16
Open Discussion / Re: Happy Birthday Brian
« on: December 14, 2022, 12:39:01 AM »
Happy birthday, hope you had a good one!
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17
Build Reports / Re: Lectric-FX Celeste2
« on: December 12, 2022, 03:54:14 AM »
Hot damn, you never fail to deliver a stellar-looking build! Nice work!
18
Open Discussion / Re: No really, I'm not building any more overdrives
« on: December 07, 2022, 09:07:34 PM »
Also I didn't see any fanfare from the Aion camp but Kevin has new versions of the venerable L5 preamp project broken into a separate build for each channel. I've built the Clean version so far and can attest that while you aren't gaining anything from the original from a tone perspective (and this may be arguable) it's a smaller/simpler build that uses the 13700 for compression.
Damn, I'll have to check it out. I built an L5 and while I never found the clean channel particularly special (not that it was bad or anything, just kinda 'meh' IMO) I absolutely loved the drive channel. I'd love to have one as a dedicated distortion pedal, even more so if it runs on standard 9V DC instead of having to run a separate power adaptor just for the preamp.
19
Global Annoucements / Re: Should we do a BOTY contest?
« on: December 07, 2022, 09:02:06 PM »
Of course! I may not have done anything particularly impressive this year, but I love seeing all the crazy things others have built!
20
Build Reports / Re: Death to the King
« on: December 04, 2022, 05:27:54 AM »
Nice work, those graphics are badass!
21
Build Reports / Re: Aion Monolith – Love Tone Big Cheese
« on: November 29, 2022, 05:36:15 AM »
Nice work! I love the whole 'intentional ugliness' aesthetic and the way it both compliments and contrasts the super-clean guts. Definitely a nice change of pace from your usual super high-quality graphics, everyone needs to return to their roots every once in awhile!
22
Build Reports / Re: Aion FX L5 Build Questions…
« on: November 15, 2022, 06:22:23 AM »Yeah he’s been directly helpful with me more than once already!
One more question: is it REALLY okay that the output jack ONLY has the positive wire connected to it? There’s no ground wire connection shown in the build docs. I’ve never seen such a thing before…
It's usually fine in the case of a die-cast enclosure as long as you make sure the jack is contacting bare metal, the idea is that the circuit only gets grounded to the enclosure at a single point in order to prevent ground loops. It may or may not work in a rack mount unit depending on how conductive your front panel is. If you're worried about it just tie the grounds together, you probably won't hurt anything.
23
Build Reports / Re: Chaos Agent (horizontal layout)
« on: October 24, 2022, 08:14:10 AM »
Damn, that thing looks super clean! The hand-drawn lettering really matches the vibe of the originals, and the white paint really pops against that beautiful teal enclosure. I wish my handwriting was half as good as yours! Excellent work!
24
Build Reports / Parts Bin Fuzz Factory
« on: October 24, 2022, 06:20:48 AM »
Due to the rising cost of, well, everything, my budget has been a little tight lately and has severely limited my pedal building as of late. However, it has also inspired me to become a bit more resourceful! I had a spare enclosure laying around, so I decided to raid my spare parts inventory to see what I could cobble together. I've always been intrigued by the Fuzz Factory and it's ability to get a wide variety of wild and wacky noises out of a relatively simple circuit, and since I had all the requisite pots, resistors, capacitors, switches, and jacks already on hand and a nice collection of Soviet germanium transistors to choose from, I decided to throw one together!
I've never had much luck with vero before, but I had several large pieces on hand so I decided to go for it anyway rather than spend the money on a board. Luckily it's such a simple circuit that it would be hard even for me to screw it up, so it went together rather uneventfully and unlike other vero builds I've attempted before it actually worked on the first try! Even the off-board wiring proved to be less of a rat's nest than anticipated, although it did take some forethought to get it that way. The layout I used didn't include any power filtering or polarity protection, which probably isn't an issue on its own but turned out to be necessary when used in conjuction with other pedals on a daisy chain, so I patched in a daughter board with a P-channel Mosfet protection scheme ala RG Keen and a filter capacitor to keep things copacetic. After that, it was just a matter of printing off some graphics on a waterslide decal and sealing it on with some epoxy resin and I had myself a Fuzz Factory I could be proud of, and proud of it I am!
Despite being a random collection of leftover parts, this thing RIPS. It's a wild, unruly fuzz that can double as a variable frequency oscillator or a radio receiver at certain settings. It can be a little hard to handle at times but it's also loads of fun to mess around with and try to harness the chaos! Odds are if you've been at this hobby for awhile you also likely have the necessary parts sitting around, so if you're ever looking for a low-cost rainy day project this one is certainly worth a shot!
I've never had much luck with vero before, but I had several large pieces on hand so I decided to go for it anyway rather than spend the money on a board. Luckily it's such a simple circuit that it would be hard even for me to screw it up, so it went together rather uneventfully and unlike other vero builds I've attempted before it actually worked on the first try! Even the off-board wiring proved to be less of a rat's nest than anticipated, although it did take some forethought to get it that way. The layout I used didn't include any power filtering or polarity protection, which probably isn't an issue on its own but turned out to be necessary when used in conjuction with other pedals on a daisy chain, so I patched in a daughter board with a P-channel Mosfet protection scheme ala RG Keen and a filter capacitor to keep things copacetic. After that, it was just a matter of printing off some graphics on a waterslide decal and sealing it on with some epoxy resin and I had myself a Fuzz Factory I could be proud of, and proud of it I am!
Despite being a random collection of leftover parts, this thing RIPS. It's a wild, unruly fuzz that can double as a variable frequency oscillator or a radio receiver at certain settings. It can be a little hard to handle at times but it's also loads of fun to mess around with and try to harness the chaos! Odds are if you've been at this hobby for awhile you also likely have the necessary parts sitting around, so if you're ever looking for a low-cost rainy day project this one is certainly worth a shot!
25
Build Reports / Re: X-Fuzz, the fuzz you make when you hate fuzz
« on: October 12, 2022, 02:44:31 AM »
Excellent work, I love the graphics! I just might have to pull out some vero and throw one together myself!
26
General Questions / Re: Small Bear vs Tayda
« on: September 20, 2022, 04:13:12 AM »
[quote author=cspar link=topic=34146.msg327458#msg327458 date=1663591448
Drilling is my least favorite part about building and I generally don't put art or labels on pedals since I just build for myself and friends.
I wish someone carried a better selection of predrilled enclosures on the cheap. Tayda's prices are good and I use a bunch of their predrilled 125b's but their predrilled 1590b's are awkward for me to work with the way they are drilled for board mounted hardware. It'd be nice if there was 1590a predrilled 1-4 knob options.
[/quote]
Tayda offers a custom drilling service for all of the enclosure sizes they sell for $4.50 apiece if you don't feel like dealing with the predrilled options. It's pretty simple and easy to order as well.
Drilling is my least favorite part about building and I generally don't put art or labels on pedals since I just build for myself and friends.
I wish someone carried a better selection of predrilled enclosures on the cheap. Tayda's prices are good and I use a bunch of their predrilled 125b's but their predrilled 1590b's are awkward for me to work with the way they are drilled for board mounted hardware. It'd be nice if there was 1590a predrilled 1-4 knob options.
[/quote]
Tayda offers a custom drilling service for all of the enclosure sizes they sell for $4.50 apiece if you don't feel like dealing with the predrilled options. It's pretty simple and easy to order as well.
27
General Questions / Re: Small Bear vs Tayda
« on: September 18, 2022, 12:31:12 AM »
I like Tayda for jellybean parts, and their powdercoating, drilling, and UV printing services really can't be beat if you're just a hobbyist building one-offs. I don't really trust their jacks and switches though. For that I tend to use the name-brand stuff from either BLMS or Small Bear. Small Bear is also good for a lot of the more pedal-specific or obsolete parts, especially certain ICs. Finally, Mouser and Digikey are my source for electrolytics, certain ICs that Small Bear doesn't have, MLCCs, and WIMA, Kemet, and TDK film caps since they look nicer than the ugly grey ones from Tayda.
28
Build Reports / Re: Total Recall
« on: September 16, 2022, 02:11:02 AM »
Looks great so far man, I am digging that faceplate!
29
Build Reports / Re: Baron of Arizona (Fraudhacker) Flanger
« on: September 16, 2022, 02:10:10 AM »
I don't know which is more epic, the build or the story behind it! Nice work!
30
Build Reports / Re: Return of the King
« on: September 04, 2022, 03:31:45 AM »
Holy crap man, that's gotta be one of the nicest pedals I've ever seen! Like it's not even fair. Awesome work as always!
Do you use the emboss of gloss options on the UV print or is that just the normal color layer?
Do you use the emboss of gloss options on the UV print or is that just the normal color layer?