Earthscum's pedals

[Earthscum]

So, I decided to post pics some of my builds.

Enjoy!

FuglyBazz Bazz Fuss with a BMP tone. Sounds sweet with humbuckers! Built this for my best friend, drummer, and ex-guitarist from our first metal band in Jr. High... over 21 years playing together! This was my second case etch.





Little Angel Made this for my girlfriend. Screen printed custom metallic baby blue... and black. Hard to see the 'shiny'. LED is blue.



Box O' Bees First effect that I boxed up. I made this for my girlfriend... she loves the synthy sound. I had to hijack it for about half a dozen shows or so until I made my own. 


Ugly, aren't they? lol... I'll post more here as I get them done or get pics of them.

[Earthscum]

<space I can add more pics to>

(edit: whoops... that wasn't even supposed to go in a browser. ugh.)

Ok, I guess I'll <add a pic here> lol...

Fuzzy Hoover This is a Fuzz Face based circuit using NTE158's. Picture is of Brooks, who I'm making it for (ego boost for the lead guitarist... I couldn't help it! Besides, he's wearing one of our band's shirts... awesome!)

[jkokura]

Screen printing for the Chorus? Cool - tell me how you did it!

Jacob

[Earthscum]

Basically just like you do any screen printing. The ink is a baby blue mixed 50/50 with clear and about another portion of silver (aluminum) powder. Printed blue first, then black. Blue is offset just .2 pt to allow for screen deflection error. The pot lettering didn't come out all that great, but with their placement, the blur works good. "LAC" lettering has a blue drop shadow behind it to help line things up on the second print. Used Nazdar 7200 series Lacquer.

[jkokura]

Ah yes, technical jargon makes me think you do screen printing in other fields. Considering someone like myself is a complete stranger to the process, is it worth looking at for doing pedals? My current method is running me 3-5 bucks per pedal for getting graphics, but rely's on a commercial printer and takes some work on my pedal. I don't want to pay more money, but Screen printing seems like it gives excellent results... just seems like a better idea for running multiples of the same thing, not one offs.

Jacob

[Earthscum]

basically, you have to do alot of pedals to warrant getting set up for screen printing. Ink alone will cost you about $20-50 a quart, not to mention retarder, cleanup materials... frames, cheap, are about $40, then you have photosensitive emulsion, blockout fluid, emulsion remover, dehazer... it does get pretty technical for the DIY'er. I screen print trophies right now, but am set up at home for screening shirts and (hopefully soon) pedals.

I've seen some AWESOME and rugged results using the print decals... apparently, the clearcoat is the key to those. And it's easier to do, cheaper, and takes less time. I screen print my pedals, well... just because I can. 

[jkokura]

Yeah, because you already do it in other contexts you have a better connection for doing it. It's not much extra effort or money to screen print your pedals when you're doing trophies and t-shirts.

The reason I'm interested is because you can screen print white. I currently use that print shop because they can print in white also. I looked at doing other formats for labeling, and I have some rubber stamps and staz-on ink also, but typical waterslide decals aren't possible in white unless you do full face with white background, then there's the cost of the printer and such... Not working for me. I'll stick with my current method because it is fairly inexpensive and I like the results enough. Screen printing is the only upgrade I can think of, so until I get the volume I would need for screen printing...

Thanks for sharing! A tutorial on how you do it would be really neat, and I bet the community would appreciate that.

Jacob

[Top Top]

I silkscreen at home though I haven't done any pedals. I assume you need a different type of ink from textile ink if you are screening on a non-porous surface. In my experience though, the real essentials are just screen material, photo emulsion, frames, and ink. I have screened at home for years and never used a lot of the stuff you mention.

Right now I'm set up for printing paper CD jackets, CDr surfaces (I use the printable white CDrs), and shirts, in up to 3 colors.

I make my own frames or use picture frames and stretch my own screens.

I also built my press:

[jkokura]

That's cool...

Jacob

[Kitarist]

<space I can add more pics to>

(edit: whoops... that wasn't even supposed to go in a browser. ugh.)

Ok, I guess I'll <add a pic here> lol...

Fuzzy Hoover This is a Fuzz Face based circuit using NTE158's. Picture is of Brooks, who I'm making it for (ego boost for the lead guitarist... I couldn't help it! Besides, he's wearing one of our band's shirts... awesome!)

Is vintage sag actually a voltage trick? so you can lower the voltage? did you use rev log?

[Earthscum]

The 'sag' I used is 10k pot from V+. What it seems to do more than sag the voltage, is adds resistance between power and the transistors, making a feedback pathway between the first and second transistors. Maybe this is what voltage sag is all about, I'm not really sure, but it adds a bit 'more' to the box than just the expected fuzz.

[Manny]

The 'sag' I used is 10k pot from V+. What it seems to do more than sag the voltage, is adds resistance between power and the transistors, making a feedback pathway between the first and second transistors. Maybe this is what voltage sag is all about, I'm not really sure, but it adds a bit 'more' to the box than just the expected fuzz.

Nice builds!
I've built a couple of fuzzes using this sag method and it's always sounded good to me. Dead simple too.
I did one with a momentary foot-switch that toggles between full and sagged voltage, it sounded pretty weird in a "pseudo-good" way.

[Earthscum]

So, I got bored and took a pic of my newest build, Nurse Quacky:

[Earthscum]

And my Big Muff:

[HOTTUBES]

Nice stuff !!!     

[jazbo8]

Nice! What's your trick to align the multiple screens?

Jaz

So, I got bored and took a pic of my newest build, Nurse Quacky:

[Earthscum]

Look at the corners... I leave a little alignment box at each corner, then when it's all done, I just wipe them off with some Lacquer thinner. I usually use hash marks (outer 2 lines of the boxes), but in this case I had the room to just use what I did

Sometimes I'll use the center dots for the pot holes, and just overprint them in every color. Between the pots and the stomp center, it aligns very good.

[Earthscum]

Just realized I haven't updated any newer pedals...

Toe Jam Wah (Yes, it works, and I've played a handfull of shows with it... permanent to my pedal set until I make a newer one).





Schem:

[jazbo8]

Very cool, that might be the smallest mechanical wah around...

Jaz

[petey twofinger]

sorry to play necromancer on this thread but i have to say that toe jam is one of the coolest things i have seen .

all your stuff really stands out . i really want one of those mini wahs though !