Build Your Own Clone Message Board

The Analog Chorus was not just my first foray into pedal building, but also into electronics in general. Thankfully, I had the guidance of my brother to get me started (and then hooked on building). Works and sounds great!

Chose something simple for my second pedal, since it would be my first "unsupervised" build and I was terrified I wouldn't be able to problem-solve myself out of a mistake or a solder blunder. But it went without a hitch! (I made up for the simplicity of the circuit by waaay overcomplicating the enclosure design.)

AstroTone is the fake "brand" I made for my pedals.

I've been lurking here and love seeing everyone else's projects, so thought I'd post mine too!

They both look great! If the insides are half as tidy as the outsides, I'm sure you'll get years of usage out of them. (That being said, unless we see the insides, we're going to assume you just rehoused cheap Behringer pedals in fancy boxes! )

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Scott

My band, Austin Hollow

Yes, they look GREAT!! And, yes, without "gut shots", they're rehoused Behringers...

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“My favorite programming language is SOLDER” - Bob Pease (RIP)

My Website * My Musical Gear * My DIY Pedals: Pg.1 - Pg.2

I'm so much of a n00b that I had to google what a Behringer pedal is. Ha!

The chorus is a bit of a spaghetti-mess (I took the "cut each wire to be 3 inches" part in the instructions extremely literally for fear of making a mistake, not knowing any better that they can/should be shorter). But the trem is much neater since I've learned to wrangle the wiring a bit.

Thanks, though! I'm pretty happy with how they turned out.

Well done! They look great. The extra length won't hurt ya, but yep: now you know.

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Scott

My band, Austin Hollow

Well the insides make me feel a little better, geez man, those look phenomenal. Quite possibly the best first builds I’ve ever seen.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

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Pedal building is like the opposite of sex. All the fun stuff happens before you get in the box.

Great looking builds! I am fairly new to this as well and I am still struggling with the graphics part of the build. How, pray tell, were you able to manage white text and graphics on your tremolo pedal. I am having 'pedal graphics envy' right now!!

-=SteveO

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“To know, and not to do, is not to know”

Those AIN'T NO Behringers!! Them's BYOC kits....and well done, to boot!

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“My favorite programming language is SOLDER” - Bob Pease (RIP)

My Website * My Musical Gear * My DIY Pedals: Pg.1 - Pg.2

They look fantastic, well done

Dude, your graphics. Truly amazing. Insta-Star!

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Everyone likes sausage. Nobody wants to see how it's made.

Thanks, everyone! I'm such a beginner with electronics and pedals that I figured I should at least dress up the enclosures.



The whole thing was quite a process, but admittedly most of it was the painting and clear coating. The label itself is a vinyl decal printed with white ink that I ordered from a printing company. I was concerned that the white ink wouldn't be opaque enough and/or their equipment (which usually prints large wall or floor decals) would struggle with the fine lines on something this small, but it turned out pretty well, all things considered.

Applying the decal got a little tricky, since any surface imperfection left a small visible air bubble beneath the vinyl, and building up enough of a clear coat base to cover the glitter texture without introducing other small irregularities was a challenge. I'm a perfectionist, so this took several attempts to get (mostly) right. Eventually I had to concede and roll with it.

Another way I've seen people get the look of white graphics (without white printing or screenprinting) is by using opaque white waterslide decals. They reverse out their designs so that the lettering/lines are the bare white substrate, and they'll print a solid color (or pattern, etc.) to match the rest of the enclosure. Obviously that doesn't work with everything. For mine, with the spray paint gradient and glitter, that wasn't an option. I like to over-complicate things.

Thanks for the explanation and suggested options! Are you using a inkjet or laser printer, if I may ask? I have a color laser printer and have located white ink toner cartridges for a lot of printers but not mine. And the ones that I have found, I'd have to take a second out on my house to buy. Lol!
Again, thank you for the info!

-=SteveO

p.s. If you hang around this message room any, you are going to find a lot of very talented folks willing to work with us noobs. I even received some help and suggestions for a temperamental pedal I bought from StewMac!

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“To know, and not to do, is not to know”

I actually had this printed at a commercial printing company (Smartpress) for the white ink. They use a commercial HP Indigo digital press, so it's actually ink and not toner in that case (nerdy fun fact, it acts as a fifth color in a CMYK breakdown).

Do you have a design in mind with white on a dark background? I have some print production experience from my day job so I'd be happy to help problem-solve.

Otherwise, I have a really basic, utilitarian black-only laser printer at home that I used for the Chorus decal. I don't know much about printing white at home, although google says white toner cartridges for laser printers are becoming more widely available.

Thanks for the encouragement, too. I've been lurking around trying to absorb as much knowledge as I can! Excited to keep going.

If you want white images or text with waterslide decals you print at home, you need to use white paper, not clear. Which of course means you can't get any transparency. But in addition to being able to design with white, it allows colors to show up much better.

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Scott

My band, Austin Hollow

I've seen some really clever and nice-looking designs using that method! Definitely a viable way to go depending on your vision.

I don't have anything at the moment I need white text for. My last build I used the white water-slide paper and it came out okay, but on occasion I'd like just to have white text on a dark background. I'm currently working on a 'Silver Pony 2' that I have polished the enclosure but I'm not sure how transparent the decal will be once applied. I ordered some clear vinyl sticker paper that will hopefully do the trick. I have a little more polishing to do (some very fine scratches) and I will print and apply the vinyl sticker and see how it turns out. If it's not successful I'll rough up the surface and paint it silver. Thanks again for the info and will definitely reach out, if needed to pick your brain knowing you have some printing experience!

-=SteveO

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“To know, and not to do, is not to know”