Hello, My name is Jubal81 and I'm a dirt junkie. Built tons and I still had 5 on the floor at my amp. The idea behind the Brazen Bull was to take my favorites and get them all (well, not all, but a good few) in a 125B with just four knobs and a switch. I used headers and two PCB stacked together to get it all to fit, so lots of careful measuring and calculating.
There are four settings:
JFET boost
JFET Mu-amp overdrive
CD4049UBE distortion
Muff variant
These all go through a James tone stack. What you see here is the first prototype. There are a few things I want to fine tune and I've been back at the breadboard all week - 3 hours today and I ended up just changing one component. Maybe I'll be done before my beard turns gray.
The box is etched and then - gulp - electroplated with copper, rubbed with shoe polish and clear coated. Yes, it looks cool as hell, but I'll never do it again. I ruined two other enclosures, my favorite pants and spent about 8-10 hours just babying that thing in the copper bath. I wanted to get that 'excavated from a Greek island' look and I'm pretty happy with it.
(http://cl.ly/image/2q2c310Y3Q3Q/Copper%20bath.jpg)
(http://cl.ly/image/3H1L3s3E2R1Z/DSC_0291.JPG)
(http://cl.ly/image/0y2I1s3p1O3i/DSC_0266.JPG)
(http://cl.ly/image/1Y1x0c1N1l2C/DSC_0258.JPG)
(http://cl.ly/image/2y443I3l2x0N/DSC_0276.JPG)
How the hell could you wait before posting this!!!!! :o
MasterPiece this is!
Quote from: GrindCustoms on July 28, 2014, 05:26:18 AM
How the hell could you wait before posting this!!!!! :o
MasterPiece this is!
Eh, I was waiting for sound clips, but that's gonna be a while. Glad you kicked my arse into getting this up.
Sick on so many levels! From the enclosure to the stacked PCBs to switch mounted relay pcb... this is just beautiful!
Thats a beauty in many aspects.
That thing looks amazing. It's taking DIY to another level
Absolutely fantastic and clever and gorgeous too! :o
That is some next level stuff right there! I love it.. Well the pants are already ruined, so keep wearing them and do another enclosure.
Cody
Every time I reach for the bar, you guys raise it beyond belief. This is truly art. Incredible. Fantastic job.
Don't you ever think of how the lesser talented builders feel?
Absolutely incredibly fantastic!
Quote from: jubal81 on July 28, 2014, 05:28:12 AM
Quote from: GrindCustoms on July 28, 2014, 05:26:18 AM
How the hell could you wait before posting this!!!!! :o
MasterPiece this is!
Eh, I was waiting for sound clips, but that's gonna be a while. Glad you kicked my arse into getting this up.
A deaf-blind would stare at one of these! ;D
Agreed with everyone else, it's definitely raising the bar. Far, far more impressive than "just another" clean wiring job (although I hate to sound dismissive like that.)
Any problems with crosstalk or noise?
Cool as hell. I love the copper patine, and the circuit idea is awesome. I want at least one if you ever do a run of those.
Great in every way!
Whoa, this is amazing. Seriously impressive.
Fantastic Jason. Really top notch.
Yikes! I still struggle with decals and envirotex.
Holy cow. Hahaha. That is awesome.
Wowzer! Amazing build, class from top to bottom!
That is one of the finest builds I've seen so far on this forum. It's a self-designed 2-level board in one of the most impressive enclosures I've seen. Love the copper finish and the graphics is killer (especially those intertwining patterns).
I see you used CuSO4 as a copper source. What was your anode material? What voltage did you apply? I'm getting this itching in my fingers telling me to try this as well. Next up: chrome finish ;)
And +1: if you have some left or do a run on these, I'd take one please.
Outstanding, fuck the pants!!!
man... i dont think there is a bar anywhere anymore... you just keep putting out one great build after another. since we're clearly not even in the same universe, im gonna stick to trying to do the neat and you do the spectacular. :)
Quote from: m-Kresol on July 28, 2014, 02:46:30 PM
That is one of the finest builds I've seen so far on this forum. It's a self-designed 2-level board in one of the most impressive enclosures I've seen. Love the copper finish and the graphics is killer (especially those intertwining patterns).
I see you used CuSO4 as a copper source. What was your anode material? What voltage did you apply? I'm getting this itching in my fingers telling me to try this as well. Next up: chrome finish ;)
And +1: if you have some left or do a run on these, I'd take one please.
Yep, it's Zep's Root Kill from Home Depot. I tried a few things to get it working well enough, but in the end it was some guitar shielding tape from StewMac and a 6V lantern battery. I tried taping a ring of anode around the tub, but that didn't work the way I thought it would. Just one spot is better. The work piece must stay at least 3inches away and it needs to keep moving/turning and I had to pull it out every so often and scrub with Bar Keeper's friend polish - seriously for about 8-10 hours. I watched most of a season of The Sopranos doing this.
Wow nice job!
Daayum.
Last night I was proud of myself getting an alcohol Ink finish to stick to my enclosure.
Now I feel like a 2 year old playing with finger paints..lol
That is spectacular on all levels.
"Holy Goat Nipples Batman" (Bathumb)
well, I guess we're not having a summer contest, since its already over.
;D
this is super cool. I can't believe no one commented yet on the fact that the etch wraps over the sides. That's no mean feat.
Stacked pcbs is something I was just thinking about, and here it is.
Inspiring on so many levels..!
I didn't have a shortlist for build of the year, but I do now.
Awestruck
This is sorcery! Clearly not the work of a mortal. I suggest we re-instate witch trials immediately ;D
Incredible man, seriously, well done!
Just plain killin it on all levels. Nice job, so many good things happening in there.
I give up. Anyone want the enclosures, jacks, 9v sockets and the miscellaneous detritus that arrived in the mail today?
I'm glad you guys are digging this one. I've spent a lot of hours and moolah on it. It's really still in the proof-of-concept phase. The boost and CMOS sections definitely have the wow factor going on. The muff section needs a little more tweaking and the Mu-amp needs some spice and maybe another gain section.
I'm also going to match the output levels better thanks to the feedback I'm getting. I was thinking about it as 4 different effects, but it's pretty clear it needs to be more like one 'gain' pedal with four flavors.
Big thanks to my beta testers.
That enclosure is flat-out a work of art. Beautiful!
This is just an incredible build! What a great concept, great choice of dirt pedal variants, and the artwork and skill that went into the execution...all-in-all a pedal that anybody would be proud to have on their board for a long, long, long, long-long time.
(http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-BRHF0fzbYu4/T_RsqDCA43I/AAAAAAAAAKc/dZEhKC3023g/s1600/omg.gif)
Amazing!!!!!
Sorry for bringing this old topic back to life. I was searching some info about CD4049 distortions and stumbled upon this topic again.
Any updates on this Jason? The concept was magnificient and I was wondering if you were able to sort out the levels problem.
Sorry for the language.... But this is fucking outstanding!
I see more stacked pcb builds coming in the future.
Just noticed that this was originally posted in July... How did I miss this ha ha!
Quote from: raulduke on April 07, 2015, 09:30:35 PM
Sorry for the language.... But this is fucking outstanding!
I see more stacked pcb builds coming in the future.
... it still is feckin' outstanding, even months later... ;)
So would be great if this could see the light of day once details are sorted....
Daaaaaaaag!
Yikes!!! I was hoping to raise my game by learning how to etch. This is a whole other level.
Thanks, guys.
I've had a lot of irons in the fire and haven't gotten back around to this guy yet. The good news is the things I've been working on in the meantime have given me some good ideas.
Here's the todo list:
+Run the JFETs at a higher voltage. I'm looking at 24V.
+Better (and more) low-pass filtering.
+New tone stack (James sounds good in theory, but I find it kind of boring and I want this to have some character)
+Use a single JFET for the OD instead of the MuAmp
+Tweak the gain in each stage of the Muffish
Not sure when I'm going to get around to it, though. I'm changing jobs and moving in the next few months, so life's going to get interesting.
This is so awesome. Why do I keep envisioning "Bald Bull" from Mike Tyson's Punch Out!!! for NES though. If I can assist at all let me know. This is totally bad ass.
I was like... :o .....then I was like 8)
very cool indeed
Quote from: jubal81 on April 07, 2015, 11:03:26 PM
Thanks, guys.
I've had a lot of irons in the fire and haven't gotten back around to this guy yet. The good news is the things I've been working on in the meantime have given me some good ideas.
Here's the todo list:
+Run the JFETs at a higher voltage. I'm looking at 24V.
+Better (and more) low-pass filtering.
+New tone stack (James sounds good in theory, but I find it kind of boring and I want this to have some character)
+Use a single JFET for the OD instead of the MuAmp
+Tweak the gain in each stage of the Muffish
Not sure when I'm going to get around to it, though. I'm changing jobs and moving in the next few months, so life's going to get interesting.
Thanks for the update Jason. New ideas sound cool (execpt ditching the MuAmp... nobody cares about MuAmps no more :P ).
If you need anything to verify we're here to help.
Good luck with the new changes in your life too. Life has to get interesting from time to time :)
I don't know how I missed this when you first posted but holy shit! That enclosure is amazing! I'm equally impressed with the circuit but the shock factor definitely comes from the enclosure.
Man, I'm glad to see this one get bumped. This pedal represents an insane amount of creativity, planning, and hard work. I see tons of chances here for stuff to not work out, and look how perfect it is. Copper?!?!? Come on!
Quote from: jubal81 on April 07, 2015, 11:03:26 PM
Thanks, guys.
I've had a lot of irons in the fire and haven't gotten back around to this guy yet. The good news is the things I've been working on in the meantime have given me some good ideas.
Here's the todo list:
+Run the JFETs at a higher voltage. I'm looking at 24V.
+Better (and more) low-pass filtering.
+New tone stack (James sounds good in theory, but I find it kind of boring and I want this to have some character)
+Use a single JFET for the OD instead of the MuAmp
+Tweak the gain in each stage of the Muffish
Not sure when I'm going to get around to it, though. I'm changing jobs and moving in the next few months, so life's going to get interesting.
The guy who puts out a masterpiece like this and then says "I can make it better", is the guy I want to buy pedals from in the future. Sky's the limit Jason. I'm excited to see what you create in the future.
Steve.
I didn't see this thread when it was originally put up but holy crap...
Whether you build good sir I want one of.... Incredible stuff here
Holy cow man, that is epic on so many levels.
Quote from: jubal81 on April 07, 2015, 11:03:26 PM
Here's the todo list:
+Run the JFETs at a higher voltage. I'm looking at 24V.
+Better (and more) low-pass filtering.
+New tone stack (James sounds good in theory, but I find it kind of boring and I want this to have some character)
+Use a single JFET for the OD instead of the MuAmp
+Tweak the gain in each stage of the Muffish
It almost sounds like a jfet based OD hooked up to a muff? Or I wonder if you could have a gain stage using the fatpants switching system so essentially the front end is a jfet boost and then you add in (for example) on one setting 2x1n4148 to ground, then beyond that add another jfet with some 1n4148s in a negative feedback loop (which is a pretty gainy 1 transistor design actually:
(http://www.thatraymond.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/04/5thgearODv2_1.jpg)
Man not to derail but this thread has me thinking lol.
At any rate I love the design and enclosure.
Edit: sorry for the double post
The first and last stage are simple jfet boost stages.
I should really do a block diagram so you guys can see what's going on.
zomg jason thats more than epic! :o 8)
very very impressive man
Holy Cow! - just saw this badass beyond belief!
Incredible. Hats off.
(http://jnoeding.com/holy_cow.jpg)
In addition to echoing what everyone else has said, as someone who etches, I am also blown away by how accurately you achieved the 3D "wrap around" on your enclosure etch!
I had once thought about attempting something similar, but decided it wasn't doable. Obviously, I was WRONG!
How you got the vertical lines that run parallel to each corner to bend and still match up on top of the enclosure so precisely is way beyond my skill set...