Post-Lockdown pedal building

slowpilgrim

Late to the thread, but I built 5 pedals so far since lockdown with a couple more on order. Found FuzzDog to be great, easily the best kits in terms of ease of build, good mods where needed, and good support, although you pay a bit of a premium. Musikding is a bit cheaper, and can be good if you want to order other random bits to customise your pedal. Due to their instructions being a bit ambiguous, I had some issues with polarity on LEDs and input jacks but was easy enough to fault find and resolve. Haven't tried Jeds but his inventory looks almost identical to FuzzDog, and something about the branding puts me off.

Also some other random stuff I've 'discovered'. You can sign up for an account with Texas Instruments and order some free samples of different components. I've got a couple of gucci op-amps coming to 'upgrade' my builds with lower noise components (who knows if this will make an audible difference).

Finally, if anyone is interested in the Fairfield Circuitry style of enclosure finishes, order a 2mm metal punch alphabet set off Amazon for a tenner and one of these conveniently sized aluminium blocks off ebay to use as an anvil:

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/ALUMINIUM-BAR-BILLET-BLOCK-45mm-x-80mm-x-50mm-GRADE-6082-T6/264298769749?ssPageName=STRK:MEBIDX:IT&_trksid=p2057872.m2749.l2649

You can then colour in the lettering with black enamel paint, ink or marker pen and wipe/sand off the top.

It's a very cheap way of achieving a nice pedal finish without spending a lot of time and money on primer and enamel paints. The LEDs they use can also be ordered from Musikding, they're called fresnel lenses.

Cookiemonster

slowpilgrim said:

Late to the thread, but I built 5 pedals so far since lockdown with a couple more on order. Found FuzzDog to be great, easily the best kits in terms of ease of build, good mods where needed, and good support, although you pay a bit of a premium. Musikding is a bit cheaper, and can be good if you want to order other random bits to customise your pedal. Due to their instructions being a bit ambiguous, I had some issues with polarity on LEDs and input jacks but was easy enough to fault find and resolve. Haven't tried Jeds but his inventory looks almost identical to FuzzDog, and something about the branding puts me off.

Also some other random stuff I've 'discovered'. You can sign up for an account with Texas Instruments and order some free samples of different components. I've got a couple of gucci op-amps coming to 'upgrade' my builds with lower noise components (who knows if this will make an audible difference).

Finally, if anyone is interested in the Fairfield Circuitry style of enclosure finishes, order a 2mm metal punch alphabet set off Amazon for a tenner and one of these conveniently sized aluminium blocks off ebay to use as an anvil:

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/ALUMINIUM-BAR-BILLET-BLOCK-45mm-x-80mm-x-50mm-GRADE-6082-T6/264298769749?ssPageName=STRK:MEBIDX:IT&_trksid=p2057872.m2749.l2649

You can then colour in the lettering with black enamel paint, ink or marker pen and wipe/sand off the top.

It's a very cheap way of achieving a nice pedal finish without spending a lot of time and money on primer and enamel paints. The LEDs they use can also be ordered from Musikding, they're called fresnel lenses.

Some great tips here. Will look at musikding. I have somehow just not spent a lot of time on that site, considering I look at most of the building sites a lot.

At the moment I am trying to do more with Vero and learning to breadboard. But I do like to build the kits as well.

Jed's is very good for the newbie, the support forum on Facebook is just fantastic. 

slowpilgrim

Does anyone have any tips on upping the quality of your builds? I’ve built a few pedals now and basically improvise a workflow each time. Then I see this level of rigour for wiring etc and I get jealous, it really is an art form:

https://www.pinterest.com/amp/pin/596515913128831821/

https://www.coda-effects.com/2016/08/ultimate-guide-to-guitar-effect-wiring.html?m=1

(The image)

After you’ve populated the PCB, do you do all your PCB wiring and do a mock-up in the enclosure to cut to length for jacks, switches etc? Then remove and solder everything outside before final assembly?

Also, for soldering I’m always hit and miss when it comes to getting a nice connection with a minimum of solder and a shiny joint. Sometimes my iron (a Chinese Amazon job) struggles to get a nice flow. Is it worth upgrading to a proper station, or a higher quality pencil iron?

rsvmark

@SteveF Finally the printers have come back to me.... £68 plus vat for 1 off UV print!!! Errrr no thanks. As a matter of interest, how much did you pay and how did you source them?

roberty

slowpilgrim said:

Does anyone have any tips on upping the quality of your builds? I’ve built a few pedals now and basically improvise a workflow each time. Then I see this level of rigour for wiring etc and I get jealous, it really is an art form:

https://www.pinterest.com/amp/pin/596515913128831821/

https://www.coda-effects.com/2016/08/ultimate-guide-to-guitar-effect-wiring.html?m=1

(The image)

After you’ve populated the PCB, do you do all your PCB wiring and do a mock-up in the enclosure to cut to length for jacks, switches etc? Then remove and solder everything outside before final assembly?

Also, for soldering I’m always hit and miss when it comes to getting a nice connection with a minimum of solder and a shiny joint. Sometimes my iron (a Chinese Amazon job) struggles to get a nice flow. Is it worth upgrading to a proper station, or a higher quality pencil iron?

I'm nowhere near as tidy as those examples but my method is to solder the wires to the main PCB and jacks first, mount everything in the case and then solder the wires into the daughterboard. Then the daughterboard gets soldered to the switch. I solder the DC wires to the daughterboard first and then put them through the hole and solder the DC jack outside the case. This is probably as tidy as I've been. The trick is to make the wires the right length which I find really difficult for some reason

Keefy

roberty said:

slowpilgrim said:

Does anyone have any tips on upping the quality of your builds? I’ve built a few pedals now and basically improvise a workflow each time. Then I see this level of rigour for wiring etc and I get jealous, it really is an art form:

https://www.pinterest.com/amp/pin/596515913128831821/

https://www.coda-effects.com/2016/08/ultimate-guide-to-guitar-effect-wiring.html?m=1

(The image)

After you’ve populated the PCB, do you do all your PCB wiring and do a mock-up in the enclosure to cut to length for jacks, switches etc? Then remove and solder everything outside before final assembly?

Also, for soldering I’m always hit and miss when it comes to getting a nice connection with a minimum of solder and a shiny joint. Sometimes my iron (a Chinese Amazon job) struggles to get a nice flow. Is it worth upgrading to a proper station, or a higher quality pencil iron?

I'm nowhere near as tidy as those examples but my method is to solder the wires to the main PCB and jacks first, mount everything in the case and then solder the wires into the daughterboard. Then the daughterboard gets soldered to the switch. I solder the DC wires to the daughterboard first and then put them through the hole and solder the DC jack outside the case. This is probably as tidy as I've been. The trick is to make the wires the right length which I find really difficult for some reason

That's pretty tidy, I'd be more than happy with that!

slowpilgrim

Thanks for the tips, my last builds were a lot neater by assembling, cutting wires to length and then removing and soldering outside of the enclosure.

Here's how the letter punch turned out:

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/50554403342_159bdb8ba4_h.jpg

These are for sale on the classifieds if anyone is interested, along with some builds I did earlier in lockdown, to fund more kits:

https://i.imgur.com/QExTsos.jpg

Kind cool, but for my next build I'd like to try some interesting paint finishes. Has anyone experimented with nitro paint like the early BJFE pedals? Always thought that aesthetic was great.

roberty

slowpilgrim said:

Thanks for the tips, my last builds were a lot neater by assembling, cutting wires to length and then removing and soldering outside of the enclosure.

Here's how the letter punch turned out:

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/50554403342_159bdb8ba4_h.jpg

These are for sale on the classifieds if anyone is interested, along with some builds I did earlier in lockdown, to fund more kits:

https://i.imgur.com/QExTsos.jpg

Kind cool, but for my next build I'd like to try some interesting paint finishes. Has anyone experimented with nitro paint like the early BJFE pedals? Always thought that aesthetic was great.

Love the graphics and colours. I can't draw to save my life. These look fantastic

SteveF

rsvmark said:

@SteveF Finally the printers have come back to me.... £68 plus vat for 1 off UV print!!! Errrr no thanks. As a matter of interest, how much did you pay and how did you source them?

Hi @rsvmark - I had mine done at Tayda.  I paid around $10 for the powder coated and printed enclosure.  I am going to use the drilling service as well next time to save time on the build process as I am building a batch. I think this adds another $2-3 to the cost of the enclosure.   I believe they discount if you order more than 5 or 10 too. 

They have some really specific instructions and requirements for the artwork, but it's not too difficult to set up.  

stickyfiddle

@stevef that sounds really good. I’d happily pay that sort of cash for a decent powder coated & drilled box

rsvmark

SteveF said:

rsvmark said:

@SteveF Finally the printers have come back to me.... £68 plus vat for 1 off UV print!!! Errrr no thanks. As a matter of interest, how much did you pay and how did you source them?

Hi @rsvmark - I had mine done at Tayda.  I paid around $10 for the powder coated and printed enclosure.  I am going to use the drilling service as well next time to save time on the build process as I am building a batch. I think this adds another $2-3 to the cost of the enclosure.   I believe they discount if you order more than 5 or 10 too. 

They have some really specific instructions and requirements for the artwork, but it's not too difficult to set up.  

Thanks... ah well, not suited to this build. Enclosure is already drilled and powder coated. Yellow pages time....

LastMantra

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1XP4cR4sH2-IzN5mK9jA-cxVnxd-PzO2K/view?usp=drivesdk

Crap!

Edit; Can anyone see that pic? 
I've just used a stamp for the lettering but got my dad to bead-blast it which I think looks quite good. I gave it a clear coat too to keep it fresh looking. 

It's a RM type germanium boost.

slowpilgrim

roberty said:

slowpilgrim said:

Thanks for the tips, my last builds were a lot neater by assembling, cutting wires to length and then removing and soldering outside of the enclosure.

Here's how the letter punch turned out:

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/50554403342_159bdb8ba4_h.jpg

These are for sale on the classifieds if anyone is interested, along with some builds I did earlier in lockdown, to fund more kits:

https://i.imgur.com/QExTsos.jpg

Kind cool, but for my next build I'd like to try some interesting paint finishes. Has anyone experimented with nitro paint like the early BJFE pedals? Always thought that aesthetic was great.

Love the graphics and colours. I can't draw to save my life. These look fantastic

Thanks, sold the Dunes clone (Crunch) to someone on here but kind of regret it now!

markblack

Anyone built a good spluttery, nasty fuzz kit they recommend? Fancy building another fuzz, but not the usual muff clone type thing.

Cheers

Mark

stickyfiddle

markblack said:

Anyone built a good spluttery, nasty fuzz kit they recommend? Fancy building another fuzz, but not the usual muff clone type thing.

Cheers

Mark

It’s technically a Rat plus octave, but the FuzzDog Death Drive (Sunn Life clone) does a fantastic spluttery/nasty fuzz “thing”. It’s quite delicious.

slowpilgrim

I'd like to try some nice hammered finishes for my next pedals. I remember reading something about these great results Basic Audio have had, where there's great 'veining' and depth to the colour:

http://www.mrdwab.com/john/temp/Blue-boards.jpg

http://www.mrdwab.com/john/Goldie-web.jpg

https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-eZpAf95d6F4/WaL7EoCySiI/AAAAAAAAEbA/bkVF05oe20oysCI2gdJFtcbDPVBt_qYWwCLcBGAs/s1600/Wildcat.jpg

There's a tutorial that's similar here:

https://pedalprojects.blogspot.com/2013/12/spray-painting-metal-enclosures-hammer.html

But this shows a single flat colour. Does anyone know how to achieve the above results? I'm sure I read a while back that the trick is to spray one hammered colour, then layer it with another over the top. But looking around it seems much more likely to just be these special 'burnished' rust-oleum colours like:

https://i.pinimg.com/originals/85/e8/aa/85e8aa78821b62dd0e414316080a7575.jpg

Not available in the UK .

EDIT: further resources for cool hammered effects:

Swirling
https://retrofokus.blogspot.com/2014/09/fuzz-and-hammerite-match-made-in-heaven.html

Maybe the key is just spraying it on really thick to get more texture:
https://hotbottles.wordpress.com/2011/03/15/ts-overdrive-new-enclosure-sound-samples/

Going to order some and experiment.

markblack

@stickyfiddle cheers i'll check it out

slowpilgrim

slowpilgrim said:

I'd like to try some nice hammered finishes for my next pedals. I remember reading something about these great results Basic Audio have had, where there's great 'veining' and depth to the colour:

http://www.mrdwab.com/john/temp/Blue-boards.jpg

http://www.mrdwab.com/john/Goldie-web.jpg

https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-eZpAf95d6F4/WaL7EoCySiI/AAAAAAAAEbA/bkVF05oe20oysCI2gdJFtcbDPVBt_qYWwCLcBGAs/s1600/Wildcat.jpg

There's a tutorial that's similar here:

https://pedalprojects.blogspot.com/2013/12/spray-painting-metal-enclosures-hammer.html

But this shows a single flat colour. Does anyone know how to achieve the above results? I'm sure I read a while back that the trick is to spray one hammered colour, then layer it with another over the top. But looking around it seems much more likely to just be these special 'burnished' rust-oleum colours like:

https://i.pinimg.com/originals/85/e8/aa/85e8aa78821b62dd0e414316080a7575.jpg

Not available in the UK .

EDIT: further resources for cool hammered effects:

Swirling
https://retrofokus.blogspot.com/2014/09/fuzz-and-hammerite-match-made-in-heaven.html

Maybe the key is just spraying it on really thick to get more texture:
https://hotbottles.wordpress.com/2011/03/15/ts-overdrive-new-enclosure-sound-samples/

Going to order some and experiment.

Apparently adding silicon gives more texture, which is likely what the forged stuff has. I'm going to try spraying the pedal with silicon oil before use the rustoleum.

jonnygreentrees

slowpilgrim said:

I'd like to try some nice hammered finishes for my next pedals. I remember reading something about these great results Basic Audio have had, where there's great 'veining' and depth to the colour:

http://www.mrdwab.com/john/temp/Blue-boards.jpg

http://www.mrdwab.com/john/Goldie-web.jpg

https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-eZpAf95d6F4/WaL7EoCySiI/AAAAAAAAEbA/bkVF05oe20oysCI2gdJFtcbDPVBt_qYWwCLcBGAs/s1600/Wildcat.jpg

There's a tutorial that's similar here:

https://pedalprojects.blogspot.com/2013/12/spray-painting-metal-enclosures-hammer.html

But this shows a single flat colour. Does anyone know how to achieve the above results? I'm sure I read a while back that the trick is to spray one hammered colour, then layer it with another over the top. But looking around it seems much more likely to just be these special 'burnished' rust-oleum colours like:

https://i.pinimg.com/originals/85/e8/aa/85e8aa78821b62dd0e414316080a7575.jpg

Not available in the UK .

EDIT: further resources for cool hammered effects:

Swirling
https://retrofokus.blogspot.com/2014/09/fuzz-and-hammerite-match-made-in-heaven.html

Maybe the key is just spraying it on really thick to get more texture:
https://hotbottles.wordpress.com/2011/03/15/ts-overdrive-new-enclosure-sound-samples/

Going to order some and experiment.

I've tried with various colours of Hammerite spray and never got them to look like this 

jonnygreentrees

markblack said:

Anyone built a good spluttery, nasty fuzz kit they recommend? Fancy building another fuzz, but not the usual muff clone type thing.

Cheers

Mark

Fuzzdog Supreme Being (Dwarfcraft Shiva/She Fuzz). Love mine