Fat Pants 1590A & two trems (one mini) - busy boxing day :)

[midwayfair]

Waiting for the paint to dry on the enclosures for my modded Cave Dweller and Afterlife ... also got the chance to record a bunch of demos this weekend. I'll post a few after I've gone though them.

Here's the Fat Pants.


Really dig this thing. It's just so pristine sounding. I'd like to hear it in a band setting before deciding if I want to rock it on my board for a while, but it is a nice contrast to most boosts in that it never gets harsh or piercing in any setting. I also like that it's not a ridiculous amount of gain. Fitting it in a 1590A was really easy once I figured out that I can lay the low profile jacks on their sides. There was vertical space to spare. I made no mods to the circuit (rare for me). I can't imagine a way of improving it.

Not thrilled with the bordering, so I might touch it up later.

Sea Change Tremolo, based on the Runoff Groove Modified EA trem, yet another box for my buddy Keith (this was a trade for a partial retubing of my Imperial):


There's no volume drop in this design, so I moved the volume inside as a trim pot. My buddy Keith likes the symmetry knob on the Tremulus Lune, but prefers a simple sine wave tremolo, so I set out finding a way to to the same thing in a bias-modulated trem. It turns out that basically all speed knobs work similarly enough to the one in the Lune that you can do some asymmetry with just a pair of diodes and a pot to ground. I used a 1MB and two 1N914s. It's not perfect, but you can get some interesting waveform alterations and subtle loping/ramping, with the center of the knob being normal. I'm not sure there's another version of the circuit that has this control (though I'm aware of a certain famous green-blue box that has a waveform control!).

And for good measure, an almost-sock Runoff Groove Modified EA trem, shrunken to a 1590A.


I didn't have to do much shrinking, actually. Again turning the jacks sideways left tons of room, and the board in the Sea Change would have fit even with the 1uF box caps. But it's more fun to make it as small as possible. At one point I had the mosfet backward - turns out I had used a 2N7000 in the Sea Change and not a BS170 as here, so when I was just going off that for orienting the transistors, I didn't remember it was a different pinout. Alwayscheckthedatasheet.

Originally this box was going to be for Solderman's Little Red Rooster tremolo, but I didn't like that it took time to recover from a speed/depth change and that the lowest depth settings messed up the pedal. So I built and boxed this instead.

This was also the final piece of my planned all-DIY mini pedal board. I'll probably be saying goodbye to my Malekko Omicron soon and I see a trip to Ikea for a Gorm shelf in my future.

[whitebread47]

Busy boxing day, indeed!  I'm about to try to box my first 1590A (Orange Squeezer or CJ's Onesie), so I imagine it will be an interesting experience to say the least.  I really dig the demos you post and can't wait for the Fat Pants and Cave Dweller ones (two of my currently planned builds)!

Rock on.

[nzCdog]

Wow jon you have been churning these pedals out!  Nice work

[DutchMF]

Great looking builds!! The Fatpants is my favourite, love that paintjob!

Paul

[whitebread47]

Oh yeah, forgot to ask:  What kind of paint do you use on your enclosures, like testors, acrylic, etc.  I have an artist friend who is waiting on me to supply the paint and she'll decorate some enclosures for me, but I am trying to find the best option.  Also, do you clearcoat yours?

[midwayfair]

Thanks as always for the kind words, guys.

Oh yeah, forgot to ask:  What kind of paint do you use on your enclosures, like testors, acrylic, etc.  I have an artist friend who is waiting on me to supply the paint and she'll decorate some enclosures for me, but I am trying to find the best option.  Also, do you clearcoat yours?

I spraypaint and clearcoat (minwax water-based semi-gloss) most of them first, except the ones that are obviously powdercoats - those are from Pedal Parts Plus (great folks, their customer service is great and their powdercoating is second to none). The Fat Pants is sanded (600 grit) bare aluminum with a quick clearcoat (at least, I think I remembered to do that). The sanding gives it a weird mild patina effect but doesn't make it "polished shiny."

For the graphics, I use model (acetone based) acrylics from various manufacturers (modelmaster, timiya, and others). I picked up a bunch for half price from a going out of business sale and am dreading the day I need to buy more ... they are tough, but they are also expensive (on the order of $5 for a small bottle). Cheap acrylics rub off and don't bond well to the aluminum (though you can use them a little more successfully with a base coat or if you plan on putting a very heavy clearcoat on top).

I use minwax water-based clearcoat (about 3-4 layers) afterward, though on the bare enclosures like the Fat Bastard I've been using gloss clearcoat. There are any number of clearcoats you can use, just make sure they're compatible with your paints. The water-based is pretty safe. I think even Modge Podge will do with the right paints.

The black on most of my pedals is actually the bronze paint from Timiya. It's got very subtle gold flecking and looks really cool in person. I really like the mettalic colors because they tend to show up very well.

For an alternative viewpoint, there's a video on my youtube channel with the artist who does Luck Duck's enclosures. She used regular acrylics and does a lot of layers and a powdercoat glaze to prevent chipping.

[whitebread47]

Awesome, thanks for the thorough response!  I'll check out that video and discuss the options with my artist (not sure if she has painted onto aluminum before or not).  I can draw really well, but can't paint.  However, I'm starting to want to having a go at painting some enclosures myself (DIY does that I suppose).