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Posted: Wed Sep 30, 2009 1:27 pm
by timhulio
Farnell seems the cheapest for those jacks- they're like:
84p for two mono
£1.18 for two stereo

Rapid

Rapid recently had a sale on the popular eddystone size - £1.92 each. I just bought all they had available- 82 of them!

Posted: Wed Sep 30, 2009 1:34 pm
by Mike
haha fucking hell. You're doing a lot more building than me. I build to order generally or to make first editions of each pedals for demoing/website and then sell them on.

I'm currently at about 2-3 pedals a week these days, around 100 a year.

Posted: Wed Sep 30, 2009 1:48 pm
by timhulio
Ah well those pedals are numbers 100 and 101, since November last year. So my output has been about the same, albeit in small batches. Really happy with the percolator layout now though, so the next batch will be bigger so I can sell one on ebay each week without interruption.

Posted: Wed Sep 30, 2009 1:54 pm
by Mike
How is the ebay stuff working out for you? I've seen your pedals mentioned on a few forums now so you must be getting some brand identity, how much do they sell for on average?

Also have you looked into going legit? I'm thinking I'm going to have to sooner rather than later.

Posted: Wed Sep 30, 2009 2:02 pm
by timhulio
Will have to once I get regular orders or try to get stuff in shops, but selling on forums isn't going to attract much attention.

Ebay is good sometimes. I sell utility percolators on there for £40-70, but not harmonic percolators as the parts for the latter are more expensive and Chuck Collins got legal on my ass so it's not worth the hassle. Even at £40 that's at least £25 profit on a pedal that's now quicker to make thanks to batch production and pcb-mounted pots and switch.

Posted: Wed Sep 30, 2009 2:14 pm
by Mike
Not bad at all, a lot of the stuff I do ends up having a much slimmer margin than that because of larger cases, more parts etc.

If I worked out my hourly rate as a result of it it would be depressing, but I don't do this for the coin.

Posted: Wed Sep 30, 2009 2:27 pm
by timhulio
I make most of these for money, but take a lot of pride in making something well. The design aspect is cool too. The main aim is to build-up a reputation for making quality stuff, at the same time learning more electronics theory. Then I'll design something original and monumental, outsource production, quit my job and buy a yacht.

Heh.

Posted: Mon Oct 05, 2009 12:09 pm
by timhulio
New Utility Perkolator with pretty flaaahs and millenium bypass switching on the main board.

Image

Posted: Tue Oct 06, 2009 10:24 am
by Mages
Hey Tim, I have some questions about your Husk(er)y Wolf. I like my Dist+ a lot (the '80s one in the big black enclosure) but it just doesn't have enough gain. I see your HW addresses that issue with asymmetrical clipping and greater value vol pot. how much more gain would you say this gives you? also, my Dist+ has an intense amount of noise floor. I think more than any other distortion pedal I have. How's the HW on this?

Posted: Tue Oct 06, 2009 10:48 am
by timhulio
Well, looking at this:
http://www.pedalarea.com/images/mxr_dis ... 000_02.jpg

I reckon yours has symetrical silicon clipping diodes. I've not really found this to be a very noisy pedal, but maybe the plastic box one is noisier. The Huskery Wolf is louder than a stock pedal, but the actual amount of gain (the distortion level) is the same. If you want way more gain (really thick fuzz) as well as loads more volume, the Liquid Fox might be what you're after. That's essentially two Dist Pluses cascaded.

Posted: Tue Oct 06, 2009 10:55 am
by timhulio
This image made me lol. It was titled 'mxr dist plus problem':
http://burton56.w.interia.pl/mxr1.jpg

Posted: Tue Oct 06, 2009 11:05 am
by Mike
Image

You should easily be able to increase the gain on this by fiddling around with the op-amp feedback loop

Posted: Tue Oct 06, 2009 11:49 am
by timhulio
Yeah - replacing the 4.7k resistor and cap next to it with lower values seems popular.

I'm also gonna try to make a variation on this with a dual op-amp when I finally finish building some pedals and can get the breadboard out.

Posted: Thu Oct 08, 2009 10:41 am
by timhulio
The first of two of these (this one is sold) turned out preeeety good.

Image
Image
Image

Posted: Thu Oct 08, 2009 10:49 am
by Mike
Very nice. How are you mounting the PCB?

Posted: Thu Oct 08, 2009 11:48 am
by timhulio
Double-sided stickyfoam. After reading a few posts on Freestompboxes I'm gonna move towards all standoffs in future, but I made these boards a little while ago and there's no room on them for mounting holes.

Posted: Thu Oct 08, 2009 11:59 am
by Mike
I've been using that stuff for a while aswell, the board just appears too high for that to be the mounting method from that angle. Why are you changing? Do people say it's not reliable or something?

Posted: Thu Oct 08, 2009 12:16 pm
by Noirie.
timhulio wrote:Image
Demo?

Posted: Thu Oct 08, 2009 12:52 pm
by timhulio
Mike wrote:Why are you changing?
I'm not sure. Sticking a board down with foam- same as using tape I guess- just doesn't seem like the best way to do things. That said, the old MXR pedals did come with a bit of thin card as insulation, and they're still going strong.

Posted: Thu Oct 08, 2009 12:58 pm
by timhulio
Mike wrote:I've been using that stuff for a while aswell, the board just appears too high for that to be the mounting method from that angle. Why are you changing? Do people say it's not reliable or something?
Oh yeah sorry it's not stuck-down in these photoslol. I was still testing when I took them.