Multifuzz, recycled enclosure report, done. almost.

Started by blackieNYC, November 29, 2014, 03:22:12 PM

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blackieNYC


I wanted to clean up - and maximize - the pedalboard.  For a while I considered an all-in-one compressor/fuzz/mod/delay/boost multi-pedal, that could stand on its own.  But the most you can fit on this box is 7 stomps (at a 2.25" spacing), and I would always want to add a lot more to it, so I decided to do just fuzzes,distortion,overdrive,whatever. 
The box is a 1u rack mount thing that was getting thrown out.  The rack ears come off.  It's 4.5" deep and 1.75" high.  Perfect. 15" long.  The enclosure is not a hammond-style assembly but two L shaped pieces that are a bit of a puzzle of folds and tabs and threaded holes. A pain.  But sturdy enough.
5 fuzzes and a Geofex parametric Eq at the front end.  I have one slot left for a 7th stomp. For flexibility, and indecisiveness, I decided to give each one in and out jacks.  (For stereo, or blending, or order switching which is unlikely). This is an option that cost me the price of 14 jacks, and I could have skipped it. The input jacks are half normalling, taking the output of the previous effect unless something is plugged into that input.  No patch cables required. Wiring from jacks to stomps is shielded. Everything else is spaghetti.  The effects are all individual boards,built over the last 9 months or so.  Most have been in candy-tin prototype enclosures, so I've played thru them a lot before committing to this. I like these pedals. There are 64 holes in it, which may disqualify it as a shielded enclosure.  Every one is true bypass.  9v supply, with grounds from the first input jack to each circuit
7 might be a boost. Might not. Regarding the full set of I/O jacks, I've built a two channel mixer with boost for this, and I may add a splitter at the front end - for blending. I can also put the guitar straight into any pedal. Or lend one to one of the other players?
Demos? They're all out there somewhere.  Mine are fairly standard versions with a little touch of front end eq, or a change in gain structure.  If I start blending, that might deserve a demo.
After the parametric eq (boost, freq, Q, volume. I love the fixed-wah sound, as well as the midrange notch sound) is a RunOffGroove Azabache (beautiful clean, and "the full range of ACDC sounds", which sounds funny to say), a Ge fuzz face (the Fur Face from Small Bear), and a Jordan Bosstone (sort of. I left out the clipping diodes, added an op amp boost in front, to crush it, and a sweepable midrange notch. Very nice.  Weird, crunchy, or metal). I'm a fan of pre-distortion eq.
5th from the right is the CMOS 49'er, as per Mark Hammer there is an Anderton freq booster with a three frequency select switch (on, off,on) as well as a front end boost control because the thing seems to respond well to being driven hard, and an Uglyface.  Besides that guy, and my version of the 49'er, the others offer good cleanish sounds. All are true bypass.  Noise is quite good, although, whenever I drive the distortion with ridiculously high gain, I usually use a noise gate up front. I might be able to stuff a little one in here with one knob and no stomp.
I would love to share my hand drawn schematics, cuz I did a couple interesting things with the Jordan and the 49er, and the boost which rolls off highs and lows when engaged. The very day I finished the thing, the pile of 6 drawings fell behind the countertop. I now need to remove sliding drawers and cut a hole in the back of the cabinetry with a jigsaw to figure out what the hell these things do.  A couple knobs I am not quite sure about. Eh, we move on.
I chose this 15 inch long enclosure for my first try at a decal.  I'd rather not discuss it. Nor will any living being see photos of the internal wiring. 

A recycled piece of rack equipment, with the guts thrown out.  Occasionally, rack ears are removeable, but they could be cut off. Or you could make a rack mount unit with another box as a foot switch.  Lots of crap is on its way to the landfill. This happens to be an obsolete 7 year old Gefen HD KVM extender.  I will probably make another.  With modulators or weird stuff.
  • SUPPORTER
http://29hourmusicpeople.bandcamp.com/
Tapflo filter, Gator, Magnus Modulus +,Meathead, 4049er,Great Destroyer,Scrambler+, para EQ, Azabache, two-loop mix/blend, Slow Gear, Phase Royal, Escobedo PWM, Uglyface, Jawari,Corruptor,Tri-Vibe,Battery Warmers

PRR

> 64 holes in it, which may disqualify it as a shielded enclosure.

Many of the holes are closed or near-closed with metal bushings and shafts.

The normaled jacks are 1/4" holes, but 1/2" deep, so are not wide-open. If an EMI wave doesn't come straight in, it is likely to hit a wall and be damped.

Even granting that all holes are 1/4" (no metal knob-shafts), I figure 400 square inches of groundy sheet metal and 3 square inches of hole. Over-all it is 99% shielded. I would expect a short-inch near each hole to leak-in the outside world, anything further than that is pretty darn snug.

Nice build. Nice re-use.
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Processaurus

Great project!  I love seeing the rare, giant analog multi-effect get finished. 

The splitter-blend is a great addition, and possible because you used the jacks in the back to be able to extract individual effects.  One scenario for the routing of the splitter blend that might be handy is to have the two sources getting blended be jacks on the back of the pedal, and use the footswitch to choose between your effect chain you already have going with the regular, serial routing, vs the blend sound you've prepared by plugging things into the back.  That way you're only one footpress away from your special blended sound, without a tapdance of having to turn other effects off, and turn the two effects getting blended on.  Like the setting on the Boss Line Selector that is "Bypass/Return A + Return B mix"

Mark Hammer

That's both silly and pretty, all at once.  Nice work, Alan.  :icon_smile:

I picked up a 4-switch and 6-switch footswitch unit for Marshall amps to make similar sorts of things.  I also bought a used sloped-front Hammond chassis some years back that appears to have been machined for an octet of rehoused Boss and EHX effects.  The low temperature in the garage, and lack of suitable heat in the office workspace (our furnace is busted and getting replaced in about a week), not to mention switching to a new job, has put a dent in my building.  But I hope to get back to it.  I think I'll keep my graphics a little more reserved, and use different-coloured LEDs to differentiate effects.  The 8-in-one may even persuade me to take the big leap to relay-based switching.  Particularly since the larger sloped-front chassis are hot up to heavy-footed pounding.  Making use of the soft-touch SPST momentaries and some little 5V DPDT relays is probably just the ticket.

Ben79

I'm undertaking a similar project myself...

http://ilovefuzz.com/viewtopic.php?f=151&t=44224

Not sure how I'm gonna go about graphics but I'm thinking maybe stripes of coloured enamel for each 'pedal' so it's a bit like the big old Maestro units.

blackieNYC

Quote from: PRR on November 29, 2014, 04:20:03 PM
> 64 holes in it, which may disqualify it as a shielded enclosure.

Many of the holes are closed or near-closed with metal bushings and shafts........
.....Nice build. Nice re-use.
Re: shielding/enclosure holes- "It's a joke, son!  A funny!"  But a good point made. And thanks.  Must build another.
  • SUPPORTER
http://29hourmusicpeople.bandcamp.com/
Tapflo filter, Gator, Magnus Modulus +,Meathead, 4049er,Great Destroyer,Scrambler+, para EQ, Azabache, two-loop mix/blend, Slow Gear, Phase Royal, Escobedo PWM, Uglyface, Jawari,Corruptor,Tri-Vibe,Battery Warmers

tubegeek

Foldin' carpenter's ruler. I like your style there! Mark Hammer can give you some tips on how to match that sucker up with some FINE-looking OshKosh overalls, you'll be winning tractor pulls against PRR in no time.

Can we see the internal wiring?

(Just kidding.)
"The first four times, we figured it was an isolated incident." - Angry Pete

"(Chassis is not a magic garbage dump.)" - PRR