Formula No. 5 on vero

[lincolnic]

With all the excellent builders around here, I figured someone needs to bring the quality level way down. That someone is me!

So here's my vero Formula No. 5, from the Tagboard layout. As always, I planned my wire lengths very carefully, and then somehow it mostly fell apart once the pedal took shape. I will say that the wiring you can't see -- the volume and tone pots, in the top row -- actually did work out exactly like I planned, which I feel good about. And the wiring to the 3PDT/hardware came out fairly neat (for me) as well. I'm mostly bothered by the length of the wires to the DPDT, and the wiper of the gain pot, but not bothered enough to go back and shorten them. My drill pattern ended up being pretty tight (the circuit barely clears the DPDT), so it was slightly tougher than expected to actually mount everything in the enclosure.

Aesthetically, I'm actually pretty pleased with how this came out. I was going to label the knobs, but I kind of like the vibe of those bare cupcakes. I feel like I might wreck it with my usual ham-fisted paint Sharpie approach. The enclosure is 18 Karat Gold from Pedal Parts Plus, which has a nice understated sparkle to it. I'm not usually big on sparkle finishes, but this one works for me. I actually took two pictures to try and capture it properly, but I'm not sure if it's coming out on either. The first (no flash) is from my phone, and the second (flash) is with my actual camera to try and get the detail in the finish.







As for how it sounds (is anyone still reading this?), I'm very pleased. Let's just say I probably annoyed my neighbors with how long I was playing "Cinnamon Girl". The extra gain toggle turns it into a fuzzy monster, and if I were building this again, I'd probably put it on a footswitch instead of the toggle so it could be used like a solo boost.

I can't tell you how impressive the touch response is on this pedal -- even with the gain cranked up, if I played softly, it cleaned up. If I dug in, it sang. It really feels like an amp that way. The only other Catalinbread pedal I've played so far is the Dirty Little Secret, which was also pretty responsive, but I think the Formula No. 5 might cover a wider dynamic range.

If anyone's thinking about building one of these, I highly recommend it.

[wgc]

Nice job!

[midwayfair]

mmm, unlabeled cupcaaaaake gggglllisdfoibakf.

[nzCdog]

I'm not usually big on sparkle finishes, but this one works for me.

Nice job dude

[jimilee]

ooks great. Lots of dead space in the rear, going to put a battery in there?

[lincolnic]

Thanks guys! I know I don't post a ton of build reports, but the feedback is always nice. I've got a couple more coming in the (hopefully) not-too-distant future.

ooks great. Lots of dead space in the rear, going to put a battery in there?

Nah, I haven't put a battery in a pedal since 2010. I was actually using the drill template from the old Grapevine build doc, since it had the same number of pots and switches (and also because I'm lazy). If I were designing my own drill layout, I'd probably move all the hardware down half an inch or so...and lower the toggle a bit too.

mmm, unlabeled cupcaaaaake gggglllisdfoibakf.

I almost bought some cupcakes today. The knobs may or may not have been an influence on this decision.

[rullywowr]

Looks great!  Reminds me of a WWI field radio. I dig.

[lincolnic]

Looks great!  Reminds me of a WWI field radio. I dig.

Now that's a compliment! Thanks, Ben.