Multiplex with modulation (and plenty of it!)

[soldersqueeze]

 Maybe I don't fully understand the subtleties of adding modulation to the multiplex, but here is my attempt (finished yesterday, so unless March's build contest is a 1590A special I'll probably enter it)




Lots of knobs, lots of awesome! Modulation comes from a pork barrel running at 15v via a road rage, and a current lover running at 9v. The CL is built using MN3007 and was also running at 15v, but when boxed up with the delay, chorus and all that daisy chained power I just couldn't dial out a whining noise. Still sounds incredible at 9v.

Guts are pretty gosh darned neat for such a complex pedal, but all credit for that goes to 1776 FX and Madbean, not me. As always huge thanks to the guys.




This pedal sounds unbelievable. The multiplex is exactly as superb as everyone says. If you haven't built one yet, you owe it to yourself, and you owe it to the pedal to include the variable ramp speed mod. The pork barrel is the best sounding pedal I own, period.
As for the current lover, I spent a fair amount of time tweaking it, and it was in and out of the box 4 times while trying to hunt down the noise gremlins I was getting at 15v. I tried moving the road rage to 3 different locations with 3 different ICs, and still no joy. As stated above though, it still sounds truly excellent. I have the trimpots set so it is more of a chorus/ vibrato/ flanger than a straight flanger. It only goes WHOOOSH at high settings, and as such I find it much more useable. Love it. Set like this the output is slightly low however, reaching unity at almost full whack. I can live with that though.

My plan is to downsize and replace my entire board with matching pedals of this rough design. It's going really well- at the moment my rig is just TWO PEDALS!!!?? Blasphemy!!



TS -> Rat -> Muff -> Electric Mistress -> CE2  -> Multiplex

A pretty sexy board, slimmed down both in size and cost when compared to the "real thing".

Thanks again to everyone on the forum, this wouldn't be possible without you  

[dfine22]

WoW, those are great builds. Truly!

[Hangingmonkey]

Beautifull, how did you do the artwork?

[soldersqueeze]

Beautifull, how did you do the artwork?

Thanks, I freehanded it using POSCA paint pens, and the boxes are the Hammond black powder coat series. I used Plasti-Cote brand clear coat which I don't think is very durable, but time will tell I guess. I like doing designs like this freehand, although it is pretty tricky staying relaxed enough to do it. As soon as I start thinking "this looks good, hope I don't f**k it up..." or "better start concentrating..." it normally goes wrong. And try not to wobble when going over it the second time when the colour is a bit dull 

[nzCdog]

Dude.  Those are fully awesome builds!  Tidy, clever and love your artwork... really love it

[Hangingmonkey]

Cool, my wife is good at drawing stuff like that, ill get her to draw on my next one.
Does spraying the lacquer risk making the paint run?

[soldersqueeze]

Cool, my wife is good at drawing stuff like that, ill get her to draw on my next one.
Does spraying the lacquer risk making the paint run?

The POSCA pens are water based, so bleeding is a risk if you use the "wrong" lacquer (but I don't really know much about that), and it'll surely run if you spray it on too thick. I used the plasti-cote stuff because I have used it before and I had a feeling it would work because it's quite tacky, but it's not very hard wearing so I would hesitate to recommend it. I think a very light first coat helps to secure the ink, before slightly heavier coats (but always so light there's no risk of a run or drop forming).
You could consider oil based paint pens if you have a preferred clear coat which will kill water based ink. Sharpie make some oil based pens* I want to try out but never have. Buying a set of these things isn't cheap!

*EDIT: all reviews say these pens suck hard. I revoke my recommendation of Sharpies!

[gtr2]

Holy Rip!

Nice work!!!! 

Josh

[soldersqueeze]

Holy Rip!

Nice work!!!! 

Josh

You see, Josh? This is what happens when you take too long to release the modulation PCB!!

Seriously though, you the man- the Multiplex slays.

[gtr2]

lol 

[pickdropper]

That is just a beautiful build.  I love everything about it.

[rollo greb]

Wow! That's impressive. Interestingly enough I recently finished something similar, a pork barrel and current lover in one box both at 15V. I had the same noise issues with the current lover, and narrowed it down to heterodyning issues due to the road rage's charge pump. I built a little 15V regulator board and used the 24V power supply from my deluxe memory man and it solved the issue.

[atreidesheir]

Be careful playing live.
I looked at your enclosure, the room was spinning, I awoke on the floor.  I was OP'd - - overpaisleyed.
my respect for that build.  brilliant.

[jimilee]

Super frikkin awesome is what that is. I'm not sure what I will enter to compete against that,it may not be as whiz bang but I can make it colorful. Nicely done!

[midwayfair]

Beautiful enclosures ... super clean on the inside, too. They look like they make a great pair!