Lone King Overdrive

[Brett]

Another great board by the folks here at PedalPCB. If you dig tube screamers, this variant offers a little more versatility and sounds pretty good too. I'm not sure that it lives up to the hype that this pedal gets but I'm sure that many will find it useful.

The enclosure is Matte Army Green from Tayda with two passes of white, no color, and gloss varnish. It's a little difficult to see, but in the spirit of SRV (perhaps the most well-known TS user), there's the beamed notes symbol from his guitar strap behind the pedal name in gloss varnish only. For some reason, the matte army green color is very difficult to capture, the most accurate representation of the color is seen on the edges of the enclosure in the picture of the insides.

All parts are exactly as specified in the build document with the exception of the tone pot being a W20K instead of a W25K. BA282 diodes were obtained from Small Bear, who had them at a significantly lower price than just about anywhere else.

 

[SillyOctpuss]

Damn that's nice

 

[Barry]

Sweet!

 

[Brett]

Damn that's nice

Sweet!

Thanks guys!

 

[fig]

Another dazzler! That's a great Larry Davis tune and Mr. Vaughn made it his own.

 

[Brett]

Another dazzler! That's a great Larry Davis tune and Mr. Vaughn made it his own.

Thank you, @fig! I had no idea the song wasn't original to Stevie.

 

[sturgeo]

Top job!
I'm guessing from the LED positioning that it isn't one of the PedalPCB predrilled enclosures but is a custom drilled or self?

 

[Brett]

Top job!
I'm guessing from the LED positioning that it isn't one of the PedalPCB predrilled enclosures but is a custom drilled or self?

Thank you! You're correct, this is not a predrilled enclosure. I drilled this one. I don't think that Tayda offers a predrilled option for 4 knobs with a toggle. The 5-knob predrilled from Tayda won't work for a few reasons, the hole for the toggle is too large, and the potentiometer spacing is a little wider than the 4-knob layout. Additionally, a predrilled from Tayda wouldn't work because the PedalPCB I/O requires all top holes to be middle-aligned and Tayda's are all offset.

 

[joelorigo]

Great!

Question: how did you do your graphics?

 

[Brett]

Great!

Question: how did you do your graphics?

Thank you! I used Affinity Designer from start to finish. It may not be a feature-laden as Adobe Illustrator, but it costs a whole lot less and is perfectly adequate for this type of work.

 

[joelorigo]

Thank you! I used Affinity Designer from start to finish. It may not be a feature-laden as Adobe Illustrator, but it costs a whole lot less and is perfectly adequate for this type of work.

I see. And how did you print white on a dark color?

 

[Brett]

I see. And how did you print white on a dark color?

This is Tayda’s UV printing service.

 

[joelorigo]

Oh, I didn't know about that. A whole new world is open for me now! Thanks and great job.

 

[spi]

There's many 4-knob+switch pedals that use the same hole layout as the 5-knob pedal, the only difference being the size of the potentiometer hole will be slightly larger than the hole required for a switch--but a washer on the switch can cover the gap, so you can indeed use a 5-knob pre-drilled enclosure. Just be sure to check the diagrams because there are exceptions.

 

[Brett]

There's many 4-knob+switch pedals that use the same hole layout as the 5-knob pedal, the only difference being the size of the potentiometer hole will be slightly larger than the hole required for a switch--but a washer on the switch can cover the gap, so you can indeed use a 5-knob pre-drilled enclosure. Just be sure to check the diagrams because there are exceptions.

I didn’t examine it thoroughly because it was never my intention to use a predrilled enclosure for this project. The top jack I/O used on this project isn’t compatible with anything stock predrilled from Tayda.

EDIT: I decided to look closer to see if the Lone King could be used with Tayda's 5-knob predrilled and while you may be right for some of the 4-knob + switch pedals being able to work with the 5-knob template, I'm afraid that doesn't apply to the Lone King. In the attached image, the circles and drill marks in red are for the Lone King.

 

[Preverb]

I didn’t examine it thoroughly because it was never my intention to use a predrilled enclosure for this project. The top jack I/O used on this project isn’t compatible with anything stock predrilled from Tayda.

EDIT: I decided to look closer to see if the Lone King could be used with Tayda's 5-knob predrilled and while you may be right for some of the 4-knob + switch pedals being able to work with the 5-knob template, I'm afraid that doesn't apply to the Lone King. In the attached image, the circles and drill marks in red are for the Lone King.

Do you also have a template you used to create the printed part? I only just installed Adobe Illustrator and downloading affinity now. I have no idea on where to space out the text for the knobs. It would be great to work with pre-made templates to save some time. It sounds like my PCB order will take quite some time to get here so I have time to design some custom enclosures. Hopefully they turn out as professional as yours.

 

[Brett]

Do you also have a template you used to create the printed part? I only just installed Adobe Illustrator and downloading affinity now. I have no idea on where to space out the text for the knobs. It would be great to work with pre-made templates to save some time. It sounds like my PCB order will take quite some time to get here so I have time to design some custom enclosures. Hopefully they turn out as professional as yours.

You have a couple of options, but the easiest that I've found is to use a combination of the templates. I use Affinity for all of it because Adobe's licensing is a little goofy and very expensive for hobby-level stuff. I started here and then downloaded the PDF for the build docs on the Lone King so I could import the drill template that's included on the last page into Affinity. Once you get them lined up, you have a better idea of spacing and layout. I hope this helps!

 

[Preverb]

You have a couple of options, but the easiest that I've found is to use a combination of the templates. I use Affinity for all of it because Adobe's licensing is a little goofy and very expensive for hobby-level stuff. I started here and then downloaded the PDF for the build docs on the Lone King so I could import the drill template that's included on the last page into Affinity. Once you get them lined up, you have a better idea of spacing and layout. I hope this helps!

Thanks for that link. That will help. I think my partner had some sort of cheap license for adobe since she is a student. It doesn't seem to be the most intuitive program so far. I notice on the Tayda site they say not to use affinity because people often make mistakes with it and things don't line up right. One thing I a bit confused about is the fact that most people just use one colour. It is no extra $ to have multiple colours right?

 

[Brett]

Thanks for that link. That will help. I think my partner had some sort of cheap license for adobe since she is a student. It doesn't seem to be the most intuitive program so far. I notice on the Tayda site they say not to use affinity because people often make mistakes with it and things don't line up right. One thing I a bit confused about is the fact that most people just use one colour. It is no extra $ to have multiple colours right?

Mistakes are possible regardless of software. Tayda may recommend avoiding Affinity Designer, but it's what I've used on the four UV printed enclosures that I've ordered from them so far, with no issues. Do yourself a favor, if you haven't already, go check out this thread. There's a wealth of information there for people that are just getting started with Tayda's UV printing service. I'm not sure of your location, but you also have the option of trying a US-based company called AmplifyFun that offers similar services at a reasonable price (see this thread). You may be able to get more "hands-on" assistance from the guys at AmplifyFun which may be helpful for you while you're still in the process of getting comfortable with it.

Regarding your last question, with Tayda, the price is the same regardless of whether you have one color or ten. There are extra charges for additional passes on the white layer, the color layer, and if you want to add a matte or varnish gloss to your printed enclosure.

 

[Preverb]

Mistakes are possible regardless of software. Tayda may recommend avoiding Affinity Designer, but it's what I've used on the four UV printed enclosures that I've ordered from them so far, with no issues. Do yourself a favor, if you haven't already, go check out this thread. There's a wealth of information there for people that are just getting started with Tayda's UV printing service. I'm not sure of your location, but you also have the option of trying a US-based company called AmplifyFun that offers similar services at a reasonable price (see this thread). You may be able to get more "hands-on" assistance from the guys at AmplifyFun which may be helpful for you while you're still in the process of getting comfortable with it.

Thanks. I was reading through that thread already and have some ideas. I am in Australia currently so will probably just stick with Tayda. It sounds like most people are using affinity designer and then changing the files to an AI format?