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I've tried doing block stamping before, but it never seems to stay on long term.  What type of ink are you using?

Color Box Pigment Archival - but it is not very touch tolerant without a clear coat.  I've been using a satin from a home store.

Chuck

Wow.  OMG WOW!

Chuck

A while back I built a Hipster 2014 with a pair of BC 108Cs that sounded pretty good but decided to mess around with it a bit.  Just for grins and goggles I stuck an AC130 in Q1 and OC141 in Q2 - SHAZAM!  Great fuzz that sustained most of the weekend.  The downside was I couldn't figure out how to close the box.  Then I looked at the Hipster 2016 and saw the trannies are side by side rather than back to back and the other tall stuff is mostly on the far side of the board so if I put C1 on the back side there was plenty of room to lay the trannies down.  Put everything in a Navy Blue Hammond 1590 A.  Board is the skinny Hipster 2016 with everything but the trannies, trimmer and stomp from Small Bear.  The trannies came from different ebay sellers - the OC141 has been in my parts stash for a couple years waiting on a home.  Fired right up after I put the AC130 back in - fell out of the socket while I was plugging everything in.  I need to play with the bias  little tomorrow night since my grandson was headed for bed as I finished up this evening.

Here's the box:

And the guts:


The Hipster 2014 is back on the board with a BC108C/BC109C pair and the bias tweaked a bit.

Chuck

I'm calling this Gray Beard because I like that better than Neck Beard (the name Warrior Poet used for the layout on the Guitar PCB site).  Face Bender would be an appropriate name for this cause that is sort of what it is - a switchable Fuzz Face and Tonebender.  Switch up is a real nice meaty Fuzz Face - switch down adds a pre-gain boost for something really, really close to a Tonebender MKII.  Two Guitar PCB GBOF boards with NPN germaniums (AC130s with Hfes of 72, 90, 125).  Knobs, pots, switches, and fiddly bits from Small Bear, generic 1590B from BLMS, and tested trannies from ebay.

The box:

And the (note terribly neat) guts:


Chuck

I spy with my little eye, countersinking

Nice work!

Why is it that fuzzes tend to make people do the 1590BB / two knob thing?

Alan,

I already have Jon's outstanding 1590A version of the MK II (Black Magic) and I felt a need for something a little easier on my eyes.  Jon's BoM says this one is designed for slanted enclosures that were floating around a couple years ago that seem to be rare now.  From a sound perspective this one really only needs two knobs (actually five and a switch if you count the way it interacts with my Strat) and the BB box allows the sound to fully mature before it goes out

Chuck

Just finished up this jewel.  Got to hurry up and get this post finished so I can get back to playing with it.  Osh Park board in a Pedal Parts Plus Pewter Vein 1590BB, I think the Chicken Heads are from Small Bear as are most of the other parts.  Trannies are a pair of 2N1304s (Hfe around 80 and 95) in Q1 and Q2 and an AC130 (Hfe 125) in Q3 - no idea what the leakage is but they must be about right.  Sweet spot with the bias between gritty treble and flabby bass is right at 7.43 v.

Outside:


And the guts:

Finally figured out having large piles of stuff on the bench is not conducive to getting stuff done so I've started going through various stalled/failed projects to try to clean up the work space a bit.  Some of the junk is, well, just junk.  Some of it is really good stuff.  Here are two new-ish successes that have become favorites.

First up the MadBean Cosmopolitan, etched by Haberdasher.  Started out great guns on this one and managed to get the pots reversed.  Once that was fixed it still just didn't do much.  Messed with it a bit swapping random NPN Germaniums in with no success I pushed this beautifully etched board toward the back of the bench.  Box, knobs and jacks were recycled in other builds.  Got a bug to give it another shot a couple weeks ago and ordered a low HFE Germanium from Small Bear to give it another try.  Initial shot was an improvement but there was no volume.  Then I tried an AC130 with an HFE of 60 I got in a measured batch from an ebay seller.  Wham! that's what it had been asking for all along.  I love this fuzz!

Here's the face (the colored knobs (from multiple orders from Small Bear) came from the Back of the Bench):


And the guts (pretend you don't notice the extra jack holes):

The Cosmo has been on my board since I first tried the AC130 in it - pulled it off briefly to put the screws in the bottom and again today to take the photos.

Next up is jpguitarworks Subtlety Drive Version 1.  No sob story of misfortunes with this Osh Park board, I just got distracted and let it sit populated for several months.  Found it this morning in a baggy with the pots and realized I had an undrilled box, jacks and switches to finish this up.  This is a great little board! 

Here's the face:


And the guts:



Well, back to the piles.

Chuck

That's awesome in and out, I just saw that Rej did the same thing with his LEDs, coincidence???


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Jimi,

Rej uses a different method - I drill a 5mm hole then use a countersink.  First few I did with it in the drill press but I'm getting more consistent results doing it by hand.  Depending on the box 10 turns is just about right.  I've got one of Rej's pedals and do like the look of his bevel with a 3mm LED in the middle of a much bigger hole/depression/bevel thing.

Chuck

Pickdropper's Delirium Tremolo in a white 1590A from BLMS, everything else except the board is from Small Bear.  Since I have all sorts of other boosts already I opted to leave the toggle off.  Went together with a minimum of profanity.  With a tiny tweak on the trimmer I've got tremolo!

The outside:


And the guts:


Chuck

Finished this one up shortly after the Screaming Baby.  This one also had a lovely little anodized CNC aluminum box that fell victim to absolute certainty on the drill press.  Also was dead on startup cause some bonehead managed to stick the 1N4001 in wrong way round.  Once that was fixed there were some issues with some of the BC 550Cs not seating well in the sockets.  The box was salvaged from another project, some resistors and caps from Mouser, rest of the resistors and caps from Tayda, Small bear provided the transistors, pots, jacks, knobs and switches, purple wire is from Guitar PCB.

Face:


Guts:

Finished this one up early this afternoon.  Basically an itty-bitty Tube Screamer stuffed into a 1590A with a couple mods.  Changed R3 and R13 to 511K (mod calls for 510s but all Mouser had were 511s), R6 to 2.4K, C3 to 51pf (stacked a 50pf and a 1pf), C4 to 100nf, C6 to 180nf, and used an OPA 2134.  I'm probably the only guy on the face of the planet that has not ever played with a stock Tube Screamer so I can't really say how this one is different but it is a nice, gutsy overdrive.  Stacks great with a MadBean Egghead!  Add a ROG Tri-Vibe and it goes full on SRV!  Had a real pretty green anodized CNC aluminum 1590 A+ box to put this in but managed to get brain dead at the drill press and ... the results were not optimal.  The cheapo no-name box from BLMS seems to work just fine though - someday it will get some color and a bit of decoration beyond the current craft stamp letters.  Board from Stomptown, some resistors from Mouser, the rest and most caps from Tayda, Small Bear provided jacks, pots, knobs, and the IC.  Used vero bits and some ribbon cable to hook up the pots - feeling kind of clever about that.

Plain Jane outside:


And the guts:

Hey chuck is that rattle can? I typically powder coat and I read the package of the newly purchased JB weld and it says it can only handle 200deg F. That's it enough for powder coating. Need like 400F.  I wonder if it would melt? I should try it anyway I'm fixing a botch job anyhow right...

Yes, rattle can.  I checked the tubes I have and there's no mention of temperature other than an advisory that lower temperatures result in a longer cure time.

Chuck

Looks good.  I started populating mine this evening.

Chuck

Weather improved and work slacked off a bit so I disassembled this one and painted the enclosure.  Looking at the old space ship Mongooses (Mongeese?) it looks like the came in either a magenta or purple and had a rough texture so I tried to replicate that.  The only magenta-ish paint I could find looked too much like pink so I grabbed the purple. Shot the primer and color from about double the recommended distance in very short bursts to give that cast aluminum grit then added the craft stamp labels and shot it with a couple coats of satin clear.  Here 'tis in living color:

Replaced the LED while I was at it so it fit the neatly beveled hole better. 

This one is done!

Chuck

Good stuff! That's a really nice looking little box of fun

I've seen a few amp build docs where they instruct to use a wirewheel around where jacks will be bolted down (on the inside, this is with chassis that are completely powdercoated/painted), to ensure good ground connection.

Alan,

I've painted a couple boxes inside and always scrubbed the area inside around the jacks with a sanding stick - little dicey trying to get a wire wheel inside an effect box.  This was different though.  I dropped everything loosely in the box then tried to tighten things up.  The board rests on the output jack just a little so it runs up hill from the pots to the jack.  I tightened the pots down first then tightened the jacks.  For some reason I forgot to use a tool on the output jack so it was just finger tight.  It felt firm but shifted when the cord was inserted making very slight intermittent contact with the bottom of the board. Of course, when you unplug everything and take it back to the bench to see WTF? is going on everything looks fine.

Chuck