ThePearDream's Project Thread

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Re: ThePearDream's Project Thread

Post by MayTheFuzzBeWithYou » Sat Nov 21, 2020 9:31 am

Love the Magnetic Echo and the Uberverb - especially the wave detail in the silverface font! 😍

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Re: ThePearDream's Project Thread

Post by ThePearDream » Sat Nov 21, 2020 9:52 am

Shadoweclipse13 wrote:
Sat Nov 21, 2020 9:17 am
Real spring tank in a small pedal!! That's epic!! You should post a sound sample ;)
I can't record any samples until I track down the static issue. But This video should give you a good idea of what this thing can do.
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Re: ThePearDream's Project Thread

Post by Shadoweclipse13 » Tue Nov 24, 2020 8:29 am

ThePearDream wrote:
Sat Nov 21, 2020 9:52 am
Shadoweclipse13 wrote:
Sat Nov 21, 2020 9:17 am
Real spring tank in a small pedal!! That's epic!! You should post a sound sample ;)
I can't record any samples until I track down the static issue. But This video should give you a good idea of what this thing can do.
That's amazing. I love it!!!
Pickup Switching Mad Scientist
http://www.offsetguitars.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=8&t=104282&p=1438384#p1438384

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Re: ThePearDream's Project Thread

Post by Fiddy » Wed Nov 25, 2020 3:19 pm

What kind of paper do you print the logos on? The pedals look great, everything in this thread actually..

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Re: ThePearDream's Project Thread

Post by ThePearDream » Wed Nov 25, 2020 7:13 pm

tribi9 wrote:
Wed Nov 25, 2020 3:19 pm
What kind of paper do you print the logos on? The pedals look great, everything in this thread actually..
Thanks a lot! I use clear waterslide decal paper. You can get it for either inkjet or laser printers. I have a black only laser printer, so I keep everything black or grey. I've used the same paper for some headstock decals too. Between you and me I did sneak a quick color print on the color laser printer at work recently and it turned out well. Those pedals will be appearing soon.
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Re: ThePearDream's Project Thread

Post by Fiddy » Wed Nov 25, 2020 8:08 pm

Oh right on, thx and then do you just clearcoat and bake?

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Re: ThePearDream's Project Thread

Post by ThePearDream » Thu Nov 26, 2020 7:40 am

tribi9 wrote:
Wed Nov 25, 2020 8:08 pm
Oh right on, thx and then do you just clearcoat and bake?
A few coats of lacquer, but I don't bother baking or even polishing.

I'm planning to redo my kitchen in the next six months, part of which will include replacing my old toaster oven. This would allow me to bring this older oven into my shop space, so I could bake these, or oven do some diy powder coating.
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Re: ThePearDream's Project Thread

Post by ThePearDream » Mon Nov 30, 2020 11:48 am

Finished up this Fender Pelt clone over the weekend.

The idea for the graphics on this one came pretty quick. Pelt = mammal scalp = wig = powdered wig. The pink knobs and pink LED on the white enclosure look pretty cool to me.

I don't know as much about pedals as some other people on here, but I would say that this is more of a polite, gentlemanly fuzz that cleans up well with the volume knob. Not to say that there isn't plenty of fuzz available, it's just more tame than say, a superfuzz. I think it may be similar to a silicon fuzz face. The Bloom control adds harmonic overtones and turns the fuzz "hairier". The mid switch has boost, cut, or normal. And the thick switch adds some beefiness. Lots of versatility here.

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In other news, I'm almost ready to assemble my Bronc-guar build, but discovered that my shielding paint was dried up, so am waiting on supplies to make a diy batch.

And, my 25" Domino copy is almost ready to move off the workbench. Just little more sanding and I will begin working on the finish as weather permits. Tomorrow being December, it could take a while though.

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Re: ThePearDream's Project Thread

Post by ThePearDream » Tue Dec 08, 2020 9:15 am

I've got a few more pedals finished up.

First is a 1981 DRV clone (PedalPCB Informant). The stripes from the original 1981 got me thinking about "bomb pop" striped popcicles. Also, because it is based on the Rat, and I associate the Rat with Sonic Youth and my favorite Sonic Youth shirt I used to have is the bomb pop shirt. I matched the knobs and typeface as closely as I could to the original. This is a fun pedal, I haven't put it through it's paces yet, but I like how much range it has on tap between the drive knob and the rat style cut knob.

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Next up, I had a cool knob dial thing that I had been wanting to use. I couldn't find a one knob pcb that I was too enthused about though. At the same time, I had been wanting to build an Acapulco Gold, but couldn't find a US based pcb. So, I decided to try my first vero build on this pretty basic circuit. As I was using the large dial, I opted not to do any graphics. I did put in a huge 8mm green led though. This thing is so much fun. I plugged my baritone in and got a contact high from the sounds coming out of my amp. I'm really glad I decided to build the version with the gain knob too, as I prefer it at around 60-70% gain. This was a quick and fun build and a great learning experience. There are so many vero circuits out there, it opens up a ton of possibilities. This also has me thinking that I may be almost ready to build a tube amp.

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On the guitar front, after posting about the Fender Performer in the Squier 2021 line? thread, I decided to whip out a quick Perfomer drawing in CAD as a possible future build. While researching 24 fret necks as on the original, I discovered something interesting...

25-1/2" scale 24 fret necks without an overhang require 6-3/8" (161.925mm) from the heel to the saddles, this is verrrry close to the 6-1/4" (158.75mm) required by 24" scale 22 fret necks as used on a Mustang or Jag the. I'll note that the heel width of the 24 fret neck pocket is going to be 1-2 mm larger than a standard heel. So, I'm not recommending that anyone spend a few grand on an original Performer just to pop a Jag neck on, but in theory it would work and would intonate just fine.

To get to the point, not wanting a 24 fret neck, I realized that I could build a short scale performer without modifying the body or pickguard lines.

Shown below is a 24" scale Performer with standard strat sized pickups. I decided to angle the pickups in the normal direction. I think this fits the body better than the old pickups. I don't know if I'll ever build it, but I'm really tempted at the moment.

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Re: ThePearDream's Project Thread

Post by ThePearDream » Sun Dec 27, 2020 11:40 am

Got this thing all wrapped up this morning!
I'll take better pics later and even wipe off all the smudges.

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This is the first of my scratch built necks that I've gotten installed so far. This is the third one I've made - I just haven't finished those other ones yet. I'm really happy with how this neck feels. It's just a hair thinner than I was trying for, but that's all part of the learning experience. The Bootstrap pickups sound great and came with separate ground wires already soldered on to the claws. I was trying to get something stripped down (Bronco), but versatile. A "rock machine" and I feel like I succeeded. The controls are simple, but yield a nice range of sounds. The weight is reasonable as well.

It's name is PRONGHORN after the super cool Pronghorn "antelope" we have here in the western U.S. This is kind of a sibling guitar to my COYOTE build (orange Jagstang with double Jag bridge pickups)

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Here's the full spec rundown:

Weight : 7lb 12oz
Body: 2 piece poplar, 1.625"D, contoured neck heel
Body Finish: VW Sage Green Metallic, with thin Nitro clearcoat
Neck: 24", Maple with Rosewood and pearl dots, 9.5"R, narrow tall frets (0.95x0.47), Deep C shape, 0.830-0.920"D, buffalo horn nut
Neck Finish: TruOil
Tuners and string tree: Gotoh
Bridge: Am Pro
Vibrato: MIJ with Staytrem collet and arm
Pickguard : BWB
Pickups: Bootstrap Big Spotted Cat™ set
Pickup Covers: my own design printed by Shapeways
Switching: 3-way slide with settings for: both in parallel / "neck" pickup / both in series
Controls: 1M master volume, 1M master tone, wired Jaguar style, including the 56K resistor, Boss style knobs
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Re: ThePearDream's Project Thread

Post by ThePearDream » Sun Feb 07, 2021 10:31 am

I'm just going to do a bit of a dump here.

I have some laser cut templates on the way for a few upcoming projects and wanted to share some renderings.

First, I'm building a guitar for my wife.
I thought the the St. Vincent could be a good fit for her curvy figure, but I'm doing it in 24" scale since she complains about her short fingers on a full scale neck.
I've been saving a lighter Poplar blank for this project, so the weight should be nice.
I have a nice piece of ebony for the fretboard and I'm thinking of roasted maple for the neck.
The headstock is a mashup of Fender, Musicman, and Firebird. It'll get locking tuners with pearl buttons.
I'm sticking to firebird pickups, but only doing two, with a simple 3-way switch.
Musicman sells the St. Vincent knobs, so I'll buy a pair of those.
She wants an "electric blue" color.

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I'll be making a Fender Performer copy for myself
Rather than 25.5"/24 frets, I'm doing 25"/22 frets, cause I have no need for 24 frets and this allows me to keep the placement of everything really close to the originals.
I have some alder that I'll probably use for this one, along with a two piece maple neck with some decently flamed maple I have.
I'm planning on doing some Lace Sensors since I've been wanting a set of those again for awhile and I think they'll work well conceptually in this 80s super-strat type design as well as visually in place of the original Performer pickups with their closed covers. I need to decide between an all Gold set or a Blue/Silver/Red set and my wiring scheme. The jack will move to the pickguard.
This will also have locking tuners and a 2-point strat trem rather than the unobtanium System1 unit or a Floyd type system.
I'm leaning towards this "Pebble Gray" color. I like how non-flashy it is in contrast to the strange body outline.

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Also, as I posted on the Workbench thread, I'm making a few 22.5" necks and I want to grab a Bullet Mustang body and put together a small Duo-Sonic. I have a really great sounding pair of Fender Japan strat pickups from the 80s that have been collecting dust (the bridge pup is dead) and need a home. Contemplating doing a Nashville tuning on it.

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Since I have had Duo-Sonics on the brain, I was remembering a concept I had a few years ago for a Mustang with XII pickups. Also, I'm not happy with the neck on my XII. So this morning I fired up CAD and put together plans for a Duodeca-sonic. 24" scale neck with a wide nut and hockey stick/smurf hat/flacid penis headstock. A Warmoth body with the Toronado bridge option would work well here and BestGuitarParts lets you put a XII headstock on a 24" neck through their custom builder, they also offer a 1.75" nut. I may never make this myself, I just wanted to share it.

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Re: ThePearDream's Project Thread

Post by ThePearDream » Sat May 01, 2021 8:07 am

I had a few pedal projects that I completed back in November/December and never got around to posting.

First, a Catalinbread Pareidolia. This is supposed to be a Brownface style vibrato. The graphics have the look of an anaglyph. I don't have any old school red/blue 3D glasses around to test it out, I just thought it would be a fun idea. The LED flashes between red and blue also. This sounds really cool in both fast and slow settings.
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Next, an EQD Life pedal. I scratched up my graphics by the boost switch during assembly, which bummed me out. I had seen a graphic of garlic and made a connection between the curves of the garlic cloves and the sunn logo on the original pedal. This is actually a covert reference to Bob's Burgers and I call it the "Stupid Black Garlic Pedal" and it is brutal.
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Next, a Hudson Broadcast. Pretty much every copy I could find just used a broadcast antenna graphic like the original, which frankly, is pretty lazy. So I started thinking about other things with antenna and decided on Bender Bending Rodriguez. The obvious way to use Bender would be in a Tone Bender copy, but that would have been too lazy and obvious for me. Since I was doing a Bender theme, I chose an enclosure with chrome powder coat. Consequently, it is pretty hard to photograph, but looks really cool in person. This is a super great sounding pedal. I have it set up on my board as a low gain OD at the moment, but it can really stretch out into fuzz and the bass cut knob is really versatile.
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I've had some pcbs sitting around since last year too. I had all of the components ready except for enclosures. I was stuck on the graphics for an EQD Plumes copy and was waiting to order enclosure until I knew what I was doing. Eventually I just said "fuck it, I know it's going to be green, just order it".

So, lastly, I just finished up a copy of the Skreddy Lunar Module Deluxe Mini. This is basically a Dark Side of the Moon inspired silicon fuzz face and every diy build seems to reflect that. I decided to go another way and so mine is inspired by 2001: A Space Odyssey and has one of the more iconic shots from that movie, along with a giant 8mm red LED. This thing is super versatile in gain and tone and cleans up well with the volume knob.
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Re: ThePearDream's Project Thread

Post by Shadoweclipse13 » Sun May 02, 2021 5:01 pm

Those pedals all rock, but the 2001 one with the big red eye is fantastic!!!!!
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http://www.offsetguitars.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=8&t=104282&p=1438384#p1438384

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Re: ThePearDream's Project Thread

Post by ThePearDream » Sun Jun 20, 2021 9:31 am

I did a few posts about this one on the workbench thread. Well, here it is all finished up:

This was made for my wife's cousin's 11 year old son. I decided to only make them pay for any additional materials/supplies that I would need to purchase, while I pulled from my spare parts collection as much as possible. My many hours of labor were free, as I considered this to be good practice. I had to buy wood for the body, a neck plate, pickguard sheet, control plate, strap buttons, and finishing supplies, for a grand total of ~$100

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Body
Material: 2 piece Poplar, 1-1/2" thick
Finish: Molotow Belton (nitro-alkydal) - Neon Green (his favorite color)

Neck
Material: Birdseye Maple ($10 reject blank from Guitar Wood Experts)
Finish: Satin Nitro
Shape: Modern "C" Shape, 0.82-0.875"
Scale Length: 22.5"
Fingerboard Material: Indian Rosewood (2nd grade from LMII)
Fingerboard Radius: 9.5"
Fret Size: Fender Medium
Nut Material: Bone
Nut Width: 1.650"
Position Inlays: White Pearloid
Truss Rod: Head Adjust

Electronics
Pickups: Rose Evo - originally had these in my Mustang, put replaced them with a Buddha set.
Controls: Master Volume, Master Tone
Switching: 3-Position Toggle

Hardware
Bridge: 6-Saddle Hardtail - from Affinity Jazzmaster
Control Plate: stupid mis-shapen plate made by Allparts
Tuning Machines: Fender Player 2-pin sealed - from my Player Strat, replaced with locking tuners.
Pickguard: 1-Ply White
Control Knobs: Black Witch Hat - originally wanted black stat, but I guess I only had knobs for import pots, so I had to switch at the last minute.

Miscellaneous
Strings: Ernie Ball Beefy Slinky (.011-.054 Gauges)
Weight: 7lb, 1oz, not super light, but perfectly fine

This guitar is a lot of fun to play, chords are a bit of a challenge for my larger hands, but I don't play chords a lot anyway. I love the intense Neon green color, (which also glows fluorescent under black light). All in all, I'm proud of how well it turned out and I hope the kid takes to the guitar. This is a far better first guitar than I (and probably most of you) had.
Doug
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Re: ThePearDream's Project Thread

Post by ThePearDream » Sun Jul 11, 2021 12:58 pm

#2 in the 22.5" series is done. This one is named Gemini and is a 60s Duo-Sonic II inspired build. Except for the Jazzmaster headstock, truss rod access at the headstock, body contours, and strat pickups, it is pretty much vintage spec. I have it set up in Nashville tuning and it is really fun to play. Super jangly, chimy, etc. country-ish solos and techniques are fun on the a-d-g strings and even basic power chords sound fresh.

I told myself that I would try some light relicing, but I haven't been able to bring myself to do anything more than poke it with a screwdriver a few times. I won't do anything too wild, i.e. no rasps or knives, or harsh chemicals. There have been a few legitimate accidents already since I haven't been babying this thing. I'll probably let it spend a few nights in my shed next winter and see if the finish checks. I did go over every component also, removing some shine with synthetic steel wool.

The pole pieces have a vintage stagger and the bridge is flipped (as it normally is in a Duo or Mustang) giving it that weird string balance associated with righty strats strung for lefties. I really like what this does to the in-between position.

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Body
Material: 2 piece Poplar, 1-1/2" thick
Finish: Molotow Belton (nitro-alkydal) - Burgundy (going for something close to Dakota Red).

Neck
Material: Birdseye Maple ($10 reject blank from Guitar Wood Experts). To me, this was the "ugliest" of the three necks.
Finish: Gloss Nitro
Shape: Chunky "D" Shape, 0.86-0.975"
Scale Length: 22.5"
Fingerboard Material: Indian Rosewood (2nd grade from LMII)
Fingerboard Radius: 7.25"
Fret Size: vintage size
Nut Material: Bone
Nut Width: 1.625"
Position Inlays: Cream plastic
Truss Rod: Head Adjust

Electronics
Pickups: They are 2/3 of a set (bridge pup is dead) from a mid 80s MIJ vintage style strat.
Controls: Master Volume, Master Tone, both 250k
Switching: 3-Way slides with a pretty cool scheme. Starting with the switches toward the bridge, the neck switch is (neck off-neck on-neck on, phase reversed), the bridge is (bridge off-bridge on-bridge on, in series with neck. I'll post the schematic when I have a chance.

Hardware
Bridge: Toronado with the "Bubba" mod and Wilkinson tele saddles. I needed all of them staggered in the same direction, so there is one new shiny one and two older tarnished ones.
Control Plate: used from eBay, no idea how old it is
Tuning Machines: Kluson vintage style with cream plastic buttons
Pickguard: aged pearloid
Control Knobs: vintage Mustang style
Neck plate: some pre-reliced model with a phony serial number

Miscellaneous
Strings: Custom set from Stringjoy, based on their Nashville set, but beefed up to work better with the short scale (.028w-.022w-.015-.0095-.015-.011)
Weight: 7lb, 2oz, better than I was expecting, having started with a pretty heavy body blank.
Doug
@dpcannafax

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