Old School Distortion + A Cool Enclosure!

Fingolfen

Well-known member
A few months ago I was looking to expand the range of distortion pedals I had available, so I went hunting through the gear used by my favorite guitarists at various points in their career. Unless you've been under a rock, you'll know I'm a huge Alex Lifeson / Rush fan, so one of the pedals I decided to build was an MXR distortion as it was one of the pedals Alex used during the Moving Pictures era. For that initial build I went with the AionFX Aphelion.

Aion Aphelion - 01.jpg

The Aphelion not only supports variations to the base circuit, but includes two extra modifications: a treble-cut switch that changes out a capacitor at the input, and a diode selector that lets you go between germanium (Distortion+), silicon (250), or LEDs. The selector switch effectively gives you three different distortion pedals in one, and it may be something I try to incorporate into the Dimetrodon Distortion later on, but I prefer my addition of a true tone knob to the simple treble cut.

Despite the variety of builds, AionFX rates this as a Beginner build. I'd tend to agree with that - at least if you're building it in the base configuration in the instructions. If you try to build one of the variants or decide to experiment with some of the diodes. The parts count is low, even with the triple diode selection. For this particular build I went with almost all modern components, and you can tell that this was the angled 10K Ohm resistor era. The only "classic" parts I used were vintage 1N914 diodes for the silicon version of the circuit.

Aion Aphelion - 02.jpg

Since I've been doing some of my own etching, I thought an etched bronze top plate would look really cool. I decided to make the pedal name an homage to Rush's final studio album - Clockwork Angels - and go with a real steampunk theme. I had a bit of an overexposure problem right along one edge of the etch, but overall I think it came out killer.

A little more at the blog...
 
Fantastic etch. Did you use caustic soda or ferric acid? Looks like you got a good depth of the etch. Did you keep it in for a while?
It looks absolutely stunning.

Ferric Chloride for this one - etch time was about 15-20 minutes, but my Ferric Chloride wasn't 100% fresh either.
 
I have been using Caustic as I heard youre able to put it down a drain. How do you dispose of your Ferric?
I have found that 25-30 mins gives an OK etch with the Caustic but its a fine line after that of continuing to etch and burning through the ink!
 
A few months ago I was looking to expand the range of distortion pedals I had available, so I went hunting through the gear used by my favorite guitarists at various points in their career. Unless you've been under a rock, you'll know I'm a huge Alex Lifeson / Rush fan, so one of the pedals I decided to build was an MXR distortion as it was one of the pedals Alex used during the Moving Pictures era. For that initial build I went with the AionFX Aphelion.

View attachment 26230

The Aphelion not only supports variations to the base circuit, but includes two extra modifications: a treble-cut switch that changes out a capacitor at the input, and a diode selector that lets you go between germanium (Distortion+), silicon (250), or LEDs. The selector switch effectively gives you three different distortion pedals in one, and it may be something I try to incorporate into the Dimetrodon Distortion later on, but I prefer my addition of a true tone knob to the simple treble cut.

Despite the variety of builds, AionFX rates this as a Beginner build. I'd tend to agree with that - at least if you're building it in the base configuration in the instructions. If you try to build one of the variants or decide to experiment with some of the diodes. The parts count is low, even with the triple diode selection. For this particular build I went with almost all modern components, and you can tell that this was the angled 10K Ohm resistor era. The only "classic" parts I used were vintage 1N914 diodes for the silicon version of the circuit.

View attachment 26231

Since I've been doing some of my own etching, I thought an etched bronze top plate would look really cool. I decided to make the pedal name an homage to Rush's final studio album - Clockwork Angels - and go with a real steampunk theme. I had a bit of an overexposure problem right along one edge of the etch, but overall I think it came out killer.

A little more at the blog...
Wow that is AMAZING looking, I have not listened to Clockwork Angels in quite a few years, I'll have to pull that back up in the playlist.
 
I've got a friend who just got me to buy an Aphelion for him for the same affiliation to Lifeson, fancy finding this on the forum!
Can't wait to show him your awesome etch!
 
I have been using Caustic as I heard youre able to put it down a drain. How do you dispose of your Ferric?
I have found that 25-30 mins gives an OK etch with the Caustic but its a fine line after that of continuing to etch and burning through the ink!
Honestly I haven't had to dispose of any yet. Plan is to drop it off during a hazardous waste collection which happens every 3-6 months or so. As I understand it, the issue isn't the iron, it's the copper if you want to send it down a drain, so anything used to etch ends up being something you shouldn't put down a drain. I'm transitioning over to the muriatic acid / peroxide formula because it can be at least partially regenerated and is cheaper to make. Ultimately the same waste issue though if you ever have to get rid of it.
 
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