Project thread - designing and building pedals with a band for charity

[KR Sound]

I’m going to use this thread to document the design, production, and results of this project.

I approached some old friends who’ve been playing since the 90s in a Chicago punk rock band the Bollweevils.

The Bollweevils are the rare pop-punk band aging gracefully - Chicago Reader

Without pretending they're younger than their years, the Bollweevils retain the urgent ferocity that made them a phenomenon.

chicagoreader.com

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I got the idea after seeing Oneder’s Less than Jake pedal and thought it would be an awesome idea to do with one of my favorite bands and donate all the proceeds to a charity that we’ll decide on. My band played countless benefits with them back in the day, and it only seemed fitting. We even put out a split 7” back in 96(?) together.



I decided to go the Guv’nor and its variants route to replicate high gain punk driving sound.

Here’s what I put together as some ideas:


1. the Guv’nor with two clipping options

2. The Guv’nor with the Angry Charlie V3 tone stack using 2 red LEDs for clipping.

3. Is my simplified version of the Gov’nor circuit which turned out to basically the Crunch Box after I compared them looking for another alternative. Who knew? Ha.

4. PPCB’s JCM800 emulator

5. Is my version of a Rat with different clipping options like the other two. Just thought I’d throw that in and see what they thought.

After I sent them to the band, they decided on the Guv’nor/AC pedal. It sounds rad and has tons of high gain and tone control. I also swapped the Bass and Treble pots so it’s B/M/T from the front.






Now it’s time to start on the design and figure out how many we want to start with. I’ll probably end up moving the clipping LEDs so we can make them part of the design.

Looking forward to this!

 

[Harry Klippton]

Cool. I remember the bollweevils but only by name. Probably from the Dr strange catalog or something, when it used to be a newsprint distro catalog. 6-8 weeks for a 7" to show up was an eternity

 

[KR Sound]

Yep, they were on Dr Strange. I remember going down those lists and just buying random 7”s that I read about in MRR and waiting a month for them to show up. Thats how it worked back then!

 

[KR Sound]

Just got some artwork from them and we're going to go with something like this. Not sure what knobs we'll use yet, I just put those in for reference.



Also for all the boards in.

 

[KR Sound]

I just ordered the initial 10 enclosures to get drilled and printed and enough parts to eventually build 25. Should have them ready to go in about two weeks.

I’m going with black knobs and tweaked the graphics just a bit.

We plan on selling these initial 10 for $150 each and he expects them to sell out fast.

 

[KR Sound]

Looks like the enclosures have just been drilled and painted. I finished up populating the boards and built one so that I can pre-cut the wires when I start assembly hopefully next week.

 

[KR Sound]

Just got delivery of the enclosures - turned out pretty cool! I’m going to adjust the white underlayer just a tad for the next run.

 

[Brett]

They look great! This is a very cool project!

I’ve had the same white layer alignment issue with Tayda in the past. My [super top secret] fix for it now is to apply a VERY slight negative stroke (not sure what the technical name is) to the white layer. It works a treat.

Edited to clarify: The tool I use is called a contour tool and I only use this on white layers that have color layers on top of them. If the print is pure white, it's not necessary (for obvious reasons).

Now, if I could figure out how to get Tayda’s gloss varnish to fully cover without bleed…

 

[KR Sound]

They look great! This is a very cool project!

I’ve had the same white layer alignment issue with Tayda in the past. My [super top secret] fix for it now is to apply a VERY slight negative stroke (not sure what the technical name is) to the white layer. It works a treat.

Edited to clarify: The tool I use is called a contour tool and I only use this on white layers that have color layers on top of them. If the print is pure white, it's not necessary (for obvious reasons).

Now, if I could figure out how to get Tayda’s gloss varnish to fully cover without bleed…

Ya, that’s basically what I was going to do or extend the color a bit/add a bleed especially on black where it would cover it and would disappear on the black.

 

[KR Sound]

So, I’ve sold 6 of these in the first day that I announced it and now I need to spend this morning assembling. So that’s a great start!

Question- I’ve got the traditional white pedal mailer boxes for them. Should I just use those and stick the mailing label on them, or should I put those in another padded mailer bag or box?