ThePearDream's Project Thread

[MayTheFuzzBeWithYou]

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

[ThePearDream]

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.

[Shadoweclipse13]

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!!!

[tribi9]

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

[ThePearDream]

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.

[tribi9]

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

[ThePearDream]

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.

[ThePearDream]

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.



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.

[ThePearDream]

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.




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.




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.

[ThePearDream]

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



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)



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