The Bare facts, some sizing up

[Mark Hammer]

Steve Daniels was generous enough to send me a complete Bare Box kit for Chanukah.  Very nice!  Thanks again, Steve. 

Although Steve has provided lots of pics of the box, it can be hard to get a sense of what sort of real estate it provides, relative to other boxes.  So, I lined up a few of the common sizes and took some comparison shots.  There's a wee bit of fish-eye-ing from the webcam, but you get the general sense of things.

Here, I placed the Bar Box on top of a 1590BB, with a 125C beside it.  You can see that it sticks out a bit farther than both, but has essentially the same width as the 125C.



Here is a similar shot, but this time with a 125C and a 1590B (didn't have an unused one).  You can see how much longer the 125C is, compared to the 1590B, and that the Bare Box is a bit longer.



Of course, where the Bare Box pulls away from the pack is with respect to height.  Here are a couple of shots showing theheight, relative to other chassi types.  In the first shot, a 125C in the back, and 1590BB in front.



Here, we have a side shot of the Bare Box, relative to the 1590B and 125C.



Hope these images are helpful in planning out your projects.  I know it can sometimes be difficult to envision things, based on printed dimensions alone.  The box Steve sent has holes predrilled for the stompswitch and the in/out jacks.  You can see the holes for the jacks are fairly high up.  The overall extra height permits a wee bit of room between the jacks and the edge of the sloped part for a 2nd board underneath (well, above, actually) the main one.  Or, if you're very artful with a Dremel, you could actually mount a couple of these switches, that would not get hit by your foot, or interfere with knob tweaking.  Of course, if you could score some of those delicious low-profile toggles I see on Z-Vex pedals, the sloped front could accommodate 4 of those easily.

[haveyouseenhim]

Nice... Very informative. I've been wanting to try them but they seemed small but I guess they aren't. I have a Fl-301 begging to be put in a bear box.

[Mark Hammer]

Incidentally, although the bottom cover plate only part-way along the bottom, and the battery door covers the remainder, there is no reason why you HAVE to use a battery.  A bigger pad-per-hole or PCB could be used that extends the full length of the inside.  And if you were real clever with your layout, any trimpots or dipswitches you might have (or wish to include) could sit just under the battery door, making any fine adjustments a breeze.

Hmmmm, I was originally going to use the box to make an EQ pedal with one of the KA2223 chips I picked up the other week, but I have this MN3011 sitting aroud that Jeorge Tripps sent me 7 or 8 years ago.  Thinking about the optional real estate that comes with abandoning battery use has me wondering now....   Uh-oh, NOW I'm in trouble!