Chop Shop Overdrive (Second Build)

[STOBtheROB]

Build Rating

5.00 star(s)

Hey everybody. Completed my second non-kit build this past week and I'm very happy with the results this time. A friend of mine recently got a new job so I wanted to make him a congratulations gift. He's always liked Fairfield Circuitry pedals but already had a Shallow Water so I went with the Barbershop clone. I wanted to keep the vibe of a Fairfield so I opted to not sand or polish the aluminum, and I got knobs (Davies 1400 Knobs from Love My Switches) that are relatively close to the Fairfield knob. I also went with stamped ink with stamps I got from ContactCrafts.com, which was kind of close to the font Fairfield uses. After drying in the toaster oven for a few hours I applied clear coat on top of the ink. So if you were at a distance and squinting, you could maybe be fooled for a second into thinking this was a Fairfield pedal?

It's named the Bahbershop as my name is Bob so Bahb has become a nickname with this buddy of mine. I made myself one as well, and gave myself the slightly crappier looking one. My main mistake on the second pedal was accidentally drilling the LED hole too large so I had to use a washer to hold the LED in place, some of the stamped ink was also not as cleanly printed. The knobs also look great from head on, but I did notice they leave a lot of in-between the bottom of the knob and the enclosure. Overall, I'm happy with the look of both pedals, and VERY happy with the way they sound.

I'm still very new at this but I get the impression the Chop Shop is one of the most popular builds from PedalPCB and I can see why! Simple build that produces a great sound. Was very easy to bias. Would recommend to anyone!

How did I do? Anything I could do better? I'm green so any advice is welcome.

 

[Synchrony Pedalworks]

Great job!

 

[swelchy]

Great job...... next year we will razz you about all that extra wire you have. For now I'd say job well done! it looks awesome.

 

[Feral Feline]

What a great couple of pedals!

Fantastic gift, too.

I need a friend like you.

 

[STOBtheROB]

Great job...... next year we will razz you about all that extra wire you have. For now I'd say job well done! it looks awesome.

You're not wrong! I think I have a habit of assuming I'll mess up and leaving enough wire in case I need to de-solder and snip it. But as I get more confident I'll move away from that I'm sure.

What a great couple of pedals!

Fantastic gift, too.

I need a friend like you.

If I'm being honest I was probably going to make him this pedal either way, the job thing was just good timing for a gift.

 

[Feral Feline]

That just makes you an even better friend to have.

 

[GizzWizzKing]

Congrats to you and your friend! You definitely nailed the Fairfield aesthetic. I need to revisit this build. Mine adds something strange to the mids that I really don't like, but with how people talk about this drive pedal I wonder if I did something wrong.

My only (constructive?) criticism other than go a bit easier on the wire is to use a bit less solder for your pots and footswitch. You're looking for more of a volcano shape when you are done. Some of the solder bits look shiny and some do not which could be a trick of the lighting, but it could be an indicator that the iron needs to be hotter or you need to flow these points a bit longer.

One suggestion could be to color code your wiring. That just makes it easier to troubleshoot if something goes wrong. But I personally prefer what you did and using one or two colors.

Overall way cleaner than my early builds.

 

[owlexifry]

tbh, i can't talk, my first builds looked like utter shit, and still do.

anyway, this is excellent work. labels look great.

 

[swelchy]

I prefer one color for wiring because of aesthetics… I wire the entire PCB after populated with all wires a bit longer than needed before putting in enclosure…I trim and solder each wire to the switch… then I trim and wire dc jack… slip in the jacks and trim/wire the grounds at top of pcb… go back to the switch and wire in the input output lugs… trim wire and solder up the in and out on the jacks… The chop shop is one of my favorite builds for a drive…