enrosenzweig
Well-known member
Finally finished it this afternoon. I've had it up and running for a while, but it's been sitting on the shelf as I had get a deeper enclosure for it. The lamp was too tall for the 1590BB I had ready and painted. It ended up being a blessing in disguise as the paint job didn't match the faceplate theme at all, but I didn't have the motivation strip the paint...
When I ordered the 1590BB2, I came across these LED tubes that looked perfect for holding the LDRs. Initially, I had installed the LDRs at the height of the lamp filament and facing in toward the lamp. It worked perfectly fine, but the aesthetics bothered me. I like the look of the original Univibes, where the LDRs are mounted flush with the PCB. However, I think that the lamps used in the past were noticeably shorter than the modern ones, enabling the filament to be closer in proximity to the LDRs when mounted flush. So, I removed and reinstalled them with the LED tubes. Brings them back up closer to the filament while providing a cleaner look (to me at least).
On a related note, I made a light shield out of a stiff envelope and some copper shielding tape. I know there's debate about the necessity of the light shield once the pedal is fully assembled, but I wanted to make one for biasing it. Once I'm making it, may as well leave it in. I made sure that the copper tape wasn't likely to make contact with an exposed via that is close to the LDRs.
The outie DC jack is uglier than the others, but so much easier to attach! I don't mind desoldering a jack to remove it, but even the tightening of the nut to install it in the first place is a pain.
I've only had a few minutes to play it in the new enclosure (I was too afraid of breaking lamp to use it in the first enclosure), but I've been able to get the bias close to some of the whompy swirl that made the Univibe famous. I'm a simple guy, I just want it to sound exactly like Machine Gun...no biggie, right? Jokes aside, it sounds amazing and is very much a worthwhile build!
Almost forgot, I added the name tag on the side at the last minute. It's just silkscreened FR-4 like the faceplate. My original plan was to mount them with screws, but quickly realized how annoying that was going to be to do. So, it's glued on and, if I make new ones without screw holes, will be replaced later. I also completely forgot to add the "Vibe" and "Speed" labels to the faceplate...wooops
When I ordered the 1590BB2, I came across these LED tubes that looked perfect for holding the LDRs. Initially, I had installed the LDRs at the height of the lamp filament and facing in toward the lamp. It worked perfectly fine, but the aesthetics bothered me. I like the look of the original Univibes, where the LDRs are mounted flush with the PCB. However, I think that the lamps used in the past were noticeably shorter than the modern ones, enabling the filament to be closer in proximity to the LDRs when mounted flush. So, I removed and reinstalled them with the LED tubes. Brings them back up closer to the filament while providing a cleaner look (to me at least).
On a related note, I made a light shield out of a stiff envelope and some copper shielding tape. I know there's debate about the necessity of the light shield once the pedal is fully assembled, but I wanted to make one for biasing it. Once I'm making it, may as well leave it in. I made sure that the copper tape wasn't likely to make contact with an exposed via that is close to the LDRs.
The outie DC jack is uglier than the others, but so much easier to attach! I don't mind desoldering a jack to remove it, but even the tightening of the nut to install it in the first place is a pain.
I've only had a few minutes to play it in the new enclosure (I was too afraid of breaking lamp to use it in the first enclosure), but I've been able to get the bias close to some of the whompy swirl that made the Univibe famous. I'm a simple guy, I just want it to sound exactly like Machine Gun...no biggie, right? Jokes aside, it sounds amazing and is very much a worthwhile build!
Almost forgot, I added the name tag on the side at the last minute. It's just silkscreened FR-4 like the faceplate. My original plan was to mount them with screws, but quickly realized how annoying that was going to be to do. So, it's glued on and, if I make new ones without screw holes, will be replaced later. I also completely forgot to add the "Vibe" and "Speed" labels to the faceplate...wooops
