And then there was Muff

[matmosphere]

I finally conquered my white whale!!

This is my third attempt at building a muff, and the first on that actually works. My second build (attempt) was a Dice Works Muff Diver that I could never get working. I also tried to build a different muff on vero more recently, but for whatever reason I could never get either working.

I've never been a huge Big Muff fan. Most of the Muff's I've played were the more recent NYC version, and I could never get into them. I am however a big Dinosaur Jr. fan so I've alway figured there has to be something to them.

This time I used the fantastic Notorious BIG board from Stomptown. It was a fun build and I really like the layout. I tried to be as clean as I could with the wiring this time around. It's built to Violet Ram's Head specs and I'm really digging the sound so far.



The movie that I took the artwork from came out a year before the BMP, but it's such a great movie I couldn't resist. As usual (for me) the art is printed on the underside of a transparency and sprayed white, then put on the pedal and finished with a few coats of miniwax clear laquer. With a little prep you can get some really nice looking results.



I want to find better knobs for it, the ones I had originally picked out don't look right. I think the Russian BMP knobs would look pretty cool on it. Time to stop typing, all this talk of Big Muffs and knobs, I don't want people to get the wrong idea about this place 

[AntKnee]

Looks great. Sci fi girls are always cool in my book.
Im curious about your transparency technique. Do you print it backwards on the underside and spray white over it, then flip it to apply it to the pedal?

[diablochris6]

Very cool layout. That transparency trick is genius!

[Kartoffelkopf]

Nice build! Your method of applying the artwork looks great! Also, I've seen those knobs before, but didn't quite realize how big they actually were.

BTW If you're still interested in a Muff Diver, JMK's Scuba Muff is excellent.  I built mine using Triangle values and it's super versatile.

[bcalla]

That's beautiful!  Is the graphic from Barbarella?

[stringsthings]

Very nice!

[verr76]

really cool , both inside and out.

[culturejam]

That's a great looking build! The graphic application technique is really innovative.

[bluescage]

Good looking!

[kaycee]

Well done, that looks terrific!

[matmosphere]

Thanks guys, I'm very happy with how this one turned out.

Yeah Bob that's where the artwork came from. I love that movie. So weird, especially for when it was made.

Looks great. Sci fi girls are always cool in my book.
Im curious about your transparency technique. Do you print it backwards on the underside and spray white over it, then flip it to apply it to the pedal?

That's exactly how I do it. I always drill the enclosure first. After the white paint dries use spray adhesive to put the artwork on the enclosure and work out all the bubbles with a roller or a stiff card. Be careful, sometimes a little adhesive will work it's way out the edge while you are getting the bubbles out. Just use a cloth with warm water on it to wipe it off. Then three or four coats of laquer. Once it's all dry cut out the holes for the switches and knobs with a shape hobby knife.

I used to do Envirotex. The result was great but I got tired of waiting for it to cure.

[Bret608]

Looks awesome! I got one of these PCBs last spring and just need time to populate it. I'm going violet Ram's Head as well. Just tweaking Jon's schem slightly to match Kit Rae's "#18" version.

That really is a novel technique of enclosure finishing! May try it sometime.

[hylandren]

As usual (for me) the art is printed on the underside of a transparency and sprayed white, then put on the pedal and finished with a few coats of miniwax clear laquer. With a little prep you can get some really nice looking results.

What a clever idea!
Mind sharing what brand/type of transparency you are using ?

[matmosphere]

What a clever idea!
Mind sharing what brand/type of transparency you are using ?

Thanks, it has worked well so far. Can't remember where I got the idea, but I'm pretty sure I can't take credit for it. I feel like I read about it somewhere.

As far as brands I'm not sure. I always have them printed at an office supply store because their printer/copier is much nicer than mine.

When I started using the Miniwax lacquer i started to get much cleaner looking results.  I also prefer a flat white for the underside of the print. 

If you give it a try let me know how it goes.

[Justus]

Nice, I never thought about using anything other than a waterslide decal.  But if you're locking the artwork down with lacquer or EV anyway, why not just use a transparency?  Smart move, likely much easier to work with.