Latest pedal build

thermionic

Quite a few years ago, I built a fuzz pedal, a Devi Ever mad circuit on veroboard. I sprayed the enclosure with some metallic blue paint from Halfords, which turned out to be a bit of a nightmare - I’m pretty sure it was nitrocellulose and it took literally months to cure. I left it for a month and it was still so soft that I would leave fingerprints in it with gentle handling. On a whim, I named it after my favourite Super Furry Animals album, because Mwng means mane (or colloquially, a mop of unruly hair) and it seemed somehow appropriate.

I lost interest in the pedal relatively quickly but thought that the concept had great potential. I eventually learnt to paint enclosures better and create waterslide decals in Inkscape… the Mwng cover art would make a great graphic for a pedal. It was always going to be a fuzz pedal, so I settled on a Fuzzdog Peachy Fuzz as something different to the usual Muff or Fuzz Face. It struck me that I could use a song title for the tone control - Ysbeidiau Heulog means sunny spells, turning it clockwise makes things brighter! Then Nythod Cacwn (Wasps Nests) is the obvious one for the fuzz control. Finally I settled on Drygioni (mischief) for the volume control - turn it up to create more mischief!

The build didn’t go smoothly - it tested fine but of course didn’t work when I put everything together. The opamp input bias was at 6.7V, but 4.5V if I took the first opamp out of the socket. No idea why that was. A puff of smoke came out of a power supply diode when I was poking around for poor connections. I replaced the diode and somehow the bias was ok, but the tone control didn’t do anything. I reflowed as many solder connections as I could and it all works great now.

I did think after I finished that I could have requested an enclosure without a hole for the LED, and I could then place the LED at the top of the pipe for added effect… but I’m very happy with how it turned out.

ElectricXII

Nice. Which waterslide paper are you printing the graphics on?

thermionic

Clear laser printer decal paper from Gecko Paper. I never had any success with inkjet paper, it always smudged despite applying acrylic lacquer to seal it. The laser printer stuff doesn’t smudge but I had some problems with the black parts flaking off - I think this was because they recommend a glossy card setting and you end up with too much toner which doesn’t adhere well to the  paper. Setting it to normal paper worked better for me as I think less toner is applied. 

ElectricXII

thermionic said:

Clear laser printer decal paper from Gecko Paper. I never had any success with inkjet paper, it always smudged despite applying acrylic lacquer to seal it. The laser printer stuff doesn’t smudge but I had some problems with the black parts flaking off - I think this was because they recommend a glossy card setting and you end up with too much toner which doesn’t adhere well to the  paper. Setting it to normal paper worked better for me as I think less toner is applied. 

Good to know, thanks!

thermionic

I give it quite a few coats of lacquer after the decals have dried. It’s just Halfords Clear Gloss Acrylic Lacquer but it works well. I then fine sand it gently - not a perfect job because you can still just about see the lines at the edges of the decal. Finished off with polishing compound and Meguiars.

Decorativeed

Absolutely love this. Where can I get one? 

Also a big fan of SFA's Mwng album. Was glad to see them do Ymaelodi â'r Ymylon in Manchester the other night.

thermionic

I did actually make two of them, but the paint screwed up on one so I had to strip it and will be spraying the white in the back yard this morning. However, as Gruff, Bunf, and Guto liked my Instagram post I should offer one to the band!

Decorativeed

thermionic said:

I did actually make two of them, but the paint screwed up on one so I had to strip it and will be spraying the white in the back yard this morning. However, as Gruff, Bunf, and Guto liked my Instagram post I should offer one to the band!

That's cool. Regardless, I'll be happy with the #003 model. 

thermionic

No. 2 (out of a limited run of 2) has just rolled off the production line.

Decorativeed

Limited production line of three, right?

I'll be down in Cardiff in a few weeks. I could grab my pedal and treat you to a brew and banana bread at Hard Lines?

Relentless badgering aside, I think you've done a great job with these.

thermionic

I appreciate the positive comments, but they are a lot of work - the electronics is not too bad, but the troubleshooting, preparation, priming, painting and lacquering. You’re welcome to the sheet of 3 decals I have left over if you fancy building one yourself

Decorativeed

I'd love that, to be honest.

It'd be good to follow it up with another SFA pedal. Probably a phaser as that is as associated with their sound as fuzz. 

thermionic

There’s a relatively obscure track called “Frequency”, which would work for a phaser. Or I could make mic pre called Phantom Power.