Here it is! THE GRODIEST Odor
(https://i.imgur.com/4AY15XD.jpg)
From my rather sophomoric ODR-1-like board,
The Noblest Odor, I had a not-original idea to pair it with pre-OD boost stage, in the shape of
It Just Boosts, my take on the LPB-1. This is a Tayda matte black 1590BB enclosure with a custom design, calling to mind (and borrowing from) Big Daddy Roth's style! Painting out the standard control markings with a punkinsh, flair.
What does it sound like? GRODY! The ODR-1 was heralded as an elegant overdrive, and while it is nice and silky, I wanted the ability to make it dirty on command!
I'm a sloppy guitarist... playing for other players makes me super self-conscious, so focus on the tone, not my meh playing.
I opted for a 4011 in the "standard" range of an OG Fairchild 5088 over the latter. My mystery box 5088s are well over 500 hFE. I mean, maybe it's louder with a 5088, so I socketed it just in case. Usually these boosts are good enough as-is ;D With mauman's addition suggestion to mitigate some heterodyning, powered by a brick I don't get any of that squeal. The wiring is... well you can't see how wacky it is. Since I opted for boost on the left, OD on the right, the jack-to-switch signal path is reversed, looping back on itself, but thankfully there's enough room to hide it all at the bottom between the chassis and the switches.
More on the wiring: my bypass LED would not turn off... and like an amateur, I did everything short of the one thing that would've solved it. Since it came from a standalone build, I had desoldered and transplanted it here...here be tomfoolery. After pulling my hair out, and the LED from the main board to the switch, there was an infinitesimal bit of conductive schmutz across L and GND >:( Oh well! Here we are and it works!
Thanks for looking
(https://i.imgur.com/0dUDn71.jpg)
(https://i.imgur.com/yRQXseK.jpg)
(https://i.imgur.com/PmyZE3I.jpg)
I love so much about this because you made it work!
The bent over caps, various sized resistors and (maybe?) mismatched LED bezels speak to the old EHX -just make the pedal- ethos.
Paired with awesome artwork-though, with that artwork, you missed the opportunity to make it say "SpeXXrXm" lol.
Nice job! Can't wait to hear the clip.
How can I not like this? It says ass control
Looks great! The aesthetic reminds me of some of the stuff DOD was putting out in the '90's.
Quote from: jwin615 on February 22, 2023, 07:31:30 AM
I love so much about this because you made it work!
The bent over caps, various sized resistors and (maybe?) mismatched LED bezels speak to the old EHX -just make the pedal- ethos.
Paired with awesome artwork-though, with that artwork, you missed the opportunity to make it say "SpeXXrXm" lol.
Nice job! Can't wait to hear the clip.
Thanks, heheh. Yeah, that's a good one! I thought of some naughtier terms, but I didn't want to go full Metasonix; just keep it PG-13. Though come to think, those ratfink flies look rather biological…
The bezels do look wonky! I think it's because I moved them off-center from the switch PCBs and put one inside the O counterspace. I suppose, like you say, it lends to the aesthetic of the thing.
The demo lol —we got about a foot of snow last night so I was out getting it off driveways; finally able to use the snow thrower we bought years ago. It's uploading to drive, then I'll trim just a bit of boring space to (sort of) keep with the "no editing" quality I've sort of shaped for myself.
Quote from: harryklippton on February 22, 2023, 01:02:42 PM
How can I not like this? It says ass control
;D thank you. It did bring me immense joy to be so playful with the thing.
Quote from: Aleph Null on February 22, 2023, 04:35:22 PM
Looks great! The aesthetic reminds me of some of the stuff DOD was putting out in the '90's.
Ah yeah, GRUNGE! It wasn't conscious, but I appreciate the compliment all the same. I'm very happy with how it turned out. Good friend of mine still has his GRUNGE on the board, actually—loves that thing.
bump for video demo in the original post
Cool build 8) Those hands around the foot switches are awesome. ODR is one of my faves. If you get a chance, try it without the hard clipping diodes, it gets nastier, which seems counter initiative, but I dig it. That's what I use for bass distortion.
Looks great!
What method are you using for your graphics?
Quote from: Bio77 on February 23, 2023, 02:19:24 AM
Cool build 8) Those hands around the foot switches are awesome. ODR is one of my faves. If you get a chance, try it without the hard clipping diodes, it gets nastier, which seems counter initiative, but I dig it. That's what I use for bass distortion.
Thanks!
That's interesting about the clipping diodes! I think I have one more board left, so I'll socket that one. That makes for an interesting feature to include on a new design: clip switch.
Quote from: WonkoTheSane on February 23, 2023, 03:07:36 AM
Looks great!
What method are you using for your graphics?
Thanks!
Most of the time I'm just finding something that goes along with the name, and building from that. With some designs I'll fret over and over, creating multiple versions, and others just happen with only a couple of iterations, mostly for tweaking board position.
I use Illustrator to do all of the design and 2d layout. A family member (also a designer) bequeathed me a number of font collections from his agency days (talking pre-2000 era) as a nice library to pull from. Some of the fonts, though, are so old that in order to use them I'd have to bust out my classic Mac running OS 7–9!
Apart from fonts in that collection were a number of Roth-style EPS files. No actual Rat Fink depictions in the lot, just the side characters and other flourishes; but I loved those hands! Found a typeface to go along with it; something appropriately grungy, but not
grunge in the typographic style definition (look up David Carson).
Fun stuff! That Big Daddy Roth style takes me back to my '80s skateboarding heyday.
That artwork is something else, bloody love it! Fantastic build, and the playing sounded great to me :)
Quote from: Bret608 on February 23, 2023, 09:29:39 PM
Fun stuff! That Big Daddy Roth style takes me back to my '80s skateboarding heyday.
Thank you! I remember having big dreams of buying every Roth kit from the Revell catalog, but without the patience to get past a snap-together kit ;D
Quote from: zombie_rock123 on February 23, 2023, 10:33:36 PM
That artwork is something else, bloody love it! Fantastic build, and the playing sounded great to me :)
Thank you. It's a comfort to know it's not terrible :) With so many great players on the forum, it's an impressive bunch I find myself in.
Nice one, the enclosure design is the best, even if the circuit isn't my favorite. You killed it either way.
Quote from: Thewintersoldier on February 24, 2023, 03:40:59 AM
Nice one, the enclosure design is the best, even if the circuit isn't my favorite. You killed it either way.
Thanks, Chris! I think this is the last one of the *vanilla odr-1 boards I'll do. Even with the bass roll off bits, I need something dirty! Intrigued by the clipping diode delete option Bio77 mentioned, so we'll see.
This looks and sounds great! Pedal building is such a humbling hobby when a little smear of flux ruins a perfect build. Nice job seeing it through and the results are outstanding
Quote from: jjjimi84 on February 24, 2023, 07:30:45 AM
This looks and sounds great! Pedal building is such a humbling hobby when a little smear of flux ruins a perfect build. Nice job seeing it through and the results are outstanding
Thanks for the kind words, Dan!
Ooo old fonts are cool. You can probably convert those old ones to a more modern format.
My question was misunderstood though, I meant what's your process for the finishing? Paint, decals, silkscreen? I see a lot of nice jobs here, and I can't find much info on how to do such things.
Quote from: WonkoTheSane on February 26, 2023, 11:46:52 AM
Ooo old fonts are cool. You can probably convert those old ones to a more modern format.
I'll have to dive through and see which ones are duplicates. Most are older (defunct) type foundries, but the typefaces are likely reproduced by whoever bought up the typefaces (or even the foundries). Foundries will also often just do their own versions of classic typefaces—all the big ones have a Helvetica…
Quote from: WonkoTheSane on February 26, 2023, 11:46:52 AM
My question was misunderstood though, I meant what's your process for the finishing? Paint, decals, silkscreen? I see a lot of nice jobs here, and I can't find much info on how to do such things.
So I do mine through Tayda Electronics (out of Thailand), and a others on the forum do, as well. It's a multi-step process, which includes drilling, powder coating, and then UV printing your artwork. I don't have/want a printer for water slide decals, and I don't have the knack for etching work, of which there are fabulous examples on the forum. I've done a few hand-painted ones, but I'm a graphic
de-whiner designer by trade, and a bit obsessive, so the UV printing is right up my alley.
Thewintersoldier has a series of videos going through the whole process, the artwork created and processed with Affinity Designer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iH_k_C3WFLU
The process is analogous to the one for something like Inkscape, but Tayda's printing dept has
very strict guidelines, since their workshop is always busy. They need files that are ALL ready to go. In general, they want Adobe Illustrator-generated PDF files, but the specifics are outlined in Chris' videos to get around """"owning"""" Adobe products, as well as in text on Tayda's page regarding Enclosure UV printing.
I also stumbled upon PedalPartsPlus now having a similar service being offered. I haven't looked deeply into the requirements, but it looks like you can do everything Tayda has been offering, with the added bonus of being able to print on every surface of the enclosure, which is neat. I would guess, since their print tech is local, their whole production is US-based—but again, I haven't looked into it deeply: only that it exists.
So essentially, you do it as if you were buying each step of the process: you have a drill pattern for the holes (Tayda has you create one with their tool which you can experiment with here https://drill.taydakits.com/design-experiment ); then you choose a powder coat you want (Tayda gives you approximate color values based on Pantone colors for some of them); you have your artwork, prepped according to their specs, and as part of that you can have an optional varnish coating applied as well, in either gloss or matte).
This image shows the layers included in a prepped-for-Tayda file (shown side-by-side for demonstration)
(https://i.imgur.com/EibXvqq.png)
The opaque white layer was needed, since my enclosure was black—and unless you want a weird effect (similar to what is called "overprint" in the print world) for your artwork, it's recommended that it have this underlay of white to ensure the artwork looks as close as possible to what you've designed.
knockout (trapping) and an example I borrowed from a design site
(https://i.imgur.com/8WfN6hZ.jpg)
(https://i.imgur.com/bEuS6yp.jpg)
I had an (unfinished) concept for another pedal which is based on that process, but never pulled the trigger (and probably won't):
(https://i.imgur.com/O8RLyD4.jpg)
My other project, Death to the King, was done on a white enclosure, so obviously no white was needed. Another project, The Sardine Tin, has no color layer in it; it's just white and matte varnish layers on an orange enclosure. I've seen other designs that are only a varnish layer; or the varnish is used as an effect or other element, like a ghost layer. You can get pretty creative with it.
Also, looking at a long-running thread regarding Tayda's UV printing on pedalpcb forum, you can print directly onto a bare enclosure and don't need a UV coat. I'm not sure if there's a prep coat of some kind that goes into that scenario—something like a transparent primer coat. (i.e. if Tayda has to do that. I'm not aware of any additional work that needs doing on our end—the customer end)
Oh being a graphic designer you have a clear advantage. I'm getting to old to invest time into learning these things. Electronics and music take enough of my time.
Well they look great! Do you offer services at all?
I'll check out the pedalpcb forum for that thread, thanks for the tip.