Turkey Day SHOOTOUT Competition

[Jdansti]

Overdrive-mania!  Awesome etch!  My order of favorites is the same as yours. Great job!

BTW- 3:39 in the video, "Travis"!

[pakrat]

Really clean, inside and out. The board mounted pots and single board really make it nice n' neat in there. The etch and coloring both look great with a nice demo as well. Very cool pedal Travis

[Ronan]

What can I say...the entries just keep blowing me away... chugga chugga chugga chug.
Really good stuff being presented great work by all

[deadastronaut]

@pakrat: (frank)     are you insane?...you got all that in there, and have an incredible etch/paint job too....great work man!!!..

@beo: really nice build/design man...great etch graphics too..(the enchanter=monty python?).


i don't envy the judges that's for sure!..


good luck all of ya!!!..

[LucifersTrip]

nearing completion...I can almost relax....

[garcho]

Remote switching? 

[oldschoolanalog]

Hey Lucifer, Nice exhibit. Where is that?

[Govmnt_Lacky]

Is this one of those "Where is Waldo's pedal" kind of puzzles?  

[midwayfair]

^ You guys are all wrong. That's the ENCLOSURE. It's LT's first Fuzz/Reverb hybrid.

Nice entry, Beo! Can I ask where you got those little color-coded rings around your switches? I can't figure out what any of them are except The Enchanter, though.

[Vallhagen]

The paint is clear blue, so it is transparent. That's why you can still see the black under it.

Ah, i see. Very cool. I didnt even know that there existed such a product as transparent spray paint. Learning new stuff every day...

[Beo]

Nice entry, Beo! Can I ask where you got those little color-coded rings around your switches? I can't figure out what any of them are except The Enchanter, though.

Those rings are plastic screw washers that come with Raxxess Rack Screws. I widened the holes to fit around the toggle switch screws, hand painted with acrylic paint and clearcoated.


The enchanter image is definitely Monte Python. I was quite obsessed with the Psycho Drive. And I felt a little dirty including the Top Secret OD. (hints for what should be obvious)

The other skill I think I'm getting pretty good at is working images and fonts in Adobe Illustrator, to convert to black/white etching. Even greyscale images can be transformed into clean etching boundaries, with level of detail reduced for clean etchable designs. Vector graphics are fun to play with, to tailor the spacings in the design to be sure the FeCl doesn't eat through the detail. I searched for fonts that seemed well suited for these three concepts, and converted the characters to vector objects so that the characters could be spaced, sized and aligned better.

[pakrat]

Nice entry, Beo! Can I ask where you got those little color-coded rings around your switches? I can't figure out what any of them are except The Enchanter, though.

Those rings are plastic screw washers that come with Raxxess Rack Screws. I widened the holes to fit around the toggle switch screws, hand painted with acrylic paint and clearcoated.


The enchanter image is definitely Monte Python. I was quite obsessed with the Psycho Drive. And I felt a little dirty including the Top Secret OD. (hints for what should be obvious)

The other skill I think I'm getting pretty good at is working images and fonts in Adobe Illustrator, to convert to black/white etching. Even greyscale images can be transformed into clean etching boundaries, with level of detail reduced for clean etchable designs. Vector graphics are fun to play with, to tailor the spacings in the design to be sure the FeCl doesn't eat through the detail. I searched for fonts that seemed well suited for these three concepts, and converted the characters to vector objects so that the characters could be spaced, sized and aligned better.

Now THAT is resourceful!

[LucifersTrip]

@oldschoolanalog  - modern art gallery in LA
@Govmnt_Lacky - yes
@midwayfair - 50% yes

[LucifersTrip]

This one is dedicated to the vintage freaks, the analog nuts, the old school crazies and anyone who likes their effects mean & nasty...

As with my previous contest build, I wanted to create something like I've never seen before and something that is a complete piece of artwork, both inside and out.

You guys seem to enjoy the "process" and I did take pics along the way to help me out, so...
I came up with the concept shortly after the contest announcement and slowly developed a picture of it in my head during the week. I decided to build an original fuzz with massively asymmetrical clipping such that changing the orientation with a simple flip would give me a completely different tone. Then, to make things much more difficult, I decided to use as many vintage parts as possible...further, I decided to go completely over the top (why not, I painted the last pedal in real blood)...and build it true point to point (no perf, no standard turret-type layout) featuring "super mojo" parts that would make "standard mojo" look like child's play...and there was no better way to start than with power transistors!

I breadboarded and tweaked and tweaked for around 2 weeks or so. There were three problems. First, power transistors are not known for high gains. I measured close to 100 before I found ones with usable hfe's.  Secondly, the monster transistors were a bit too large to easily fit on my breadboard, so they had to be attached via alligator clips off board, floating....and lastly, getting a killer tone with the asymmetric clipping in both positions. It wasn't too difficult to get one position to sound great and it would've been easy to come up with two completely different diode configurations, but I wanted to do a simple flip. Figuring out how to do that and keep the volume similar in both directions with no other alterations turned out to be tough.

One of numerous scraps of notes

Almost one month gone (finished) and the next big challenge begins...Pull all the parts off the breadboard and find near-exact equivalents in "super mojo" parts. I purposefully designed the circuit with as many common values as possible knowing that this was next.

After another 3 - 4 weeks, I was able to salvage almost all the parts I needed. I ripped apart loads of vintage electronics, scoured hamfests, antique radio swap meets and found some in bins of stuff I already had. A big difficulty was finding very close values. After I spent weeks on the breadboard getting this thing to kill, I didn't want to sub a 100K modern with a 91K from the 1950's...the goal was 2%.

========================
Anyway, here're some pics of the cast of characters:

Parts 1

1) 1960's Aerovox axial lead oil capacitors
2) 1960's Kemet axial lead capacitors
3) 1950's 1/2 watt, 1 watt and 2 watt resistors

Parts 2

4) 1960's Blue Molded axial lead capacitor. These are famous & sought after replacements for vintage Fender amps. I actually pulled these from a destroyed vintage Lowrey organ
5) A Japanese Koaohm 2 watt hollow body resistor from the 1950's. These were commonly found in antique radios.
6) Military glass case 1% resistors from the 1960's. These were used at the Philco plant
7) 1960's CGW resistor, also used at the Philco plant

Parts 3

8) A pair of vintage 1960's Alan Bradley pots. The left one has an on/off switch which I actually used in the pedal for power instead of a stereo input jack. Pulled from old ham radio.
9) Monster size vintage jewel from the 1960's or 1970's. Pulled from old communications device
10) Vintage 1960's light holder (similar to ones used in vintage Fender amps) with vintage 6 volt bulb, also from the 1960's. Pulled from unknown military device.
11) Monster size 1960's heavy duty DPDT switch pulled from military communications device
12) Vintage 1970's or 1980's phenolic jacks from local company that went out of business in the 80's. These are heavier duty than the equivalent Switchcrafts
13) Vintage 1950's large glass case germanium diodes

Parts 4

14) Vintage 1970's (???) power transistor sockets
15) 1960's General electric axial lead capacitor, not polarized!

Parts 5

16) vintage 1970's or early 80's wire. I painted em gray and left the sides white for an old splattered look, to match the speckled interior of the pedal.

Parts 6

17) Five-ply hardwood from the 1960's
18) Vintage 1960's or early 70's turret type strip
19) Screws pulled from 1960's power transistors

The transistors themselves are mostly in the 30 - 35 year-old range...and one only a couple decades old.

Comparison

20) A quick comparison of some of the breadboarded components and the mojo ones
========================

After much searching, I dug up a 1970's enclosure (5 3/4" X 4 " X 2 3/8") that housed some type of ham or military communications device. I ripped all the components out, which of course, left many unwanted holes on the front and back faces. I tracked down some 1960's five-ply wood (maple or birch?) and made new front and back faceplates....then attached them with screws and nuts pulled from power transistors in another vintage 1960's amplification device. This is the most amount of holes I had to drill for any single-effect pedal...24 holes total top & bottom! I painted it textured black with silver speckles.

Here's the top:



Then, I mounted the transistors and turret strips on either side and did a point to point with those monsters, trying to keep most parts visible so none of the beauty was lost. Any time bare wires crossed, vintage 1960's shrink tubing was used. The p2p was done over a period of a few days.  



For the bottom, as I wrote, I made new wooden facepates to cover the holes from the old components and painted those gray with silver speckles.  I mounted 2 more turret strips on either side and installed the 1950's germanium diodes. Here's the bottom with the jacks, switch, pots, light holder (with 27 ohm 2 watt limiting resistor) and solid metal knobs from the 70's (or possibly early 80's). The pots and switch fit to within 1/32 of an inch !





Then, I wired it with the wire that I painted to match the speckled interior. That particular wire was used since it's "softer" and more flexible than most and I knew that I had to wire between top and bottom:





For those daring enough to try this, in the tradition of keeping this completely old school, here's the custom, hand-drawn layout:



Schematic


And here's the final nightmare:













The vintage bulb was used for a couple reasons. Other than the obvious fact that I wanted a vintage mojo part in there, I also wanted to take advantage of the vents on the sides. A bright bulb in there creates a totally cool fanning out effect in the dark.

In the dark:


In the dark with special "night setting":


========================

The left knob is volume and the right is attack/fuzz/saturation/sustain. Like many of the vintage fuzzes (especially the 1.5V ones), I used a volume pot with an on/off switch, so I no longer needed a stereo input jack. The center switch flips the diode block to give two completely different tones: one is a fat, heavy, richer tone great for stoner, doom, etc....and the other is a dirty, mean and nasty tone great for 60's garage.  The fuzz knob goes from slight breakup & gating to full blown monstrosity.

Fender 2002 Mexican Strat , Fender Stage 112, Shure 57, Steve Kendus (guitar)

0:00 (clean / switch right, fuzz 100%)
1:09 (switch left, fuzz 0% / 33% / 66% / 100%)
4:00 (switch right, fuzz 0% / 33% / 66% / 100%)

I placed small temporary markers on the knobs so you can see em turn.

Play very loud:

Recap (a quick comparison between the two tones):

0:00 (setting 1, left)
0:57 (setting 2, right)

Deleted scene:
(guitar LT)

[defaced]

That's bitchin. 

[pakrat]

That is friggin' sick!

[slacker]

That's insane, sounds amazing, good work Sir.

[oldschoolanalog]

 
I knew you would come up with something different and unique but that's just off the charts!
The sound if Doom and Destruction. "Death Sound in a Box". 
A pedal truly fitting somebody called LucifersTrip. Just sick, sick, sick...
The old school style really rocks too. Great pedal & presentation.
Major props.

[Govmnt_Lacky]

ATTENTION ENTRANTS!!
If you are entered in the contest and your forum name is NOT on the following list, I need you to PM me with your forum name AND your given name.

Apparently, some of you did not provide your forum name to Aron when he requested it.

haveyouseenhim
Jdansti
Ronan
garcho
slacker
pakrat
midwayfair
Vallhagen
LucifersTrip
defaced
Beo
Mustachio
Perrow
samhay

Please reply by PM as soon as possible. We don't want ANYONE to get missed.

EDIT: As of now, I still have 3 people that are MIA!! A little over 48 hours left until submission deadline  

EDIT2: As of 21 November morning, I STILL have 1 person out there that I need a user name for. You know who you are! Come forth and report!!! 

[midwayfair]

         

LT, next time I think I went "out of my way" to find something, I will think of your entry and know that I have it easy.

Utterly unbelievable dedication and everything about it is first rate work.

I'm rooting for this one.

Edit: You also get points for the absolute freaking best teaser. Hiding it in the painting! Genius!