Parentheses - Dirty, grungy, beat to hell edition.

bitzie

Active member
This is the third Parentheses that I've built. The first one... Well, the less said about it the better. It was such a headache and I gave up on troubleshooting it. The second one went a whole lot smoother and with some minor troubleshooting works great. As I had an extra drilled enclosure from the first build (a kit from Musikding), I figured why not do another one? Since my last one was super clean and slick looking with a UV printed enclosure by Tayda, I decided to go in the opposite direction for this build.

I copper sulphate etched the enclosure then went at it with Tremclad Rust Matte black paint, isopropyl alcohol, sandpaper, a couple different files, and a stiff wire brush. The same process was inflicted upon all the hardware. The leds started life as water clear, ultra bright purples, but some 800 grit sandpaper diffused them rather nicely. I was so incredibly nervous firing it up for the first time given my track record so far, but it's sounding utterly amazing. I do have a ceramic disc instead of a box for C10 as of course, that was the one thing I forgot to add in my last Tayda order, but without directly a/b'ing this one versus my other Parentheses, to my ears it sounds just as good.

Next up will actually be an Anubis from Dead End FX which is another Life Pedal clone, but in a slightly smaller form factor which since I use a Pedal Train Nano+ will just fit a bit better. Yes. I have a problem. No, I'm not going to do anything about it. Well... Except make more.

front.jpg
guts.jpg
 
What a nice build. Having just completed my first Parentheses, I can very much appreciate what you've done here. The distressed aesthetic is very cool, I would never have thought of that. Neat wiring, I must improve. Also, your wires look THICC, what gauge are you using?
 
What a nice build. Having just completed my first Parentheses, I can very much appreciate what you've done here. The distressed aesthetic is very cool, I would never have thought of that. Neat wiring, I must improve. Also, your wires look THICC, what gauge are you using?
Thanks! The wires are nothing too special, just standard 22AWG stranded wire from Amazon.
 
Superb. I love that dragged to hell and back look. You're nailing these builds.
Thank you so much! I think I've definitely found my new hobby/obsession. Yesterday and today I populated and wired up six boards (Death Cap, Delegate Boneyard Ed., Greengage, Sabbath, Obsidius, and an Anubis from Dead End FX) in preparation for a shipment from Tayda on Thursday. I don't even know if I'll end up using them on my pedalboard, but it's more about the fun of making them.
 
As a rat lover I love the Parentheses, and your is the coolest looking one I think I've seen anywhere! I would rock that shit. And I good job on the inside too, very clean. I don't know why so many people have issues with this build 🤔
Thanks! Yeah, I'm not so sure either. It doesn't seem like a particularly difficult build overall. The piece count isn't ridiculously high either.
 
Back
Top