rwl
Well-known member
- Build Rating
This is a report on my build of the Tube Bender, a circuit that was first published by Dan Coggins in Guitar Magazine, in 2003, and which I think received some changes to become the Dinosaural Tube Bender. You can find the gerbers here.
Inspiration
For this pedal I went with an allegory based on the "Tube Bender" name. Weavers are gregarious birds whose name comes from the fact that they weave enormous nests of branches and straw.
So this seemed like a reasonable fit for the pedal. Having decided on the weaver as the bird, I wanted to stretch the art styles and went with a cross-stitch look. Yes, I know cross-stitching isn't quite the same as weaving. I was hoping to have a knit pattern but kept getting drawn back to cross-stitch so I figured it was close enough to be thematically correct. I suppose the weaving pedants will have their pitchforks out now.
I did the full layout and initial design in Photoshop. I tried a few techniques to pixelize the image using PS filters, but none quite worked for me. Likewise, I couldn't find a satisfying cross-stitch font. But when I ran my design through Gemini Nano Banana to "cross-stitchify" it, the result was quite good. I still had to piece together a few different iterations of the design and variations in Photoshop to get the exact look I wanted. I printed the design on a Tayda cream enclosure with cream knobs - cream is definitely the most versatile color that Tayda offers and it does a good job of matching the UV print's cololrs.
After all that, there were still a few glitches that were only obvious after the pedal arrived. I would have preferred a more defined edge around the print (I wanted a wood frame but couldn't make it work), and there's a small glitch in the pattern where I merged two designs halfway through the pedal that stood out. But worst of all, I somehow forgot to label the switch (or have Tayda drill holes for it)! Well, I've made the updates to the design, and I'm going to be printing another version of this pedal with my changes in place (adding a gradient at the edges, better blending a seam, and adding the switch label), and probably selling or giving away this particular instance.
Still, I'm quite proud of this design, and especially the reworked version that will be in my next batch of Tayda prints! I recall someone on the forum was designing pedals that had fabric adhesived to the front, but I've not seen a fabric-themed UV print.
The Build
It's a simple pedal, not many components - as you might expect for a circuit published in a magazine. There's one transistor from the original circuit that I couldn't source (BC307B) so I substituted a 2N3906. Otherwise this is a very straightforward set of components to assemble. I had a few minor glitches in my initial PCB layout and ended up tweaking enough to get a second set of boards fabricated. The biggest problem was the missing switch on the enclosure design, but luckily I had the bird facing the right way and this was just empty space I could drill myself.
The Pedal
I really like it! To be honest recently I had a great run of enclosure designs that also sound amazing, and for me that includes this one. I'm a sucker for tube-sounding pedals and I think this is a great option. I also think there's some variations and generally this circuit is not as widely known as it should be. There are other variants, for example I know the Dinosaural Tube-Bender is slightly different and I think a few folks on the forum have also made some variations.
Ratings
Inspiration
For this pedal I went with an allegory based on the "Tube Bender" name. Weavers are gregarious birds whose name comes from the fact that they weave enormous nests of branches and straw.
So this seemed like a reasonable fit for the pedal. Having decided on the weaver as the bird, I wanted to stretch the art styles and went with a cross-stitch look. Yes, I know cross-stitching isn't quite the same as weaving. I was hoping to have a knit pattern but kept getting drawn back to cross-stitch so I figured it was close enough to be thematically correct. I suppose the weaving pedants will have their pitchforks out now.
I did the full layout and initial design in Photoshop. I tried a few techniques to pixelize the image using PS filters, but none quite worked for me. Likewise, I couldn't find a satisfying cross-stitch font. But when I ran my design through Gemini Nano Banana to "cross-stitchify" it, the result was quite good. I still had to piece together a few different iterations of the design and variations in Photoshop to get the exact look I wanted. I printed the design on a Tayda cream enclosure with cream knobs - cream is definitely the most versatile color that Tayda offers and it does a good job of matching the UV print's cololrs.
After all that, there were still a few glitches that were only obvious after the pedal arrived. I would have preferred a more defined edge around the print (I wanted a wood frame but couldn't make it work), and there's a small glitch in the pattern where I merged two designs halfway through the pedal that stood out. But worst of all, I somehow forgot to label the switch (or have Tayda drill holes for it)! Well, I've made the updates to the design, and I'm going to be printing another version of this pedal with my changes in place (adding a gradient at the edges, better blending a seam, and adding the switch label), and probably selling or giving away this particular instance.
Still, I'm quite proud of this design, and especially the reworked version that will be in my next batch of Tayda prints! I recall someone on the forum was designing pedals that had fabric adhesived to the front, but I've not seen a fabric-themed UV print.
The Build
It's a simple pedal, not many components - as you might expect for a circuit published in a magazine. There's one transistor from the original circuit that I couldn't source (BC307B) so I substituted a 2N3906. Otherwise this is a very straightforward set of components to assemble. I had a few minor glitches in my initial PCB layout and ended up tweaking enough to get a second set of boards fabricated. The biggest problem was the missing switch on the enclosure design, but luckily I had the bird facing the right way and this was just empty space I could drill myself.
The Pedal
I really like it! To be honest recently I had a great run of enclosure designs that also sound amazing, and for me that includes this one. I'm a sucker for tube-sounding pedals and I think this is a great option. I also think there's some variations and generally this circuit is not as widely known as it should be. There are other variants, for example I know the Dinosaural Tube-Bender is slightly different and I think a few folks on the forum have also made some variations.
Ratings
- Build: 4/5
- Pedal: 5/5
