Bellum I, Unicab, Sea Monk, Phase II, Parentheses

flemming

Well-known member
Catching up on a backlog of builds over the past few months.

Bellum I - I was really excited to build this after hearing the sample here. I didn't have any 2n5088s in the 350-370 range as noted, but I had 7 in the 410s so I went with those. I'm still not sure how I feel about it. I haven't commit yet and keep switching things around. I do however love the graphics.

Unicab - The build was straight forward. I was going to wait until I could get together the parts to add an XLR out, but I had already drilled the enclosure and didn't think I could fit it with the switch in the center. If I try it, maybe it'll be worth reboxing it (highly unlikely). The ball silver powder coat from Tayda is either really fragile or I was just too brutal when handling it. It got pretty scratched up along the way, but I guess it adds a bit to the aesthetic. I added a brushed metal look to the water slide to hide them a bit.

Sea Monk - After an initial build issue, it seems to be working with one quirk. If Drive is cranked up and Bottom is down and I'm using the humbucker bridge pickup and really pound on it I can get it start glitching until either the drive is turned down or the bottom is turned up. It happens less with neck pickup or if I split the coils, but if you give it enough oomph you can make it happen. Turn the bottom up a little or have a little less drive and no problems. I'm assuming it's related to how hot the input signal is. I haven't tried swapping any parts out to see if I could make it stop yet. I wanted to go for the VFE knob look, so I put 6mm knurled pots on Bottom/Comp/Warm and used these Micro Knobs from Smallbear. I actually ended up cutting them down a tiny bit so that they didn't stick up as high as well.

Phase II - The build went fine. Routed the input around the long way to avoid ticking from the LFO. Since I only had clear water slide decals and I needed white to show through in the graphic, I tried masking part of the top and painting it white before applying the water slide over it. That part worked pretty well since the black box and the part I painted lined up pretty closely. In general though, I hate it :) The decal also got scratched up somehow after the fact, so I may just redo the enclosure at some point.

Parentheses - I didn't know it was even possible to build a Parentheses without making a pit stop in the Troubleshooting section. I used 2n5457s that I picked up from PedalHacker in place of the PF5102s. I used 1n5817s with matching hfes for the octave diodes. Like with the Phase II I tried spraying a portion of the top white before applying the water slide and this one didn't not go as well. You can clearly see the patch of white under the water slide. It doesn't look terrible, but obviously not what I was going for. I suppose one day I'll try out UV printing.
 

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These all look great. Good work!

I actually lol’d at :

I didn't know it was even possible to build a Parentheses without making a pit stop in the Troubleshooting section.”
 
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I'll be honest, I opened this thread just to see if someone had successfully built a parenthesis. These look awesome! Great job

Tayda ball silver is becoming my go-to choice and I haven't had that problem with it scratching
 
Stellar effort here!

Faves (not just the graphics but the circuit choice as well) are in order:
- the Bellum I, with the crossed-fishbone detail on the helmet 😺;
and
- the Phase II, that mischievous grin.

I love utility pedals, too, so next fave circuit-wise goes to the Unicab.

They're all great, but those were my faves.
 
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