Krankosaurus build - 2nd pedal

[Willybomb]

Gudday all, I had Haberdasher build me a Little Angel and a Krankosaurus PCB a while ago, and I've finally finished the Krankosaurus.

Again, it's a T-shirt transfer with a number of clearcoats that have been cut and polished.  I've changed the C1, and I was going to put in a switch to change the boost/dirt order but couldn't be bothered in the end.  I love the boost on this pedal (and there's so much volume too!) but the dirt is a little uninspiring...





Willy.

[DutchMF]

Those look awesome, man! I'm very interested to hear how the flanged enclosure works out, been thinkin' of using these but haven't gotten to it yet. Props for the great looking pedals, but we do need some gutshots..... 

Paul

[BRGPollen]

Willybomb

Nice work, I am wrapping up a Krankosaurous now too & feel like the distortion is a little "gainy."  I'm interested in what you feel about the little angel?

B

[Haberdasher]

Nice work Willy.  The graphics look great!  T-shirt transfers, eh?

[Willybomb]

I'm of the opinion that while the dirt works ok for rhythm work - and you can see I have it cranked flat out - it lacks a bit of something for solos on it's own.  It's entirely possible something is going to ground that shouldn't, which was a problem I had early on in the build with a couple of joined traces.  I haven't tried it at moderate bedroom levels yet so that might be part of the issue, but I also think it's a bit "flat".  In my build, I get most of the gain in the 3-to-5 area of the gain pot very suddenly.  I'm a bit dark on the fact that the dirt footswicth is lower than the boost switch.  Dunno how that happened - I measured 3 times, and drilled a pilot hole!  I think the big drill must have wandered.

It's ok, but not a patch on my Blackstar HT-Dual (which cost around 4x more all told), but I'm also open to the idea that there's something wrong with my build.  I'm going to AB it against my Berry GDI-21's "british" setting and see what I think.

As far as the Little Angel goes... it does what it's supposed to, but I actually have a AU$30 Livingstone chorus I brought from Aldi (a cheaparse supermarket chain in Australia) which looks like a rebadged Daphon pedal that I prefer the sound of.  That thing nails Message In A Bottle, and I think the LA is a little more subtle for the most part until you get to extremes of the pots.

Re:  Gutshots - no, you do not need to see those.  Lets just say you can' judge a book by it's cover.

Re:  Flanged enclosure - it was the only 1590bb in the local shop and I couldn't be bothered waiting for an internet order to arrive.  It's pretty handy if you want to screw it into your board...  What is funny is that I haven't cut/polished the topside of the flanges themselves!  Shows up more in the photos than real life.

I like the transfers although it needs a lot of patience when it comes to the application of the clearcoat (at least for me).  I'm trying to stick with the sort-of-boss-associated-pedal-colors to a degree, but I use a black base so I'm not buying a million different colours that only get used once.  The upside of the transfers is that as long as you get the edges lined up with the enclosure sides, the image looks to be part of the pedal itself, not a sticker or whatever

[eldanko]

These look outstanding! If you don't mind my asking, what's your method for getting the transfer to stick to the enclosure prior to clear coating? I always had problems with my transfers lifting during the clearcoat process, and eventually switched back to decals.  Printing looks so much better on the transfers though...

[Willybomb]

I'm not sure what the trick is with the transfers.  It took me around 5 goes to get the Krankosaurus to a decent finish for a couple of reasons.  FWIW, I used an enamel rattlecan, using the same brand and line of paint for undercoat, base, and clear.

1.  Ran the iron on the hottest setting without steam and burnt the greasepaper onto the transfer, more or less.  Back to square 1.
2.  Had a good effort with the transfer - minimum heat, no steam, but too much clearcoat in one go on top of a previous coat stuffed it - the transfer lifted and developed all sort of wrinkles.



Luckily it all came off with the use of a scraper, turps, and wet/dry sandpaper.  Following this effort I only did very light coats, but there's probably 5-6 of them if not more.  You can see a slight wrinkle above the dirt switch on the finished pedal but I'm living with that.

Just a note on the "gain" thing mentioned earlier.  I was running it off a 9.6 volt RC battery through the DC jack which I suspect was getting flat.  Using a fresh 9v cell internally makes it much better.  I'll have to try it on my 1spot at some stage.

[eldanko]

I know the look of that "wrinkled" picture all too well.

Someday I will get the courage to give those things another go.  Light coats are definitely important... but I still end up with the stupid things lifting at some point in the process.  Nevertheless, really great work here!

[jubal81]

I know the look of that "wrinkled" picture all too well.

Someday I will get the courage to give those things another go.  Light coats are definitely important... but I still end up with the stupid things lifting at some point in the process.  Nevertheless, really great work here!

The clear epoxy option might get along well with it.