Self-etched Cavedweller and Bass BB

[greysun]

I already posted a couple pics of the Cavedweller in general questions, so I'll do the bass bb first...





I could never find a good bass distortion or overdrive. A Chicago band I liked called Oh My God used an old Rat pedal, but that wasn't working for me. I always thought dinosaur jr did a great job with bass OD, and I finally saw that Lou was using a bass BB. Done.

I had almost all the parts on-hand, and used a schematic I found online to get a board into Eagle (its the same one that a British company uses to make their own clone board). This was a HARD circuit to layout. I ended up using 1 jumper, but figured out while soldering I probably could have avoided it by making the board maybe 1/8" longer. Oh well. AND, if I'd really wanted, I could have board mounted 9mm pots in the current design, but didn't have them in the right specs, so this'll do. I also used up 2 very large .1u caps I'm desperately trying to use that wouldn't be used otherwise.

Not my cleanest switch wiring, but it works, so I'm good.

As for the Cavedweller, I wanted to make something my voice/guitar mentor could use in his classes - he teaches Floyd, Radiohead, rockabilly, so it made sense. (He loved it, btw, and was touched - goal achieved). I etched this one because, as I said earlier, these .1u caps need to go and the only way is to make my own boards. I also wanted practice using press-n-peel for a switch circuit I designed.





As for press-n-peel: it works, but it's not foolproof. Patience, a good printer, the ability to course correct and a good permanent marker are key factors to success. I think the etched boards turned out pretty good, and this was way easier for me than the photo-resist method. Once the boards were ironed on, I just filled in the blank spots with 2 layers of permanent marker, then etched with ferric chloride (I had this from when I etched some boards in 2013. I didn't think it would last this long, but etching only took about 6min).

Of course, etching boards isn't something I'm super into, so hopefully I only do it for my switch, run out of materials, and never worry about it again, hehe. Here's the boards:





There you have it! Good times.

[alanp]

I'm loving the mojo caps

[diablochris6]

I really like the enclosure and knob color combo on the bass bb. Looking sharp!