Purple Platypus: "Crimson Kiwi" (w/Gerber)

rwl

rwl

Well-known member
Build Rating
5.00 star(s)
This is a report on my build on the Way Huge Purple Platypus overdrive, a rather obscure pedal that I don't think was widely made. I was poking around on Dirtbox Layouts or somewhere and found the schematic. I like some of the other Way Huge pedals so I figured I'd try building this one. I think it's my favorite "simple" octave drive/fuzz right now (the Octarock is my favorite overall). You can find the gerber here.

crimsonkiwi_front.jpg

Inspiration
I'm happy with my inspiration and design. I was thinking about what would be a good play on the Purple Platypus and went with alliteration/color and the "weird animal" theme, rather than some kind of name or purple reference. Kiwis are pretty strange flightless birds, although I suppose they don't match up with the overall weirdness of platypodes. While I have visited NZ, I wasn't lucky enough to see a kiwi. I suppose I need to go back! Kicking around ideas, "Crimson Kiwi" just came to me. I also like the NZ/Australia connection for the two.

When I started thinking about the theme and a bright red bird, for some reason I recalled the OpenBSD Daemon mascot that I used to see on Slashdot and my dad's Linux computer magazines when I was a kid - a more innocent and wide-open world of technology that feels so different from the tech industry today:

1753844417819.png

So I figured I would include the trident as a throwback to that. To my knowledge, this is the only OpenBSD-themed guitar pedal, but I don't exactly have an encyclopedic knowledge to draw on.

I'm quite happy with the design. I still feel like something is missing, but the whole thing feels very crisp and professional. The pedal is UV printed on a Tayda matte white enclosure (these were out of stock on the site, but emailing Tayda they said they'd be back and to place the order so I did, it just took about a month to arrive).

The Build
I built this with my own PCB (gerber linked above). It worked well, no problems. I decided to go all-in on the red coloring for components and wiring.. This is one of my recent "fancy" changes. I realized that my older functional wire color-coding wasn't cutting it aesthetically (where I'd have appropriate colors for positive/negative and to distinguish input/output). I don't have precise 90-degree wire bends though :).

The pedal is a CD4049 octave overdrive with two germanium diodes.

I have no complaints and it's refreshing having a two-knob layout for a change.

The Pedal
I really like this pedal! I think it occupies a pretty neat slot in the pedal spectrum. I find that I can get a pronounced octave effect across the whole neck, whereas the green ringer-style fuzzes have a strong octave at the twelfth fret that falls off as you go lower. The overdrive/fuzz sound is pretty unruly as well. As mentioned in the intro I think if you want a single fuzz pedal there are better options, but I think this will stay on my board for a while and find its way back. Probably the closest sound I can think of is some of the Jack White-style solos.

I'd recommend it :).

Firsts
  • 👺First OpenBSD-themed guitar pedal
  • 🌈First whimsical bird coloration
Build rating: 5/5 ⭐
Pedal rating: 5/5⭐
 

Attachments

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I really think the Purple Platypus is a fun circuit. It does, like you say, get weird. I actually need to grab my DeFx version and fix the octave switch - there’s still bleed through of the octave and I want to make it on/off.

5/5 good pedal and great graphics.
 
That's a sweet build. I messed with a kiwi design to put on a prunes and custard a few years ago but I was never happy with it and didn't end up using it.

I got to see a few kiwis in captivity when I was there a quarter century ago and while it was very cool, it was kind of underwhelming. We saw so much cool stuff on that tour those little birds barely register. Black sand beaches, stanky geothermal parks, feasted and slept in a Maori long house, I held a baby koala, fed a roo, and almost got taken down by a huge fruit bat during the Australia portion of that trip. I do remember them saying that the kiwi bird lays the largest egg compared to body size weighing something like 20% of their total weight. The poor things.
 
Looks good inside and out! I've definitely never seen a freeBSD themed pedal before. Did you have to match the diodes to get a strong octave with this circuit?
 
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I clicked on the link and immediately forth from my throat uttered aloud to no one "Oh wow!"

This one's a stunner! Okay... now to read the actual report.



...

Oh wow AGAIN!
I've always loved this circuit. Many thanks for sharing the Gerbers — if I get around to having some PCBs made, this will be near/at the top of the queue.


Here's my Kiwi story:

Flew down from HK to NZ to do some MTBing with my Yorkie mate, and a Kiwi buddy. Visited the latter's parents north of Auckland long enough to steal the family station-wagon for a southbound trip to some of the sweetest trails on the planet. So one day we're done MTBing and we take the car to the Pancake Rocks — I was driving and pulled into a parking stall at the edge of the lot and my Kiwi friend says I nearly hit a Kiwi — "I what?"

In the underbush at the edge of the lot where I parked, right in front of the car is this Kiwi that didn't budge even though I almost ran it over — didn't see it, it was camouflaged so well.

OoPs!

No harm done, snapped some pics (on film, which didn't turn out well — camouflage!) and then on to view the Pancake Rocks...



Fabulous build and report, love the alliteration with the name!
 
Aleph Null said:
Did you have to match the doors to get a strong octave with this circuit?
Click to expand...
To my great shame, I'll confess that I've never actually measured any diodes, I just threw two GE diodes in and it seemed to work OK. Of course it's possible they just happened to match. They're socketed though, so one of these days I should revisit and see what's what.
 
rwl said:
When I started thinking about the theme and a bright red bird, for some reason I recalled the OpenBSD Daemon mascot that I used to see on Slashdot and my dad's Linux computer magazines when I was a kid - a more innocent and wide-open world of technology that feels so different from the tech industry today:
Click to expand...

Emacs or vim?
 
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