Small Box Plexi (aka Boneyard)

[pickdropper]

This is a version of the Boneyard that was loosely inspired by an old plexi amp.  The panel is actually made of plexiglass and back filled with gold and black paint.  I am really pleased with the way the finish turned out.  The pictures are actually not good enough to really show it, IMHO.

Like many others, I struggled with a lot of squealing on this.  As mgwhit noticed in his post, putting a buffer in front helps quite a bit.  Mine shrieked at almost any setting before putting a buffered klone in front of it.  So I used his suggestion and put the JFet buffer in front of it.  That helped tremendously, but I still get squeal at around the 2-3 o-clock position on the volume knob.

I do have it at full gain now, but C5/R5 are socketed, so I can go back and reduce it later.  I also used shielded wire going in/out of the buffer and the boneyard, but I don't think it had any affect on the squeal.

There is on of Jimmy's old SHO boards in there as a boost.  It crackles, it boosts, it's what we all know and expect.  It's probably obvious, but the switch next to the input jack is a symmetrical/asymmetrical clipping switch.

Keeping the wiring relatively tidy in this was challenging due to all of the bits in there.  I spent more time wiring this than any other pedal I've build and it probably isn't as tidy.

[jimmybjj]

Dude all of  your builds are insane!! The outside is perfect, the name plate and the textured black are awesome. The guts are immaculate considering how much is going on in this thing. This one is just terrific inside and out.

Do you own all of the equipment you etch and cut with?

[Haberdasher]

I think you did an amazing job here.  And with the amt of wiring in there it looks great!

I start getting squeal in mine at around 1 o'clock on the hi-gain section of my bufferless unit.  I etched myself a nice amz jfet buff, but I'm starting to wonder if it would even be worth throwing it in there when I think about re-doing the wiring.  Ugh, I guess I'm just feeling a bit lazy right now.  I should probably do it.

Anyway, I hope you enjoy your pedal.  The boneyard is truly awesome sounding dirt!

[jubal81]

This. Is. Freaking. Amazing.
Love the under-plexiglass look. I wish I could do something this nice.

I build up a boneyard last week and really love it. It really does make my Ric/AC-15 sound like a Les Paul and cranked Marshall.

There was some serious squeal, but I tried the 15% resistor across two lugs of the linear volume pot trick and that made it a lot easier to dial in without the noise. Not a lot of range on the volume pot and I still need a better solution, but it works pretty well.

[pickdropper]

Dude all of  your builds are insane!! The outside is perfect, the name plate and the textured black are awesome. The guts are immaculate considering how much is going on in this thing. This one is just terrific inside and out.

Do you own all of the equipment you etch and cut with?

Unfortunately, I don't own the laser etcher.  I do own a mechanical engraver, but I don't really have a place to set it up right now (it can't do complicated graphics anyway).

I have had a brief thought of buying a laser etcher and offering the service to DIYers to try and pay for the machine.  There are a couple of things stopping me, however.  First is the cost of the machine vs. how much I could realistically expect to make back.  The other problem is the space required.  The machine is about the size of a large professional laser printer, but I'd also have to install a compressor (not a big deal) and a ventilation system (much bigger of a deal).

[nzCdog]

Yeah... Thats pretty freakin awesome... Just sayin

[MattOcaster]

Sooooper professional!

[lincolnic]

Keeping the wiring relatively tidy in this was challenging due to all of the bits in there.  I spent more time wiring this than any other pedal I've build and it probably isn't as tidy.

Yeah...this is tidier than any pedal I've built, ever.