EisengesisFX
Active member
- Build Rating
Skip the second section of the post to avoid my rant 
THE CONCEPT
Giallo pedal no. 2 for yours truly, this time themed after the titular 1973 film by Sergio Martino (his grip of early '70s gialli are a nearly-peerless run IMO). It's even more of a proto-slasher than its genre peers of the time, so I thought I'd add the "Harmonic Assassin" subtitle. Like the film and so many gialli, the Prunes & Custard is funky AND aggressive, so if the boot fits...
I also elected to name the controls in Italian because fuck it, why not?
THE BUILD
This was my second goaround with building this circuit. My first time was like six months ago. First, I fucked up the Fuzzdog version (Dirt Dessert) PCB during assembly and only the help of my much-aforementioned cousin's skills saved the day. Then I fucked up BOTH yellow 125Bs I'd ordered from Tayda at the time. No problem, I had a rando blank one my bandmate gave me. I proceeded to spray too much paint on too cold a day and the resulting texture, as well as some overdrilled holes, torpedoed the use of the graphic I'd done up. It's remained in its rather slapdash (but fully electronically functional) form on my home bass board. But dammit, I still yearned to execute my original idea.
Ordered Robert's version with my most recent batch. Circuit worked on the first time, but I had to prioritize a different build before doing up the enclosure. Enclosure comes out looking solid, but now the circuit is outputting nothing once it's inside. Took me hours of reflowing and testing over a couple nights to get it working today, only for the volume pot to expierence weird cutouts in the middle range of rotation. Guess whose dumb ass dripped solder between and thusly linked said pot's two legs?
The internal results are once again not my cleanest, but everything seems to be working just fine.
As with literally with every build of mine to date, the enclosure was designed in Photopea (wherein I rearranged elements of the original poster for the 125B form factor). The graphic was then printed to Maco transparency paper, mistcoated with Rustoleum clear gloss enamel, and underpainted with white to make the b&w photo pop, and applied to the enclosure. Finally, hella clearcoats and 48-hour curing.
Among other big lessons learned here, I really need to wear rubber gloves when applying decals. The fingerprints/schmutz are so easily left undiscovered until after the clearcoat cures.
THE PEDAL
I first fell in love with this circuit after scrolling through Fuzzdog's offerings some months ago, then finding the ancient Pedals and Effects video where Justin Meldal-Johnsen demonstrates his OG version. Like a ZVex Machine with more funk and touch sensitivity, the Prunes & Custard is hardly a ubiquitous tool, but for sounds that are funky, weird and aggressive all at once, this is a fun and--despite my chronicled ineptitude--not a particularly difficult circuit to make.
I'm also curious if @neiltheseal has further developed his idea to swap in a better dirt circuit, because I feel like there's gotta be something that can complement the wavefolder even better. The Nutty Fuzz is a different ballgame as far as I know, but what I love about that one is how you can tweak the fuzz's tone knob and the oscillator frequency to complement each other.
THE CONCEPT
Giallo pedal no. 2 for yours truly, this time themed after the titular 1973 film by Sergio Martino (his grip of early '70s gialli are a nearly-peerless run IMO). It's even more of a proto-slasher than its genre peers of the time, so I thought I'd add the "Harmonic Assassin" subtitle. Like the film and so many gialli, the Prunes & Custard is funky AND aggressive, so if the boot fits...
I also elected to name the controls in Italian because fuck it, why not?
THE BUILD
This was my second goaround with building this circuit. My first time was like six months ago. First, I fucked up the Fuzzdog version (Dirt Dessert) PCB during assembly and only the help of my much-aforementioned cousin's skills saved the day. Then I fucked up BOTH yellow 125Bs I'd ordered from Tayda at the time. No problem, I had a rando blank one my bandmate gave me. I proceeded to spray too much paint on too cold a day and the resulting texture, as well as some overdrilled holes, torpedoed the use of the graphic I'd done up. It's remained in its rather slapdash (but fully electronically functional) form on my home bass board. But dammit, I still yearned to execute my original idea.
Ordered Robert's version with my most recent batch. Circuit worked on the first time, but I had to prioritize a different build before doing up the enclosure. Enclosure comes out looking solid, but now the circuit is outputting nothing once it's inside. Took me hours of reflowing and testing over a couple nights to get it working today, only for the volume pot to expierence weird cutouts in the middle range of rotation. Guess whose dumb ass dripped solder between and thusly linked said pot's two legs?
The internal results are once again not my cleanest, but everything seems to be working just fine.
As with literally with every build of mine to date, the enclosure was designed in Photopea (wherein I rearranged elements of the original poster for the 125B form factor). The graphic was then printed to Maco transparency paper, mistcoated with Rustoleum clear gloss enamel, and underpainted with white to make the b&w photo pop, and applied to the enclosure. Finally, hella clearcoats and 48-hour curing.
Among other big lessons learned here, I really need to wear rubber gloves when applying decals. The fingerprints/schmutz are so easily left undiscovered until after the clearcoat cures.
THE PEDAL
I first fell in love with this circuit after scrolling through Fuzzdog's offerings some months ago, then finding the ancient Pedals and Effects video where Justin Meldal-Johnsen demonstrates his OG version. Like a ZVex Machine with more funk and touch sensitivity, the Prunes & Custard is hardly a ubiquitous tool, but for sounds that are funky, weird and aggressive all at once, this is a fun and--despite my chronicled ineptitude--not a particularly difficult circuit to make.
I'm also curious if @neiltheseal has further developed his idea to swap in a better dirt circuit, because I feel like there's gotta be something that can complement the wavefolder even better. The Nutty Fuzz is a different ballgame as far as I know, but what I love about that one is how you can tweak the fuzz's tone knob and the oscillator frequency to complement each other.
but really cool build!
