WARLOCK- Steampunk

My inspiration for this pedal was the wood. In the right light it's dark with a red underbelly.

Couldn't help but think it's kinda evil. Witchy. Went from there.

With a theme like that. It's got to be Badass. I've always known about a boutique kiwi pedal builder called RedWitch and I knew they made a fuzz god, had a look and lo and behold the circuit

tagboardeffects.search=god

Fuzz Main With A Wrath Footswitch,, Sounds goodie.

  

Gathered my bits and as before I used sketchup for some initial design work.

 

Also had to use Inkscape to create etch masks.

 

Ordered some parts for the circuit, found the transistors needed in a metal can version, so thought I'd mojo the circuit a bit as well and started building. While I'm building I'm thinking seeing as I've only used Rune symbols for the knobs, I could really put any circuits I like in it. 2 even. All the pots and switches are for the fuzz god circuit and with so many it also gives you plenty of options for a duo combination. At the time it was just a thought.

The metal cans were duds in the end. Spec'd way low. BC109's are now bc549 in a silicone package and common as you get, so put them on the shopping list.

I had a circuit made up and working for the Catalinbread "Dirty little secret MKII". uses 5 pots and 2 switches. Waiting for me to come up with a box design. Left with one knob. mmm. The ZVEX super hard-on seems to get a rave. I've wanted to make one. So I decided to put them in for now. In the end I changed the boost to a crackle not OK version. the crackle on the original seemed to come through all the time, not just when I dialed the pot. Badass, Evil, Black sabbath, Metallica running on 18v via  switchable charge pump) coupled with a hot little booster. It's WARLOCK DOOM by accident. The circuit has a presence trimmer which I decided I wanted to mount as an external pot and managed to squeeze one of the smaller packaged pots I pulled from the fried marshall in on the side, covered with a bit from a compressor valve,

 

Sweet Honey Deluxe - Steampunk

 

 

Since I put my first Sweet Honey clone on my board I find myself using it as the go-to if I'm not fixed to a certain pedal for a certain song.

We play a mix of covers and original numbers. They range quite a bit from each members taste, so we mix it up so we're all happy. One guys from an Irish band background, the Bass-man likes the heavy stuff, and I've always been most interested in alternative rock heading into punk sort of vibe. Along with many, many other styles.

I find this pedal capable of sounding good in a lot of our songs. Really good in the blues- rock area. Basically it's on the permanent list.

I didn't like my last Tayda printed art job and decided to upgrade the box.

I find surfing the web, looking for ideas, styles I find interesting, is the best way for me to try and come up with something I like. I find and save lots of pictures, patterns, stuff I think may be useful. If I see a style I like, it's like , yeah that's kind of what I was looking for and I start forming ideas based on what I've seen. So - originality? maybe not entirely, but I don't want to outright copy anyone by any means. My problem is I'm terribly much more a logical type than the artist.

In all honesty this pedal is very much a mix of both with some originality I will claim.

My searching eventually led me to some SteamPunk looks. I'm the first to admit I was most inspired for this look by SVISOUND. If you haven't seen, take a look svisound. For me, it was like, yep this is where I've been going.. next level, and sort of what I'd like to incorporate in some of my builds. 

steampunk honey factory came to mind. The industrial honeycomb feature ventured into my thoughts as a possible feature. I decided if I'm going to try this I'll draw it in Sketchup first, to get a decent look at it before I commit to anything and make sure everything I'd found to possibly use for this look .was going to place well and help me plan the processes to make it.

 

I've been using Sketchup a long time now to help with projects I work on. The logical needs to know what it will look like. what do i need, can i do it?

I found some old blocks of hardwood and sliced them up on a table saw and have a selection of a few flavors now. This is an old piece of Rimu with a rather thick coating of a glossy clear coat to look like it's covered in Honey.

Scrounged the draws for anything brass or useful, bought a few things, brass plate, wire, jewellry trinkets, colored glass. I did manage to use a fair bit of recycled bits.Like the knobs are reused plumbing fittings. Epoxy resin is very useful.

LOT OF TIME to make this one from draw to finish. It's a hobby, I do it cause It's what I enjoy doing, for me the time is irrelevant. More importantly - MISSION ACCOMPLISHED.

The Sweet Honey Overdrive - Deluxe

Blues 2 Rock - Protein

   

My next project I've decided is the Protein. I found the circuit thanks to Dirtbox layouts and his awesome selection of circuits. A modified ODR-1 Overdrive going into a blues-breaker with added headroom. It's on my board in Looper 2- overdrives, at the end. Timmy at front for stacking if wanted, Bluesbreaker with HEADROOM at the back. It works really well. Bluesbreaker on it's own, ODR-1 on it's own. Put them together for even more. Stacking other pedals into the bluesbreaker is keeping it there. I highly recommend to try. I have used shielded/grounded wire on input and output to help ensure no noise issues, as it's close quarters inside a 1590BB2. The LED's are running off a piece of vero also.

 

I'm starting to get very happy with how a pedal I've made looks. The enclosure is "silver hammer" 1590bb2 from Tayda. Acid etching enclosures and patching cock-ups with plates has led me think this one up. I just recycle old aluminum flashings, whatever looks like it will work. Most polishes up Ok. Some are a alloy and for that reason I started converting my hydrochloric acid to Ferric Chloride. It's relatively simple and I've found works well, and with other metal such as brass. It's all just hacksaw and file and plenty of patience. Drew it up on Inkscape and went from there. For now this is where I want to head on the look, which is becoming somehow a big part of the whole experience.

 

 

 

The RAT - Pack

 

For many years I have been using the MOOER Black Secret as my RAT option. It's small, vintage or turbo switch and sounds great cleanish or dirty - The RAT is a very versatile overdrive and distortion. I would put this on the bucket list for sure. In whatever form you choose to have - new/second hand aren't that expensive. Older ones will have the LM308 IC, which are hard to find. ( I got a few from JAYCAR @ $10 each) I've got enough to build a few. I tried the OP07 and still sounded good to me. Also have some LM208's in metal can version. Yet to try but confident they will work.

Along with the Big Muff ( now replaced with the Scarab Deluxe) was my main dirty dirt pedal and It will always be on my board.

I found the build info for this one via some help on forums from Beavis Audio Research. Link is here Beavis Audio 4 Knob Rat .

This one involves producing 2 PCB's, The main circuit and a daughterboard with different clipping options. I managed to squeeze it all in a 1590BB, but it was tight and I'd use a 1590BB2 next time if I make another like this one. On that note, I have also discovered a vero layout for this on Sabratone proco-rat-w-lots-of-options . Using a 5T rotary switch for clipping selection. With a vero size of 20 x 14 I'll most likely try for a smaller enclosure, probably have to 125b with the big 5T switch, 4 pots and 2 switches.

Again I've tried Acid Etching with reasonable success this time. Diluted the brew, used nail polish on any visible weaknesses to the mask. Fairly happy with the finish. You'll see I'm a bit of a Stranglers fan with Rattus Norvegicus in the mix. Some hand painting - clear coat. This one is serving me well.

I've placed the clipping LED's on top as well, lighting up more the harder you play

Obsessive Compulsive Distortion

 I've owned an original version 3 for many years. My general go to prior to sweet honey showing up. Definitely a pedal worth having. The circuit was found in vero from again Mark @ tagboard effects. Parts are easy and this sounds just like my original. Well maybe a slight difference. My components vs theirs is going to have some undoubtedly. A recommended build. Read the comments ( as I always do ) version 3 seems most popular.

Artwork turned out a bit better etch-wise, although the OCD got a bit munted and again a remake planted on top solved the problem.

Silver Klon

 

 Up until now my KLon has been the NUX golden horse. Almost always on - a pedal I don't want to part with. The NUX is actually very good. Switchable between gold and silver versions and also able to switch between true bypass or buffered when not on. I keep it in buffered at the beginning of my chain.

The circuit is originated from build your own clone Silver pony in vero layout from Mark @ tagboard effects along with a few other Klon options. I seem to almost always opt for the silver version on the NUX so that was my choice.

Again my etching has turned out rather scratchy, but given I wanted an aged celtic look it fits well.

The firehorse text was fairly illegible, so began me starting to fix things to the box as I decided to cover it with a remade bit of aluminium.

I did find some extra noise issues, and would recommend some shielded(grounded) input and output wires here and get the right voltage doubler. One drawback here is I had to to 125b enclosure due to size of vero board, so it takes up more room than the little NUX. Other than that works great.

Honey Overdrives

 

 Thanks again to drdfx. Made the BJF Honey Bee and the Mad Professor Sweet Honey in the other. The write-ups where good, I wanted to compare the sounds together. Although it was more designed for mass production, I gotta call the sweet honey the one. I would class this ( as with the scarab deluxe) a must build. I have since reboxed the sweet honey in a steampunk version ( my title page background pic, basically because I love it so much, It's Stayin!

In retrospect I found my artwork design a bit over the top on this one. It was a lot of shagging around on Inkscape to get the end picture, so I went with it. Again Inkscape + Scribus = Tayda printable PDF.

It's a very usable mid-gain overdrive. My go-to overdrive on many songs we play. 

Cranked AC30

 

This is another I decided to build early on from drdfx. requiring etching a PCB. artwork is Inkscape (left pic ) printed by Tayda printing service.

The circuit is a discontinued Wampler cranked AC. It requires 3 matched sets of J201 Jfet transistors.

Needed to make a JFET tester for this. SMD J201's can be found on Tayda. soldering them to adaptor boards is a trick, but not as hard as you think it will be. youtube videos are great for learning how.

I would call this a bright overdrive/ distortion. Very usable from light gain settings to heavier stuff.

drdfx have videos with soundz examples if you think you might like

 

Timmy the Kid

This is about when I discovered Tayda and Their printing service. I've used Sketchup for many years to design things before I commit to making, so I was able to eventually use Inkscape to start drawing designs in vector format according to Tayda requirements, mostly no overlaps, sized right etc. With the use of another program called Scribus I was able to convert the finished drawing into the correct layer format, change colours to CYMK, apply the right Roland swatches for the clear and white layers and end up producing a PDF that worked. Above are a png of my inkscape drawing and photo of pedal.

Another great pedal really. I use it often as a booster/ stacker booster, but useful on its own in many ways. So many transparent overdrives and their all good. worth the build for me

 

Barbershop

 Raw, gritty, warm, smooth, open and transparent are all terms that have been used to describe this overdrive. It sounds great with any setup, but truly shines when used to dirty up a tube amp.

Another early pedal. I'm still using the decal film. The circuit is the fairfield circuitry "Barbershop"

A very nice organic transparent overdrive. After playing it for awhile, bliss really summed it up for me . Sounds just like demos. Circuit in vero layout is here : https://tagboardeffects.blogspot.com/search?q=barbershop