Bricksnbeatles
Member known well
A-Hoy, Hoy, Hoy! I’ve been thinking about holding off on a build report for this one until I could do it the justice I feel it deserves with better photos and a proper demo, but it’s been a busy time, and it’s only getting busier for the next few weeks as an incredibly strenuous semester comes to a close— I’m too impatient to wait until three weeks from now to get a build report posted.
This pedal right here is the S.M.P.T.E (Systechian Mudshark Penetrator & Timbral Emergiser), which is a clone of the Zappa staple, the Systech Harmonic Energizer, built on a Fuzzdog “Harmonic Energiser” board & kit. I actually have had this project on hold for probably 6 or 7 years, back in my kit days— I had come up with the concept for the graphics when I first ordered it, but at the time couldn’t find a way to produce it to my satisfaction— hand painted graphics wouldn’t be doable to satisfaction for me, and printed decals were difficult for me to get satisfactory results from, not to mention my limited skills in digital design. Nonetheless, I had created a first revision of the graphics in Inkscape at the time, but couldn’t find a satisfactory way to get it on the enclosure. It went in a box in a drawer, and was on hold until I felt confident in a solution for the enclosure question.
A few years went by and Tayda’s UV printing opened up as an option for us DIY folks, and I was psyched but it still had to stay on hold as I didn’t have a sure way of turning my raster/vector hybrid graphics into the vector format graphics required by Tayda. To add to that, I realized that there were many issues with my prog graphics (plus the change from Inkscape 0.9.1 to 1.something somehow corrupted some stuff and I’m not tech savvy). More recently I saw that people were having luck with fully rasterized graphics thru Tayda’s IV service, given proper case to PDF preparation, so I knew it was time for the S.M.P.T.E. to shine. I recreated (and vastly improved) the graphics from the ground up in photoshop after learning to overcome my biggest raster hurdles in my Intro to Digital Art course this semester. So that’s the story of the challenges that the S.M.P.T.E. faced in finding its place in the world. Enclosure came in my latest big Tayda order around three or four weeks ago, and this weekend I had to film a “video portrait” for the digital class, so I decided to use that as an excuse to build it (and film myself building it) before the end of the semester.
The circuit is a bone stock Systech Harmonic Energizer with the addition of a master volume control to tame the higher gain settings. Wiring on the inside is colored to match the order of the iconic SMPTE television test pattern as best as I could with the wire colors I have on hand. Slow-speed color cycling LED for the indicator with ludicrous amounts of filtering to ensure no μc noise bleeds thru.
I’m sure many of you know just how much of a Zappa fanatic I am, and the SHE is one of the most ubiquitous members of Zappa’s arsenal of bizarre gear. Unlike its sibling, the the Systech Overdrive, the Harmonic Energizer is a fairly clean pedal throughout the range of its gain. Most distortion you get from it is simply the absurd levels of resonant parametric boost on tap Overdriving the hell out of whatever follows it. It’s like a cocked Wah folded back into itself and blasted with an ultra-focus ray gun. Between his use of the Harmonic Energizer, a multitude of Wah pedal circuits, the small but mighty Pignose 7-100 amplifier, custom onboard parametric EQs designed by his tech Midge Sloatman, and tons of other esoteric curiosities, it’s basically a fool’s errand knowing what tracks the harmonic energizer actually appears on, but there is no doubt when you plug in that this device is quintessentially Zappaesque. Some standout tracks that may or may not have the SHE on it include PoJama People, Cruisin for Burgers (Zappa in NY version), Baby Snakes, Broken Hearts are for Assholes, Zoot Allures, Rat Tomago, Black Napkins, and many more. My graphics have various references to the Conceptual Continuity, so I’m curious how many will be picked up on— some are hidden pretty deep for sure.
For the demo, I really must apologize for the terrible quality, but despite my huge Zappa influence, my playing has very little in common with Zappa’s— as such, my attempts to embody the spirit of mid-70s Zappa result in some very questionable choices. It’s a i-v vamp in C# minor (the quintessential Zappa key?) in what might be considered to be a slow 5/4 shuffle. I tried to encapsulate the key Zappa-isms, including the ‘chicken & spider’, the mega-sloppy pentatonic bursts, heavily syncopated low passages, and non-diatonic trilling, but it definitely doesn’t do Frank, myself, or the circuit justice. It meanders, loses steam, and overstays its welcome. Nonetheless, I hope y’all get a good grasp of what this little box is capable of.
This pedal right here is the S.M.P.T.E (Systechian Mudshark Penetrator & Timbral Emergiser), which is a clone of the Zappa staple, the Systech Harmonic Energizer, built on a Fuzzdog “Harmonic Energiser” board & kit. I actually have had this project on hold for probably 6 or 7 years, back in my kit days— I had come up with the concept for the graphics when I first ordered it, but at the time couldn’t find a way to produce it to my satisfaction— hand painted graphics wouldn’t be doable to satisfaction for me, and printed decals were difficult for me to get satisfactory results from, not to mention my limited skills in digital design. Nonetheless, I had created a first revision of the graphics in Inkscape at the time, but couldn’t find a satisfactory way to get it on the enclosure. It went in a box in a drawer, and was on hold until I felt confident in a solution for the enclosure question.
A few years went by and Tayda’s UV printing opened up as an option for us DIY folks, and I was psyched but it still had to stay on hold as I didn’t have a sure way of turning my raster/vector hybrid graphics into the vector format graphics required by Tayda. To add to that, I realized that there were many issues with my prog graphics (plus the change from Inkscape 0.9.1 to 1.something somehow corrupted some stuff and I’m not tech savvy). More recently I saw that people were having luck with fully rasterized graphics thru Tayda’s IV service, given proper case to PDF preparation, so I knew it was time for the S.M.P.T.E. to shine. I recreated (and vastly improved) the graphics from the ground up in photoshop after learning to overcome my biggest raster hurdles in my Intro to Digital Art course this semester. So that’s the story of the challenges that the S.M.P.T.E. faced in finding its place in the world. Enclosure came in my latest big Tayda order around three or four weeks ago, and this weekend I had to film a “video portrait” for the digital class, so I decided to use that as an excuse to build it (and film myself building it) before the end of the semester.
The circuit is a bone stock Systech Harmonic Energizer with the addition of a master volume control to tame the higher gain settings. Wiring on the inside is colored to match the order of the iconic SMPTE television test pattern as best as I could with the wire colors I have on hand. Slow-speed color cycling LED for the indicator with ludicrous amounts of filtering to ensure no μc noise bleeds thru.
I’m sure many of you know just how much of a Zappa fanatic I am, and the SHE is one of the most ubiquitous members of Zappa’s arsenal of bizarre gear. Unlike its sibling, the the Systech Overdrive, the Harmonic Energizer is a fairly clean pedal throughout the range of its gain. Most distortion you get from it is simply the absurd levels of resonant parametric boost on tap Overdriving the hell out of whatever follows it. It’s like a cocked Wah folded back into itself and blasted with an ultra-focus ray gun. Between his use of the Harmonic Energizer, a multitude of Wah pedal circuits, the small but mighty Pignose 7-100 amplifier, custom onboard parametric EQs designed by his tech Midge Sloatman, and tons of other esoteric curiosities, it’s basically a fool’s errand knowing what tracks the harmonic energizer actually appears on, but there is no doubt when you plug in that this device is quintessentially Zappaesque. Some standout tracks that may or may not have the SHE on it include PoJama People, Cruisin for Burgers (Zappa in NY version), Baby Snakes, Broken Hearts are for Assholes, Zoot Allures, Rat Tomago, Black Napkins, and many more. My graphics have various references to the Conceptual Continuity, so I’m curious how many will be picked up on— some are hidden pretty deep for sure.
For the demo, I really must apologize for the terrible quality, but despite my huge Zappa influence, my playing has very little in common with Zappa’s— as such, my attempts to embody the spirit of mid-70s Zappa result in some very questionable choices. It’s a i-v vamp in C# minor (the quintessential Zappa key?) in what might be considered to be a slow 5/4 shuffle. I tried to encapsulate the key Zappa-isms, including the ‘chicken & spider’, the mega-sloppy pentatonic bursts, heavily syncopated low passages, and non-diatonic trilling, but it definitely doesn’t do Frank, myself, or the circuit justice. It meanders, loses steam, and overstays its welcome. Nonetheless, I hope y’all get a good grasp of what this little box is capable of.
Thanks! much appreciated!
