Show us your BIG effects

[Taylor]

I see a lot of guys around here squeezing tons of stuff into tiny little boxes, and I am amazed at the skill it takes to do this. I really admire those of you who have the know-how to redesign layouts, use SMT components, have every resistor on end packed shoulder to shoulder, doing double-sided boards, etc. Excellent stuff.

And yet, the end result is this tiny little box, which, although neat, just isn't my favored aesthetic. I can see the use in small pedals when you have a board with 20+ effects, but I really only have a use for a few, so a couple of big enclosures with tons of knobs work better for me, and I just like the way they look.

So I want to see your big boxes. Multi-effects, souped up, knob covered monstrosities, unnecessary big empty boxes, whatever. But it must be big and imposing.

My first entry is a Ring Stinger clone.



Measures 9x7x3. I am currently working on a huge analog pitch shifter/guitar synth sort of thing, which will be much bigger, but no pics of that yet.

[npx]

I don't have any abnormally large builds to share, and sorry for being off topic but I have to ask - what's with the whole tone fret spacing on that fretboard???

[Taylor]

Actually, it's quartertones on the lower half of the neck and regular old semitones up from there. A whole tone neck would be rather limiting. I suppose if I was in some sort of Debussy cover band it might fly.  This neck lets me play horrible out of tune quartertone stuff and Paula Abdul tunes.

More seriously, I like Middle Eastern music, so that's what the quartertones are for. I can't say I've learned to use them that well at this point, but I'm trying.

[Auke Haarsma]

still work in progress:





BIG enough? 14/15 effects, 2 effectsloops, and it already took my 2 years of my life
Size is (if I recall correclty) 35cm deep, 55cm wide, 5 cm at the front going up to 10 cm height at back.

More pics and 'stories': see the link in my sig 

[MarcoMike]

ok... after seeing this one I just deleted my post...

[iaresee]

Actually, it's quartertones on the lower half of the neck and regular old semitones up from there. A whole tone neck would be rather limiting. I suppose if I was in some sort of Debussy cover band it might fly.  This neck lets me play horrible out of tune quartertone stuff and Paula Abdul tunes.

More seriously, I like Middle Eastern music, so that's what the quartertones are for. I can't say I've learned to use them that well at this point, but I'm trying.

That is pretty darn cool. Is it an aftermarket neck or did you buy a guitar with that setup? I kind of want to try that. I dabbled in a little in raaga-type music -- I've always loved the 1/4 tone sound and microbends creep into my playing. The musical notation used for it (srawri lipi...is that what it was called...I can't remember now) was very interesting. Bar underneath for flat, line above for sharp -- no real need to express the octave of the notes. It seemed like an incredibly compact way to pack in a dense amount of information. I sure can't read it, but I liked the idea!

[Taylor]

ok... after seeing this one I just deleted my post...

No no, please post it. Most people's biggest stuff is not going to be as big as Auke's - look at mine: not even close. I still want to see anything bigger than we usually see.

That is pretty darn cool. Is it an aftermarket neck or did you buy a guitar with that setup? I kind of want to try that. I dabbled in a little in raaga-type music -- I've always loved the 1/4 tone sound and microbends creep into my playing. The musical notation used for it (srawri lipi...is that what it was called...I can't remember now) was very interesting. Bar underneath for flat, line above for sharp -- no real need to express the octave of the notes. It seemed like an incredibly compact way to pack in a dense amount of information. I sure can't read it, but I liked the idea!

It's a custom bass. It's an 8-string (4 strings doubled in octaves, like a 12-string guitar) but I have the octave strings off right now. It also has a sustainer pickup and Hipshot detuners for all 8 strings. I've had it about 6 months, but I really haven't mastered all that it's capable of.

[Xelent]

Is the nut built in such a way that the octave pairs are closer together than typical bass strings, or is each string spaced evenly?

[Taylor]

The pairs are close together, just as in a 12-string guitar. The trick is that I don't tune the pairs to octaves, so I can get crazy 8-note bebop chords if I want to, and using the detuners I can change the interval between pairs with a flick of a switch.

Now back to big metal (and wood) boxes...

[daverdave]

I see a lot of guys around here squeezing tons of stuff into tiny little boxes, and I am amazed at the skill it takes to do this. I really admire those of you who have the know-how to redesign layouts, use SMT components, have every resistor on end packed shoulder to shoulder, doing double-sided boards, etc. Excellent stuff.

And yet, the end result is this tiny little box, which, although neat, just isn't my favored aesthetic. I can see the use in small pedals when you have a board with 20+ effects, but I really only have a use for a few, so a couple of big enclosures with tons of knobs work better for me, and I just like the way they look.

So I want to see your big boxes. Multi-effects, souped up, knob covered monstrosities, unnecessary big empty boxes, whatever. But it must be big and imposing.

My first entry is a Ring Stinger clone.



Measures 9x7x3. I am currently working on a huge analog pitch shifter/guitar synth sort of thing, which will be much bigger, but no pics of that yet.

Wow, where do you get those enclosures from?

[Taylor]

Mouser. Made by LMB/Heeger. Hammond also has a nice line of slope-front boxes. I like them alot; easier to drill than the cast ones, and they look a lot nicer unpainted (my paint skills are pretty lacking at the moment).

[daverdave]

Cool, cheers. I'll have a look at them, they look really great.

[cloudscapes]

this is my biggest thus far, but the one under it I'm lookign to build over the next few months in one of those large sloped-front boxes.

[caress]

etienne, you should really think about building yourself a modular synth...  i'm just about to embark upon my first!   

[Taylor]

Wow, excellent stuff as always, cloudscapes. Your sequencer trem is very cool, and actually quite small considering the functionality and knob count.

Is your Drone Box going to be a stand-alone synth, or is there an input?

[Derringer]

Mouser. Made by LMB/Heeger. Hammond also has a nice line of slope-front boxes. I like them alot; easier to drill than the cast ones, and they look a lot nicer unpainted (my paint skills are pretty lacking at the moment).

got a part number or link by chance ?

[sjaltenb]

Work in Progress. Almost done, thread about it can be seen here:
http://www.diystompboxes.com/smfforum/index.php?topic=70440.0

[Taylor]

sjaltenb, I have watched yours and found it very interesting. I really like seeing the multi-effects that people are making (Auke's above is great, too) because it's really cool when your gear is made just right for your personal needs. The more you can customize, the more your musical tools fit your purpose as opposed to the genericized one-size-fits-all approach that is necessary in big companies, since they need to make a product that is non-offensive to many, as opposed to perfect for one.

This is what's cool about DIY effects in general, but I like the multis especially because it's cool to me when I see people who have it "figured out". On that note, those of you doing multis, have you had any problems with your tastes/needs changing in the middle of the project? Have you had to abandon ideas or get stuck with anything you no longer think is a good idea?

[Taylor]

I'll post this on behalf of Mark Hammer since I've always really liked it:



Although I am actually a bit of party-pooper in that I don't use many effects, I would love to have a huge modular box like this at some point.

[cloudscapes]

Wow, excellent stuff as always, cloudscapes. Your sequencer trem is very cool, and actually quite small considering the functionality and knob count.

Is your Drone Box going to be a stand-alone synth, or is there an input?

hey thanks! I usually want to leep things super small and packed because I usually have to walk to gigs/jams with my gear on my back. smaller is better in this case.

definatelly standalone synth. I'm not yet smart enough to figure out input tracking or MIDI.

etienne, you should really think about building yourself a modular synth...  i'm just about to embark upon my first!   

I'm actually considering it! I've been looking into cheap/moderate modular cases and power supplies this year so that I can get started.