Post-Lockdown pedal building

Keefy · September 2021

UnclePsychosis said:

Had anyone had any success using the "apply with a brush" hammerite paint (instead of the spraypaint stuff?).

The question I'm really asking - has anyone found a sensible solution to buying pre-painted enclosures if you don't own a pillar drill?

I don’t own a pillar drill but I have had reasonable success drilling cast aluminium enclosures - measure carefully, mark centres on masking tape, punch the centres with a spring-loaded hand punch, secure the enclosure and use a drilling oil with a decent bit and low drill speed. For widening holes, a hand-held tapered reamer is easier than a step bit to control and keep centred.

The only time I have used brush-on hammered-metal-effect paint was on a picture frame. Iirc the ‘scale’ of hammering would have been too large for an fx pedal.

stickyfiddle · September 2021

I've done hand-drilled the way @keefy describes. Start with a too-small hole then ream out by hand and you can get quite neat results. I don't enjoy it though so will be keen to see how the Tayda order turns out.

My fancy boxes I ordered a while back haven't arrived. Another massive success for the UAE postal service... #sadface

Cookiemonster · September 2021

stickyfiddle said:

I've done hand-drilled the way @keefy describes. Start with a too-small hole then ream out by hand and you can get quite neat results. I don't enjoy it though so will be keen to see how the Tayda order turns out.

My fancy boxes I ordered a while back haven't arrived. Another massive success for the UAE postal service... #sadface

Actually there are ones on Tayda predrilled. You can get different sizes and colours. I bought 5 and they are pretty good. I did have to widen the power socket.

I think they are designed to work with a particular PCB maker so the led is not an ideal placement for me. But all good otherwise

euan · September 2021

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

Not quite pedal building but painting. Repainted the bare mini Klon clone in silver sparkle flake.

UnclePsychosis · September 2021

So what I did was the "custom" drilling option on Tayda, and used a steel rule and the drilling template from the fuzzdog kit that I bought to work out the position and size of each hole. The drilling was about $5 on top of the enclosure so hardly expensive.

In order to keep the total cost sensible however I had to go for the very cheap postage which will probably take three months to arrive... Thankfully it will probably take me that long to get round to building the kit!

If it's good, I'll probably order a few more - I want to build a Frantone Cream Puff and that clearly needs a suitably silly enclosure.

benga · September 2021

benga said:

Order placed with JedsPeds for a Bass Fuzz as my first build Thanks for all the advice and encouragement. You may regret it

Finally made a start - first time I've ever attempted to solder. Not expecting it to actually work, but everything seems to be staying attached to the board

Question time...
The cheap iron I got didn't make it any easier - the tip of the iron didn't seem to get as hot as the sides it which made transferring the heat in the right place difficult.

I used the tip on the left. Which of these would you suggest I try when attempt to finish it?

Cheers!

[Edit - got the images working

]

Cookiemonster · September 2021

benga said:

benga said:

Order placed with JedsPeds for a Bass Fuzz as my first build Thanks for all the advice and encouragement. You may regret it

Finally made a start - first time I've ever attempted to solder. Not expecting it to actually work, but everything seems to be staying attached to the board

Question time...
The cheap iron I got didn't make it any easier - the tip of the iron didn't seem to get as hot as the sides it which made transferring the heat in the right place difficult.

I used the tip on the left. Which of these would you suggest I try when attempt to finish it?

Cheers!

[Edit - got the images working ]

That was my first as well.

Those tips if they are from a kit, burn up quickly. So a decent iron is a good purchase.

It's quite a simple build, not many component's, but sounds good. Use a multimeter to work out your resistors.

The tip of the iron needs to be hot, heat the lead and the pad for a few seconds then add 60/40 solder.

Essentially add a little solder to the tip, and make sure you clean the tip on a wet sponge in-between soldering.

Joints should be shiny, you want a little bit of solder to be showing through to the component side.

Use crocadile clips on the leads of the electrolytic caps. They are heat sensitive, use a socket for the transistor ( btw a MPSA13 turns that Bazzfuss into a beast)

Take your time with the soldering. On the switch, following the instructions and take a bit of a break between soldering the pins as the switch can get damaged from overheating.

Make sure the caps and diode are the right way round.

I would probably use 2 or 3 in that picture of the tips or the really fine one, but would recommend for the next kit to get a hotter iron.

For wires always use black wire for ground.

Cookiemonster · September 2021

NelsonP said:

Decided to find out what all this Tone Bender fuss was about...

Looks very neat

benga · September 2021

Thanks Cookiemonster.

To get as far as I did in the pictures I used the multimeter to work out which resistor was which (after a bit of googling how to do it). Was quite pleased with myself

I think the weak link was the iron. I’ll try another tip and if that’s no better get something more up market. I don’t think my soldering was to bad considering it’s the first time I’ve done it in my life. The lighting isn’t great but a lot of the joints are shiny, but several are pretty dull. I guess I might need to redo those.

I’ve enjoyed the process so far though. I’ll like it even more if it works at the end!

Cookiemonster · September 2021

benga said:

Thanks Cookiemonster.

To get as far as I did in the pictures I used the multimeter to work out which resistor was which (after a bit of googling how to do it). Was quite pleased with myself

I think the weak link was the iron. I’ll try another tip and if that’s no better get something more up market. I don’t think my soldering was to bad considering it’s the first time I’ve done it in my life. The lighting isn’t great but a lot of the joints are shiny, but several are pretty dull. I guess I might need to redo those.

I’ve enjoyed the process so far though. I’ll like it even more if it works at the end!

It sounds great that one. Look forward to seeing it finished.

I built a reverb yesterday once the basics are sorted it gets a lot easier to build and buying your own parts makes it a lot cheaper than the kits.

LastMantra · September 2021

benga said:

benga said:

Order placed with JedsPeds for a Bass Fuzz as my first build Thanks for all the advice and encouragement. You may regret it

Finally made a start - first time I've ever attempted to solder. Not expecting it to actually work, but everything seems to be staying attached to the board

Question time...
The cheap iron I got didn't make it any easier - the tip of the iron didn't seem to get as hot as the sides it which made transferring the heat in the right place difficult.

I used the tip on the left. Which of these would you suggest I try when attempt to finish it?

Cheers!

[Edit - got the images working ]

I usually use a tip with a flat face like the second from the right.

Maybe you need to give it time for the whole thing to heat up? Cleaning on a wet sponge can cool the tip.

Hard to tell from the pic but there's a couple there that could maybe do with being reflowed.

Cookiemonster · September 2021

LastMantra said:

benga said:

benga said:

Order placed with JedsPeds for a Bass Fuzz as my first build Thanks for all the advice and encouragement. You may regret it

Finally made a start - first time I've ever attempted to solder. Not expecting it to actually work, but everything seems to be staying attached to the board

Question time...
The cheap iron I got didn't make it any easier - the tip of the iron didn't seem to get as hot as the sides it which made transferring the heat in the right place difficult.

I used the tip on the left. Which of these would you suggest I try when attempt to finish it?

Cheers!

[Edit - got the images working ]

I usually use a tip with a flat face like the second from the right.

Maybe you need to give it time for the whole thing to heat up? Cleaning on a wet sponge can cool the tip.

Hard to tell from the pic but there's a couple there that could maybe do with being reflowed.

That's a good point. Might just need the iron to heat. I would be tempted to reflow as well.

I have a hakko iron if you get into it @ Benga that iron is amazing and you won't need another

Alex2678 · September 2021

Built a Plumes clone for a friend, sounds amazing. He did the graphics, safe to say he’ll be helping with the graphics on my future builds

Cookiemonster · September 2021

Alex2678 said:

Built a Plumes clone for a friend, sounds amazing. He did the graphics, safe to say he’ll be helping with the graphics on my future builds

Nice where did you buy the plumes PCB

Alex2678 · September 2021

Cookiemonster said:
Nice where did you buy the plumes PCB

It’s a US company called pedalPCB, you can order the pcb from them or musikding do kits with their pcbs. They call it the Pluma

jonnygreentrees · September 2021

Cookiemonster said:

Alex2678 said:

Built a Plumes clone for a friend, sounds amazing. He did the graphics, safe to say he’ll be helping with the graphics on my future builds

Nice where did you buy the plumes PCB

that's awesome how did you do the crackle paint?

Alex2678 · September 2021

jonnygreentrees said:

Cookiemonster said:

Alex2678 said:

Built a Plumes clone for a friend, sounds amazing. He did the graphics, safe to say he’ll be helping with the graphics on my future builds

Nice where did you buy the plumes PCB

that's awesome how did you do the crackle paint?

I didn’t I just wired it, I think he used hammered effect spray paint

NelsonP · September 2021

Cookiemonster said:

NelsonP said:

Decided to find out what all this Tone Bender fuss was about...

Looks very neat

Thank you sir! 2nd build so I've learned some lessons. Mainly take your time, be meticulous, avoid impatience, follow instructions.

All things that I don't usually do enough, so it's actually very therapeutic/satisfying.

I still managed to screw up the LED, although that has now been fixed.

UnclePsychosis · September 2021

Finished building an Axis Fuzz tonight.

Not sure what I think of it tbh. It sounds quite good with the gain all the way up as a wall of fuzz type effort, but with the gain down I'm not a fan, and I'm not convinced I'm getting much of the fabled clean up. Either something isn't right, or it just isn't the fuzz for me.

Interestingly it sounds MILES better with my Tokai Blazing Fire than my Rick.

roberty · September 2021

UnclePsychosis said:

Finished building an Axis Fuzz tonight.

Not sure what I think of it tbh. It sounds quite good with the gain all the way up as a wall of fuzz type effort, but with the gain down I'm not a fan, and I'm not convinced I'm getting much of the fabled clean up. Either something isn't right, or it just isn't the fuzz for me.

Interestingly it sounds MILES better with my Tokai Blazing Fire than my Rick.

I had an actual one and I loved it. Totally bonkers. I only ever play with fuzz face style with fuzz on 10 tho so make of that what you will :-) I think they sound best with the fuzz cranked and then the volume on the guitar to clean up. You can get a nice glassy sound with a strat this way

Cookiemonster · September 2021

UnclePsychosis said:

Finished building an Axis Fuzz tonight.

Not sure what I think of it tbh. It sounds quite good with the gain all the way up as a wall of fuzz type effort, but with the gain down I'm not a fan, and I'm not convinced I'm getting much of the fabled clean up. Either something isn't right, or it just isn't the fuzz for me.

Interestingly it sounds MILES better with my Tokai Blazing Fire than my Rick.

Transistor values and bias make a huge difference. If you have different transistors try them

stickyfiddle · September 2021

stickyfiddle said:
Not quite in lockdown any more but these are too good not to share - saw them on Instagram and then on guitarworld. This guy in the US is doing a whole bunch of pretty custom enclosures, so I ordered a handful - some below and some others that I’ll unveil once I’ve worked out what I’m putting in them. A couple of rehouse jobs I think, and maybe a couple of new builds.

Full review and separate post when they arrive! I’m hoping they’re as good as look in the demo images

Well it's been 3 months and the Dubai postal service have finally decided that they can't be arsed finding these and contacting me (despite multiple phone calls from my end) and have sent them back to NYC. Hopefully trying again in a few days with my friendly mail forwarding service...

UnclePsychosis · September 2021

roberty said:

UnclePsychosis said:

Finished building an Axis Fuzz tonight.

Not sure what I think of it tbh. It sounds quite good with the gain all the way up as a wall of fuzz type effort, but with the gain down I'm not a fan, and I'm not convinced I'm getting much of the fabled clean up. Either something isn't right, or it just isn't the fuzz for me.

Interestingly it sounds MILES better with my Tokai Blazing Fire than my Rick.

I had an actual one and I loved it. Totally bonkers. I only ever play with fuzz face style with fuzz on 10 tho so make of that what you will :-) I think they sound best with the fuzz cranked and then the volume on the guitar to clean up. You can get a nice glassy sound with a strat this way

I think I'm basically (re)discovering why boutique fuzz faces exist - you need to crank the volume and fuzz on the pedal and then dial everything else in to suit around them. But then that leaves you with volume issues if you turn it off!

I'll have another play when everyone is out and I can make some proper noise, but I think I'll be chalking this one up to a fun learning experience!

UnclePsychosis · September 2021

Anyone got any tips for holding plastic capacitors (is that what they're called?) in place whilst soldering?

Am halfway through my Ram's Head Muff and have about eight million of them to solder...

andy_k · September 2021

Bend the legs, let them hang, and follow the rules on doing smallest components first so that you can use outer soldered ones to set height for inner un-soldered ones, maybe?

roberty · September 2021

UnclePsychosis said:

Anyone got any tips for holding plastic capacitors (is that what they're called?) in place whilst soldering?

Am halfway through my Ram's Head Muff and have about eight million of them to solder...

Blu tac

Cookiemonster · September 2021

roberty said:

UnclePsychosis said:

Anyone got any tips for holding plastic capacitors (is that what they're called?) in place whilst soldering?

Am halfway through my Ram's Head Muff and have about eight million of them to solder...

Blu tac

You can get a PCB stand that makes it easier.
Bend the legs to hold in place.

UnclePsychosis · September 2021

I find with resistors etc bending the legs is fine, but the legs on the little rectangular caps are too short.

I'll try some blutack when I get back on it tonight.

Cheers

Cookiemonster · September 2021

UnclePsychosis said:

I find with resistors etc bending the legs is fine, but the legs on the little rectangular caps are too short.

I'll try some blutack when I get back on it tonight.

Cheers

You can still bend those into place.
I also use bluetac sometimes.

But this is good once you get them in place and bend those legs slightly.

https://cpc.farnell.com/duratool/d03170/pcb-holder/dp/SD02126?mckv=sCaWHcwzr_dm|pcrid|224692157647|kword||match||plid||slid||product|SD02126|pgrid|47391249736|ptaid|pla-819046969395|&CMP=KNC-GUK-CPC-SHOPPING&s_kwcid=AL!5616!3!224692157647!!!network}!819046969395!&gclid=Cj0KCQjwv5uKBhD6ARIsAGv9a-yWmDeTav0VbnF6FuGBgJXHKX7is7Jmf-kldeKD2lVpCC3LByNANLcaAs8UEALw_wcB

UnclePsychosis · September 2021

I've got a PCB holder :-D

Its just getting the caps to not fall out thats the problem!

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Post-Lockdown pedal building

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