rwl
Well-known member
- Build Rating
This is a report on the Woodpecker Tremolo, based on the EQD Hummingbird. Since I only got into pedals and pedalbuilding this year, this was one of the first I heard about as an "unusual pedal" and tried in a local store, and part of my first order from PPCB. I thought the effect was fun and the simplicity of the board made the idea of building this less daunting.
Inspiration
Well the bird theme is easy here, right? I liked the original EQD hummingbird theme more than the PPCB woodpecker name, since the main conceit of the pedal is how fast the tremolo can go, sounding like hummingbird wings. Plus I think there's some other pedals where I'd rather have a woodpecker theme!
I chose a local hummingbird here in the Pacific Northwest, Anna's Hummingbird, latin name Calypte Anna. I went with the genus name for the pedal (Calypte Tremolo), though I'm not totally happy with the name. Anna's Hummingbird is semi-native in the PNW; they've been moving further north from California over the past few decades with climate change. Fittingly, Anna's Hummingbird is the fastest in the world.
These birds are extremely hardy. When I first moved out to the PNW from the east coast, I saw one of these sitting on a branch during snowfall and was worried for it. A hummingbird in the snow? But they're comfortably here year-round. We have a few feeders at our house to observe them. They're very aggressive and territorial. Not what you'd expect from such a small bird. They make a very high-pitched clicking kind of call that you can frequently hear when walking or hiking outside, and they'll perch on exposed branches, so they're pretty easy to see by silhouette. Surprisingly, I'd say they're among the 10 most common birds in our area. They have a bright pink throat patch, and the rest is a dark emerald color, although they'll often look faded and grey. It's always fun to see them.
The Build
This was the first time I bought a pedal and then realized I'd missed a part (but not the last) - the 2N6027 transistor, which I haven't seen in other pedals. I'd bought all my parts on Tayda and didn't want to have to place another order and pay shipping - but in the end I got it and a number of other parts from Mouser. This was back at the start of July... now it seems funny that having to get a part from Mouser felt exotic!
The next problem with the build was the enclosure. This was part of the second batch of UV prints I ordered, and I made two mistakes. First, I reused an earlier PSD file when designing the artwork and didn't update all the labels, so the print was wrong. Not the last time I've made that mistake, but now I try to update labels first when working on a new design, so I don't forget. Then, I drilled the pedal myself, but I didn't wet the drill bit and let it get too hot. Multiple holes were smoking as I drilled away
. This caused the UV print to crinkle at the top, near the DC jack (I also made this mistake on my Great Horned Fuzz pedal, but this was much worse). I just use a cheap Ryobi drill for drilling. Now I keep a little glass of water nearby, wetting the bit before starting each hole, alternating between enclosures to let them cool down, and sometimes dripping some extra water on the enclosure. I haven't had problems with this since, and I think this keeps the bits in better condition as well.
Luckily, the mislabel and the drilling problem were on the same enclosure so it wasn't a double waste, and anyway I wasn't super happy with the design - really my first "vector" style birds and I hadn't figured out how to make it look good. So I ended up doing some redesign and reprinted. You can see the two versions attached; the one with the hummingbird in profile is the older one, and you can also see the results of overheating the enclosure at the top. I kinda like having both; the first print was fairly amateurish and it's easy to see my art skills improve between the two. The old enclosure is currently housing a harmonic percolator.
In short, the build was messy due to some mistakes on my part, but I'm happy with the end result. The PCB itself is quite simple.
The Pedal
It's a tremolo pedal that can go really fast. I'm honestly not a big fan of tremolo, but this is cool. At the fastest rate it sounds less like tremolo and more like a unique distortion sound, which I really like... very different from other overdrive pedals!
That said, while it's currently sitting on my big pedalboard, it's probably not going to stay there permanently. Maybe I just need to play more with tremolo!
I'd recommend the pedal if you're looking for an easy circuit that has a fun unique sound. Probably the best bang for your buck in terms of build complexity vs weird effect that I've encountered (though if you have other suggestions I'm all ears!).
Firsts
Pedal rating: 4/5
Inspiration
Well the bird theme is easy here, right? I liked the original EQD hummingbird theme more than the PPCB woodpecker name, since the main conceit of the pedal is how fast the tremolo can go, sounding like hummingbird wings. Plus I think there's some other pedals where I'd rather have a woodpecker theme!
I chose a local hummingbird here in the Pacific Northwest, Anna's Hummingbird, latin name Calypte Anna. I went with the genus name for the pedal (Calypte Tremolo), though I'm not totally happy with the name. Anna's Hummingbird is semi-native in the PNW; they've been moving further north from California over the past few decades with climate change. Fittingly, Anna's Hummingbird is the fastest in the world.
These birds are extremely hardy. When I first moved out to the PNW from the east coast, I saw one of these sitting on a branch during snowfall and was worried for it. A hummingbird in the snow? But they're comfortably here year-round. We have a few feeders at our house to observe them. They're very aggressive and territorial. Not what you'd expect from such a small bird. They make a very high-pitched clicking kind of call that you can frequently hear when walking or hiking outside, and they'll perch on exposed branches, so they're pretty easy to see by silhouette. Surprisingly, I'd say they're among the 10 most common birds in our area. They have a bright pink throat patch, and the rest is a dark emerald color, although they'll often look faded and grey. It's always fun to see them.
The Build
This was the first time I bought a pedal and then realized I'd missed a part (but not the last) - the 2N6027 transistor, which I haven't seen in other pedals. I'd bought all my parts on Tayda and didn't want to have to place another order and pay shipping - but in the end I got it and a number of other parts from Mouser. This was back at the start of July... now it seems funny that having to get a part from Mouser felt exotic!
The next problem with the build was the enclosure. This was part of the second batch of UV prints I ordered, and I made two mistakes. First, I reused an earlier PSD file when designing the artwork and didn't update all the labels, so the print was wrong. Not the last time I've made that mistake, but now I try to update labels first when working on a new design, so I don't forget. Then, I drilled the pedal myself, but I didn't wet the drill bit and let it get too hot. Multiple holes were smoking as I drilled away
. This caused the UV print to crinkle at the top, near the DC jack (I also made this mistake on my Great Horned Fuzz pedal, but this was much worse). I just use a cheap Ryobi drill for drilling. Now I keep a little glass of water nearby, wetting the bit before starting each hole, alternating between enclosures to let them cool down, and sometimes dripping some extra water on the enclosure. I haven't had problems with this since, and I think this keeps the bits in better condition as well.Luckily, the mislabel and the drilling problem were on the same enclosure so it wasn't a double waste, and anyway I wasn't super happy with the design - really my first "vector" style birds and I hadn't figured out how to make it look good. So I ended up doing some redesign and reprinted. You can see the two versions attached; the one with the hummingbird in profile is the older one, and you can also see the results of overheating the enclosure at the top. I kinda like having both; the first print was fairly amateurish and it's easy to see my art skills improve between the two. The old enclosure is currently housing a harmonic percolator.
In short, the build was messy due to some mistakes on my part, but I'm happy with the end result. The PCB itself is quite simple.
The Pedal
It's a tremolo pedal that can go really fast. I'm honestly not a big fan of tremolo, but this is cool. At the fastest rate it sounds less like tremolo and more like a unique distortion sound, which I really like... very different from other overdrive pedals!
That said, while it's currently sitting on my big pedalboard, it's probably not going to stay there permanently. Maybe I just need to play more with tremolo!
I'd recommend the pedal if you're looking for an easy circuit that has a fun unique sound. Probably the best bang for your buck in terms of build complexity vs weird effect that I've encountered (though if you have other suggestions I'm all ears!).
Firsts
- First enclosure I had to print twice
- First tremolo pedal
- First Mouser order
Pedal rating: 4/5
