Caesar Chorus

[jhaneyzz]

I built this for a friend of my son's.

I thought I didn't like choruses but luckily I bought an extra board because this thing is awesome.

The Blend and Lag knobs just take this pedal in to a whole other territory of fun.

I haven't figured out what the internal trimmer is trimming but it behaves best right about 12:00.

Don't worry, my version will have marbles...

 

[MichaelW]

Lovely build, the internal trimmer is for biasing the BBD's. If you have chorusing sounds at 12 then consider yourself fortunate!
This particular chorus has a very small range on the trimmer where you get chorusing. You might want to slightly fiddle with it left and right and see if you get stronger chorusing.

 

[Erik S]

Looks incredible as usual! I’m a big fan of the vibrato mode on the Caesar with the blend turned all the way up.

Have you posted here about your etching process? I’ve been etching some little nameplates, but I haven’t tried an enclosure. I’d love to know what you’re using for etchant/ resist, and what you’re using to get the dark contrast. Whatever you’re doing, you’re getting great results.

 

[SYLV9ST9R]

Looks awesome!

 

[jhaneyzz]

Looks incredible as usual! I’m a big fan of the vibrato mode on the Caesar with the blend turned all the way up.

Have you posted here about your etching process? I’ve been etching some little nameplates, but I haven’t tried an enclosure. I’d love to know what you’re using for etchant/ resist, and what you’re using to get the dark contrast. Whatever you’re doing, you’re getting great results.

biggest tip: Caustic Soda!
I can't express how much happier I am with caustic soda etching over the other options.

I pretty much follow the instructions here but I use toner transfer paper rather than glossy photo paper.

How I Do Etching

This is how I etch pedal enclosures; Step 1: The enclosure will look something like this to begin with; Note: I have found that the Eddystone line of Hammond enclosures are better for etching and...

diy-guitar-effects.tumblr.com

There are two key things that allow me to get more contrast

Shiny enclosures
I do a LOT of sanding before I etch to get the enclosure super shiny.
I pony up for the more expensive "Pro" enclosures from Stomp Box Parts

AVOID the crappy, pitted ones from Tayda which are fine for painting but are kind of ridiculously impractical for etching in my opinion.

Tinting the etch.
As a final step, I fill the etch with black lacquer gooby with the lacquer crayon in the photo below. I sometimes let it dry overnight, then using 7000 grit sandpaper to reveal the hilights while trying to keep as much as possible in the etched parts.

It's even more time consuming and brutally annoying than it sounds...

Always happy to share help out if you want more thoughts.

 

[jhaneyzz]

Lovely build, the internal trimmer is for biasing the BBD's. If you have chorusing sounds at 12 then consider yourself fortunate!
This particular chorus has a very small range on the trimmer where you get chorusing. You might want to slightly fiddle with it left and right and see if you get stronger chorusing.

Thanks for the tip.

Now that I know, it's super easy to understand. You're right, I was just lucky that it was basically in the sweet spot the way I built it.

Made one minor tweak and sounds even better.

 

[u439857293874]

the detail in that etching *chef's kiss*

 

[jhaneyzz]

the detail in that etching *chef's kiss*

Thanks, makes me feel better about the absurd amount of time it takes...

This one was actually from the beta version of Adobe Firefly which is still pretty low res but it still works really well.

 

[eh là bas ma]

makes me feel better about the absurd amount of time it takes...

You can also think about the children of your children's children. Shouldn't you write some wise and enigmatic words inside the enclosure, for the future generations ?