Here's a couple of pictures.
(https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-F6g3pyP2Ddg/UPaa4ddmmsI/AAAAAAAAA3E/ntxG2FPnLxM/s1280/IMG753.jpg)
(https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-a5ybZvdNsP4/UPaczt_9spI/AAAAAAAAA4k/WTs08XzFK1w/s912/IMG738.jpg)
(https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-43BvKQTPkX4/UPacIUNFrMI/AAAAAAAAA4E/ROHD9qJNbXQ/s912/IMG742.jpg)
(https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-a0FMOoonE_o/UPadAxaeCtI/AAAAAAAAA4s/hHZFLtPkLKo/s1280/IMG741.jpg)
(https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-IGq8TFd1nJ4/UPabN4P2hiI/AAAAAAAAA3c/yMxkNKwvlWs/s912/IMG750.jpg)
(https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-SnJ-pZiLYBk/UPabg_zCWvI/AAAAAAAAA3s/UvrjI3R_jwA/s912/IMG747.jpg)
(https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-fyitUl--IVs/UPabwG4eEJI/AAAAAAAAA30/RfvzWXGu_Ao/s912/IMG748.jpg)
and a short demo of my uninspiring playing with a Strat [I'm mainly an SG player]
[soundcloud]https://soundcloud.com/earthless/lots-of-gain-with-centaur[/soundcloud]
Long live DIY!
That first pic especially looks awesome! I really like the assymetrical design, and your graphics are really well done.
You don't say much about your experience, or what you used for graphics. Mind sharing a bit more?
Jacob
Those are some awesome pics of an awesome build! I really like the way this looks, and I'm with Jacob on that first pic, pure pedal porn tight there! The reflections off of those knobs... To die for!
Paul
looks sharp
Ooooh very slick. Love the look of this, nice job :)
Well that's great,very clean and elegant looking
This is awesome! I love the gold graphics, how did you do that?
Man, that's gorgeous! :o
+1, bet you've got some graphic design experience...
I need to hang out with more graphic design people!
Wow, thank you guys, you're awesome!
I'm sorry to respond late, I live in a different time zone and here I am at the office, taking a sneak peek of the forum :)
I don't mind talking about the pedal at all! And no, no graphic design experience here, hehe, I just build what I like.
I really took the time to wire this nicely. I enjoy wiring a lot, and populating the board. I love designing the finish, but HATE doing the finish! It's because I never found a way to do it and be absolutely satisfied, while keeping the process relatively simple [you cannot buy waterslide decals in my country, yep, living in a cave...]
As for the graphics, I did the design, and what that essentially is, is a gold self-gluing glossy cardboard, really thick, and on top of that I did a transparent dark blue folie that covered the gold paper in certain areas but not all of them [like a template, you leave white what you would like to be gold in the final look, and paint the rest with color that matches that of the enclosure]. On top of that I poured some epoxy resin, like this
(https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-veBQLi3AcnI/UPagFRtwj-I/AAAAAAAAA5Q/suT_NyYoyqo/s912/IMG712.jpg)
While it does look great, I wouldn't recommend it for professional purposes [i.e. you're building for sale], I mean, I like the little amount of sloppiness [it enforces the DIY spirit] but some of you may not. To me it's great when an effect is just a little bit wrong looking, it really tells me that a person made it and not a robotic arm, but hey, that's just me heh.
Really a great sounding effect.
I wanted to hate this thing to tell you the truth, because all of the hype, but I only ended loving it. It is a perfect design. You get a perfectly clean boost, you get low gain overdrive tones, and you get cranked distortion tones, everything with really pleasing compression, and picking dynamics, attack transient saved, beautiful sustain, and mids to cut through. Seriously, what's there not to like?
Usually my philosophy is stacking for gain, for various applications I use a compressor [orange squeezer I really like, but this gets used only once in a blue moon when I need UBER sustain, but I do use it to increase the fain of fuzzed after it] => tycobrache octavia => OD/dist of some kind [alternating between TS808 clone, an original SD-9 from the eighties and now the Klon] and that goes into the Fulltone 69 clone I did, for extra volume and that Ge cherry bassy bloom on top. I get my clean tones by using the volume pot on the guitar.
I gave Klon a run last night at bands practice and I LOVED it. I immediately noticed increased presence in a band mix, but not in a cutting way that hurts, but in a good way, I think the band sounded tighter. We are a prog rock/metal/shoe-gaze/post-rock trio, blah, I hate labels like these...
When I did solos, the notes were crazy present and I had wonderful sustain. Playing rhythm on an SG's neck pickup, be heavy, and still be able to distinguish the notes in a sus4 chord can get a little tricky, but the Klon handled that very well.
I don't know, it was only one rehearsal, but I can already tell that I was wrong to question this design, it works great. I kept away from this pedal mainly because people were telling me that the overdrive sounds are harsh and unusable, but I find them to be liars huh! I think that this may very well be the best OD out there. [of course, it could be just my satisfaction with the pedal right now]
With my 6V6 amp [custom made 5E3-alike amp] I get just about every tone I could ever need with the Klon. It kinda reminds me of a Zendrive I built a while ago, but with more headroom, and less blanket on top of the sound. I get Robben Ford sounds very easily. It sounds to me like him even more than with a Zendrive.
Really really pleased with this pedal.
Oh, I used Panasonic, Xicon Japan, Silver Mica caps and electros, 1N270 diodes [actually I ended using one 1N270 and one BAT41, sounds great], metal film 1% resistors, ICL7660SCPA and TL072 chips. Alpha potentiometers, Amphenol jacks, I did some crazy paranoid shielding in there, and the pedal is super super quiet even on full tilt.
I am really glad you guys like my build that much. Maybe you'd like me to show you my Fuzz Face?
(https://fbcdn-sphotos-f-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-snc7/488324_10151193006111337_323533424_n.jpg)
I'm REALLY a sucker for the fuzz face. I mean - a crazy person when it comes to that type of pedals :D
Epic builds dude.
Also, is that a panel display for bias voltage I see :o
Yes it is my friend.
I'll write some more about it, along with some inside shots of the pedal, in a separate thread. I know it's not strictly a madbean kinda build, but I guess it won't hurt.... :)
I did the design on that one as well, I am really pleased by how it came out. I tweaked that fuzz face a whole month until I was satisfied with the sound.
Here's an original picture of the old man on the graphics http://www.schoolofcoachingmastery.com/Portals/41761/images/old%20man%20wondering%20hiro008-resized-600.jpg
what a face!
Here's some more with epoxy resin finishes, two Black Arts Pharaoh Fuzz builds
https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-xIPIAcdUDqM/UAMDQoQ449I/AAAAAAAAAmk/oPteP54wqYg/s912/IMG491.jpg
https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-c9gEktSsGbU/UAMDyaqbHpI/AAAAAAAAAnE/VAG5Dm7uOog/s912/IMG489.jpg
https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-b3x2VEFkB6Y/UAMD4pUWZCI/AAAAAAAAAnM/0IqEOzNRj6Q/s912/IMG494.jpg
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-rn1EXTo0UUk/UNGMilxvFXI/AAAAAAAAAzM/lgqrhRZFXMs/s912/IMG609.jpg
https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-caQFgcKWy5g/UNGMpyIkevI/AAAAAAAAAzs/NkOugYZWQIw/s912/IMG613.jpg
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-R3Nc_JQQb08/UNGMb9K2GAI/AAAAAAAAAzE/ZkepnEQoL6E/s720/IMG601.jpg
https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-64zjSui-o80/UILJjPozrHI/AAAAAAAAAxU/XRebrdKFFa4/s720/IMG612.jpg
https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-XAHwTaZXY38/UILJqwIgV2I/AAAAAAAAAxc/9Ld4gILdfzs/s720/IMG615.jpg
Sadly the quality of these pictures is not really all that well, taken with my mobile phone...
If there's an interest for these as well, I'll start a topic. Still, I don't know if I should since it's not a madbean related build. Of course I could say it's a muff clone or something heh. The Pharaoh is an unbelievable pedal as well. I have sound samples of these recorded live.
LOVE the bias readout. Geez, I wish every one of my pedals had one on there. I want my pedalboard to look like the Las Vegas strip.
Nice, they both look great. Feel free to discuss how you did the led screen
;)
That's a seriously good lookin pedal dude. The sound clip I like too, is that just the Klon?
I've been playing mine for a few hours now ( different sessions, JTM45 clone and 4x12 pre rolas) I think as a clean boost it is as good as I've heard and have no complaints, I love it with the strat, (that and P90s are all I play) with the gain on full but I have to dial in more bass on the amp to get it sounding to my liking, then when I bypass the pedal the amp is way too bassy, so for live the full gain setting would be a PITA for sure, for recording it's killer and as a clean boost it works great with the un pedalled amp settings. Pedals, love em, hate em.
Thank you Eldanko and Hangingmonkey, you're very kind! :)
Ward my man, yeah, only the Klon on the recording, but it's a Squier CV 60's strat into a Line 6 UX1 through the AC30 simulation, not really a charming recording technique I concur, but it is what it is. The bridge pickup on the Squier is really really bright and agressive, it's the only thing that I don't like on it. And that rhythm track on my demo is played on the bridge pickup, so...
I found somewhere that madbean posted what capacitors to change if you wanna remove some treble on the overdrive side of the pedal, wait a second...yeah, here it is
"To increase bass on the dirt side, try upping the values of C6 and C7. 100n for C6 and 150n for C7.
On the clean side, increase C4 to 220n."
So you can try that.
With my build I may try changing the 3n9 for some higher value, but that's about it.
I love it when people raise the bar! Nice! :D Graphics A+++
Quote from: Cortexturizer on January 18, 2013, 01:18:04 PM
"To increase bass on the dirt side, try upping the values of C6 and C7. 100n for C6 and 150n for C7.
On the clean side, increase C4 to 220n."
So you can try that.
With my build I may try changing the 3n9 for some higher value, but that's about it.
Thanks man, I'll give it a try, mind you, I've never heard that you could effect the tone of the clean AND the dirt separately so if this can be done it will be very interesting. I don't want the clean to change one bit, only add some bass to the full gain setting BUT again that could muff out the tone as well but I'll start with C7 n see how it sounds, I'm happy with the treble side of things, the tone control works well. Thanks.
So let me get this straight...killer build...killer photo skills...and then killer demo? Nicely done!!!
Is that digital readout the bias level? Omg......
Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk HD
Here's another one I made. This one is really special for me cause I made it for a friend Voja who plays in a band that I LOVE called Hipnagoga Slike. The graphics is inspired by their song "Surlasi" which stands for the order of species to what elephants belong to. I hope I explained this okay, English is not my mother tongue...
(https://fbcdn-sphotos-d-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-ash3/544169_10151583372616337_1170079033_n.jpg)
(https://fbcdn-sphotos-b-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-snc6/269331_10151583372651337_53645027_n.jpg)
(https://fbcdn-sphotos-h-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-snc6/168528_10151583372631337_242180780_n.jpg)
(https://fbcdn-sphotos-f-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-snc7/599250_10151583372766337_1419985690_n.jpg)
And here is Voja playing the song "Surlasi"
What a killer riff. He plays with his fingers, no plectrum. Insane.
Hope you will like all of this guys.
The interiors of the pedal are absolutely the same like with mine. I missed the chance and haven't made any pictures of the interiors, but, as I said, everything is absolutely the same like with mine. Cheers!
Wow that's really nice, I love that artwork. The cartoon made me chuckle too ;D
Surely you have a website with all you work on it?
No I don't but that's an idea to follow definitely :) I really love the way some of you designed your places on the interwebz, I gotta try and do mine sometime soon.
I have some history in web programming and currently am a full time SEM specialist so maybe blogs would be a little boring for me in terms of lacking options or whatnot but if I engage in all of the programming and website optimization then when will I build pedals...arghhh
So yeah, a blog is to be expected :D
Cheers!
This second klon is glorious
And the clouds opened up and God touched a pedal, and it was good, and it was called Gold Centaur!
I just love the look of this pedal. So inspirational. Also, thanks for sharing your paint/resin knowledge.
I managed to fetch this second Sunking from a friend I made it for, and these photos are a part of the same batch as the ones of the Filthy 9 fuzz so...
I owed you guys a gutshot of this second one, so here it is :)
(https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-GtJMPm5VGMI/Uac1aJNPGrI/AAAAAAAABHo/fmV19VF2_nQ/w1315-h877-no/000049.JPG)
(https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-DSmzA-8_SRo/Uac1aRw81vI/AAAAAAAABHk/G-TDKPemnVg/w1315-h877-no/000050.JPG)
(https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-c5pcwojBQGY/Uac1cAarzwI/AAAAAAAABH0/eZb4w-G6-8M/w1315-h877-no/000051.JPG)
There miniature Alpha dpdt switches are a bitch to solder with this build. So many connections...
How did you get the subtle stereo effect on the rhythm track? Is that the amp sim doing it? I really like that sound.
Great paint job!
Quote from: gordo on June 01, 2013, 01:44:15 AM
How did you get the subtle stereo effect on the rhythm track? Is that the amp sim doing it? I really like that sound.
Hm, I'm not sure what you mean to be frank...there's subtle reverb present, maybe that's what you are hearing? Hm, but now when I think of it I seem to recall recording two tracks of rhythm and panning one right and other left in a standard stereo manner...I think that's what did now when I try to recall...
Thnx jimilee! cheers bro
Just killer and I'm stealing that knob design!