Joshua Tree Echo.
This was built by request for my friend Chris Stelloh, the Yuma Wray in Miss Shevaughn and Yuma Wray. Go check them out, killer vocals, and Erin (Miss Shevaugh) is also an excellent guitarist and fellow gearhead.
http://www.missshevaughnyumawray.com
1776 Effects Multiplex > 1776 Effects Rub-a-Dub > Madbean Fat Pants (on perf).
Despite being three circuits I've built before without issue, this build was full of twists and turns. If you want to see all the issues I had getting it working, I posted a more complete build report in Josh's corner of the Madbean forum.
Here's some of the mods and features:
- The multiplex is wired for tails (only the delay line is bypassed -- all audio lines and the reverb are "always on").
- The Fatpants is on perfboard with the switch and gain control board-mounted. (Only the output volume is external.)
- Chris wanted an infinite repeats switch instead of the tape detune. Josh had a prototype board with an error in the detune stage that was perfect for this. There's a little trimpot that limits how quickly the oscillation happens.
- Finally, I dropped the gain of the first op-amp stage in the Rub-a-Dub a little. This gives the circuit a little more headroom before distortion. Normally this would result in a volume drop, but with the Fatpants in series after it, that's not an issue. As an interesting side benefit, the Reverb level can get above unity. (So can the delay mix in this build, but that wasn't intentional either.)
It sounds quite glorious. I've spent several hours playing it over the week I've been working on it, and I really think my friend's going to like it.
About the art: My friend wanted something joshua tree (the actual tree) themed. I spent a week thinking about how I was going to do something cute with a desert. Then I showed a picture of a joshua tree to Lexa, who had never seen one, and she said, "It looks like a Dr. Suess tree." Woohoo! Some level of cuteness was thus established.
The enclosure is 1590C (same as a Tim). It was actually DIFFICULT to work with something so large, because it's so deep! The color is Moss Gray (kind of greenish-gray, the panel picture is the closest to the in-person color), and bright greens and yellows really pop on the background.
