1590G Compressor build

[Drew Hallenbeck]

So I cheated a little and built this in a 1590B.
It's my second acid etched enclosure. I think I'm getting the hang of it.
This thing sounds great. Plenty of compression and can produce a good bit of boost too!
Pics:

[Stomptown]

Nice! I love the compressed "compressor" graphic and the standing 1/4 watt resistors are a nice touch. It's also nice to see how well the 1590G pot spacing works inside a 1590B. Well done! 

[blearyeyes]

Ahhh...Space! The final frontier...
Nice enclosure etch. I really have to try etching.
What is your secret?
Love to hear a demo!

[Drew Hallenbeck]

Ahhh...Space! The final frontier...
Nice enclosure etch. I really have to try etching.
What is your secret?
Love to hear a demo!

No real secret, just watched a bunch of tutorials and gave it a whirl.
I think I need to try a slightly lower temperature water bath and watch my timing. I ended up with some pitting where the toner mask didn't hold up. I was able to sand most of it back but I almost started losing the etch...

What I've done so far is:
Fine sand the enclosure and clean with acetone
Create graphic and print transfer (laser printer, glossy paper)
Iron the hell out of the transfer on the enclosure. (careful, the enclosure will get real hot real quick)
Soak in water to release the paper from the transfer
Tape off the sides of the enclosure with packing tape
Touch up any spots that need it with nail polish and/or industrial sharpie

I do a water bath for the etchant.
I use two cheapie plastic containers, put near-boiling water in the bottom of one and float the second one on top. I've used ferric chloride that you can find at Radio Shack for the etching.

I put the enclosure in the etchant and keep it moving around. Every couple minutes or so I'll rinse it off in running water to check the depth of the etch. I think I've gone for about a total of 15 minutes or so for the ones I've done so far.

Some of the tutorials I watched said to use heat and agitation to get good results with ferric chloride.
The etching process generates some heat anyway so next time I think I'll use slightly cooler water in the water bath.
Trial and error, I'm glad I did some research before I got started though. I can see where it would be pretty easy to ruin a bunch of boxes in the learning phase.

[Leevibe]

Awesome job!

It's also nice to see how well the 1590G pot spacing works inside a 1590B.

Good point. That spacing looks like it was made for this box.

[selfdestroyer]

Great job on the etch. Came out really clean.

Cody

[jtn191]

How do you like the compressor?? Thinking of building one too!

[Drew Hallenbeck]

Sounds killer!
Plenty of compression and capable of some nice boost as well.
I built this one for a friend but I'll definitely be ordering another board for myself.
I haven't used compression too much in the past. The last one I had was an MXR Super Comp. Decent enough but a bit noisy.
This thing on the other hand, nice and quiet and sounds fantastic.
Would probably be a lot of fun experimenting with placement in the signal chain.

[jtn191]

cool, traditionally they go front in the chain, for funk, country, slide, evening out rhythm parts.Sometimes doing the Phish\buddy guy solo thing. My other comps are a Engineers Thumb and zvex instant lofi. Havent tried optical comp pedals but like them for mixing!