Surfy Industries SurfyBear FET Reverb and SurfyTrem in a Hammond 1590BB

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I managed to cram both a SurfyBear FET Reverb ( loooong thread on surfguitar101.com https://surfguitar101.com/forums/topic/24295/ ) and the SurfyTrem into one Hammond 1590BB! The pedal has all the connections on the top (just enough space to fit) and has true bypass with an effect order switch, so I can run reverb into trem or the other way around. The build is from DIY kits by Surfy Industries ( http://www.surfyindustries.com/ ) , so most of the parts came included, only used the enclosure, knobs and smaller jacks from elsewhere.




The FET reverb is a recreation of the Fender 6G15 using FETs instead of the tubes, while the tremolo circuit is similarly "tube-based" from an amp circuit featuring normal and harmonic tremolo modes. Since the reverb circuit is in fact an amplifier, the FETs end up giving enough heat that they have to touch the enclosure for heat dissipation, so they're isolated with heat-conductive tape to not get grounded.

The build is tight, the PCBs themselves are slightly too large to fit nicely in this enclosure while still leaving space for knobs and all the connections, so I decided to try mounting them on top of each other with PCB mounts glued to the enclosure. The reverb board is below, while the trem is on top with a bit of tape to ensure nothing is touching. In the process I learned normal super glue doesn't really work with aluminum, so I ended up re-gluing a few times over (tightening screws was occasionally enough to twist and break the bond with normal superglue) until I tried a metal epoxy superglue. In the end I gave up on the mounting screw for the reverb board, since the mount wasn't tall enough to tighten against the board properly and I didn't think of using enough washers before it broke off for the fourth time... Wiring up the boards themselves was quite easy, but the bypass wiring is really fiddly because of all the jumpers and three 3PDTs in one box. Everything seems to be as compact as it can realistically be, at least with my patience level.

The knobs I received don't fit the pots in the kit so I'm using some placeholders for now, and I'm missing an on-off and rate indicator led (only place they'll fit is just beside the footswitches), so I'll have to go back in there, but it'll be interesting to see if the heat is affecting the build at all. I'm still monitoring the whole thing for heat buildup, the pedal is warm to touch but doesn't seem to be worryingly so, and after an hour everything seems to still be working fine.



A few more pics of the build, unfortunately I seem to have forgotten to take one with just the reverb and it's connections wired up: http://imgur.com/a/iXI0y

It would be cool to do something to the outside of the enclosure, but I've yet to acquire the appropriate skills and am working from my apartment, so I don't really know where to get started...