3 Build January (Giant Hogweed, Supernature, Lizard King)

[Timko]

Before my sabbatical from building, I populated 5 or so boards.  2 of them were the Lovetone Flange, which I finished on Christmas Eve.  I knew finishing that pedal would lead me back into building, and I was right.  This month I finished 3 (!!!) builds I've wanted to complete for a year.

#1 - Giant Hogweed No. 3

A couple of years ago I shared a story on how I was asked to build a pedal for Mick Thompson of Slipknot.  I decided to build him something that was totally destructive in it's sound and opted for a Giant Hogweed.  He loved the pedal, but found his style of guitar playing (single volume knob, active pickups) had way too much output for the pedal.  He couldn't get the signal to clean up in the slightest without turning his volume down to 2.  So after some great help from Hogweed designer David Rolo, I was able to implement a bias control.  It doesn't get clean per say, but it cleans up a lot more than the original did.  The artwork is the same as the other two I've built.




#2 - Supernature No. 2

When Grind Customs FX released the Supernature, I bought a couple of boards.  I really enjoyed this fuzz and how well it interacted with other pedals on my board (it's way less temperamental than a Fuzz Face due to the silicon transistors).  I'm running a charity disc golf event this weekend called Ice Bowl, and thought this would be a cool prize to give away.  The artwork is pretty psychedelic and features a reverse etch, which I'm a big fan of.




#3 - Lizard King

Brenja sent me this board, which is based on the T-Rex Gristle King a while back.  I've been more into boosts lately after purchasing a 1963 Blonde Tremolux this summer (clean boosts in effect just turn the volume on the amp up), but so far I've been pleasantly surprised by how organic the overdrive from this thing sounds.  Plus, the fact that it also has a clean boost effect that can be put before or after the overdrive makes it a winner in my book.  The artwork is (again) a reserve etch.  However, the text didn't turn out as readable as I had hoped. 




That's probably it for me until the end of February.  I have long had a clean boost and a treble boost on my board (they were the 2nd and 4th pedals I ever built based on Joe Gore's Tonefiend builds) and want to do a layout with both effects in a 1590BB.  I'm also going to explore some of the variations in clean boost (like ROG's Tonemender) as well as some treble boost mods (maybe a Darlington) until I settle on a topology.  If anyone has some good boost circuits to look at please let me know .

[alanp]

Phwoar.

[Leevibe]

Great builds. I REALLY like the paisley etch on the Supernature.

[Marshall Arts]

Keeley Katana.

[cooder]

Awesome builds, very cool etches!

[mjg]

Those reverse etches really came out good. 

[selfdestroyer]

Love them etches! That Supernature looks fantastic.