Naughty Fish

[Mike]

Hey guys! This is my first post here. It's nice to see some familiar people.

This is my first build with a Madbean board. Actually, it is my first build with a commercial PCB-- I usually like to do my own layouts and etch my own boards.

I wanted this to be a special build, so I used premium parts, like fancy-pants sausage resistors (mojo parts of the future!) and a 1590TRPB, which gave me a bit of extra space. I used KK-style connectors for the volume pot and the LEDs, which made it easy to stuff in the box. The build was easy enough, without much difficulty.  I imagine it would be a bit more difficult in a 1590B, but probably not much.

There is a story behind this pedal. It is a tribute to my cat, who we had put down in December after 16 years. My brother originally adopted him in 1998, and named him Jerry Garcia. Our vet sent us a card, and inside the card was an inking of Jerry's paw. I decided to commemorate him by building a special pedal with an etch of his pawprint. The cat's name was Jerry Garcia, so I didn't have much of a choice but to build a Mu-tron III, something I have wanted to do since I first started building pedals back in 2009.

I present to you, the MEOW-TRON:




I have only played it for a little while, but it sounds great. I am most impressed by the nice, even release. My previous experiments with LDR-based filters always had a glitchy release. This one is nice and smooth.

Mike

[midwayfair]

Your pedal is MELTING!

[chordball]

That's a cool story and a great build. Well done!

[thesameage]

Really awesome!

[Mike]

Thanks.

I think I am going to polish the enclosure, and then flood the etch with some paint to add more contrast. Gonna keep it black and white, to match my kitty (Jerry is the bottom one).

My wife (who plays bass) is really happy that I did it.

[Luke51411]

What a great way to remember a furry friend. They really do become part of the family. Very cool build as well!

[thesameage]

Has your wife played it on bass yet?

[selfdestroyer]

Super awesome enclosure. Great looking etch also.

Cody

[Mike]

Has your wife played it on bass yet?

Nope, I finished it up after she went to bed, and we won't have a chance to play until tonight. I'm sure she will want to try it.

[thesameage]

Report back, please!

[playpunk]

I love every single thing about this!

[bcalla]

Great pedal, and a nice story behind it.

[Mike]

OK, got to play it tonight on both guitar and bass. On guitar, it is everything you would expect. Since you asked about bass...

We used a Fender P Bass Jr, which is an MiM P bass in every way, but with a 29.6" scale. The amp was a Rumble 150 (I think, maybe it's a 100... it's big and loud). The most usable setting was LP, up, LO. In HP and BP, the signal was really thin. HP was particularly not good. BP had some effect, but I can't imagine it is usable without a clean blend. There were some interesting sounds to be had with the down option, but we both liked up much better. I couldn't find any usable sounds with the range set to HI, except in the LP mode.

Obviously, this is a sensitive effect that needs to be setup for each instrument. I think it is even more touchy with bass than with guitar. I built it for guitar, though, so I'm completely happy.

Mike

[Stomptown]

Awesome! Very creative use of the enclosure and nice etch to boot!

[cooder]

Very nice and cool build, fantastic!