  

[midwayfair]

Aww, kitty.

"Bugger" re: noise.

[Parra]

damn cool pedals, neat wiring, but the name is just amazing! =) cute kittens btw...

[GermanCdn]

Very nice build, love the title.  I'm with you on the BBD thing, I've got one to troubleshoot, one which is halted until I get the other figured out, and one not started until the other two are running and boxed.  And every PT2399 I've built in the last six months (7) fired up first shot and sound pretty freakin' amazing.

[twin1965]

Nice litter of kittens I've built mine with v3205's too and they do sound good. Will be boxing it soon. I agree with the hassle of trying to find MN3005's. They are either fakes or they will cost you a small fortune!

Some of the PT2399 projects that are available right now do sound very good. A lot of work has gone into these and the result has been some very usable/musical delays!

[hoodoo]

Crab bait

[nzCdog]

Love the graphic!  Shame about your build dramas, there is a significant not-so-romantic side to analog delay builds it would seem

[jvg13]

.

[aballen]

Looks great.  do you have a video on how you mix and apply the envirotex?  I've read your tutorial, but pours never ever look even close to how nice yours are.

[juansolo]

Looks great.  do you have a video on how you mix and apply the envirotex?  I've read your tutorial, but pours never ever look even close to how nice yours are.

If I'm over at Cleggy's next time he does some, I'll take a camera. Maybe try and do a vid of the whole process as there are a few tricks to it.

[aballen]

I would definitely watch that video!

mine always have bubbles, and I suspect I put it on too thick, yours always look amazing, nice flat sheen, transparent, somehow no bubbles... It shows you have been doing this a long time.

Your graphics are outstanding as well... but I'm not sure you can teach that

[juansolo]

I'm not particularly arty to be fair, I just have a fairly basic knowledge of photoshop and again through trial and error, have a good idea of what works and what doesn't.

For the Envirotexing, I think we spent a year making our lives difficult before we got a handle on how to do it. The whole process just takes a lot of work. Roughly it's this:

- I spend quite a while getting the decals how I want them. Then print a drilling template and a decal.
- Template on the box, measure the sides, mark and centre punch the holes.
- Drill box.
- Sand box flat. Even if it's not a raw metal, there's usually some flatting required. If you're going to polish the box now is the time. Wash and dry the box when done.
- Heat up the box with a hair dryer (helps the adhesive spread and makes peeling the decal off easier for re-alignment if necessary).
- Apply decal, when straight use the backing paper over the top of the decal pulled tight so you can press the decal down hard. Again this is to spread the adhesive. I do this with my thumbnail very hard. You can see when it's all as flat as possible.
- Using an Exacto knife cut out the holes. We leave the LED holes and shine those through the decal.
- Apply tape over the inside of the holes
- On a level surface pour the mixed Envirotex into the holes first, then do the top of the enclosure from the inside out in a spiral. Let it flow out to the edges.
- Tease it around if necessary with your stirrer.
- Breathe on it, a lot to get rid of all the bubbles. You end up doing this multiple times.
- If only doing the top as we do, wipe around the edges with a paper towel sprayed with Kontact cleaner.
- Keep repeating the above few steps until the Envirotex stops spreading.
- Leave to cure with a cover over it over night. After that give it around 5 days to cure.
- On the rare off chance that the finish is perfect, skip to the next step. However it's likely it's going to have flow marks or other anomalies. If this is the case (this is the bit Cleggy doesn't like), wet flat, T-Cut and polish the Envirotex. Use a sanding block, it makes your life a lot easier.
- Take the tape off the inside of the enclosure.
- Using a stepped bit, re-drill the holes (the bit I don't like doing).

...and that's it. It's a lot of work to be fair. But we've not found better way that's as economically sound as this. Plus the results tend to be pretty good.