Building my first pedal...can't find metal boxes anywhere...

Sneaky-Pete

I was jonesing for a Black Ice thingy from StewMac but not for $24...
Followed it up on the web and eventually found out about
Passive Distortion boxes and how easy it is to make one.
And cheap!....except for the box, which at Communica is an Aluminium one for R126..
So I snuffled round the studio and found an empty sweetie tin(like your granny offers you when you visit).
That'll do for now...but can anyone tell me where I can score a plain metal tin with a lid...the normal pedal size?
I'm eyeing my 10-year-old tin of car polish as well..

Can anybody help?....in Cape Town?

nick

I bought from Yebo but it was stupidly expensive. Only alternative I know of is Mantech

mtmattan

Communica is usually only around R70 for a Hammond 1590B (standard pedal size)

aja

You can get any size box, shielded or not, plastic or metal, made by this company:
www.gainta.com.tw

by buying from their local distributor:

Sivan Electronic Supplies
73 Ninth Road, Kew, Johannesburg
+27 (0)11 887 7879 [tel] +27 (0)11 887 2051 [fax] 082 871 8008 [cell]

esupplies {at} global {dot} co {dot} za

Perhaps they will ship to you?

Sneaky-Pete

Thanks for the feedback.
The guy at Communica didn't mention that one.
I'll get back to him.

Of course, sweetie tins are cheaper...and you've still got all the free sweeties to eat.

ftcl

Try [email]http://za.rs-online.com/web/[/email] - part number 517-3276.

bottledtone

Hey, I dig sweetie tin pedals!! ? They can look pretty cool and unique!!

Sean

bottledtone wrote Hey, I dig sweetie tin pedals!! ? They can look pretty cool and unique!!

Wouldn't they be too soft? ???

bottledtone

Sean wrote
bottledtone wrote Hey, I dig sweetie tin pedals!! ? They can look pretty cool and unique!!
Wouldn't they be too soft? ???

As long as you don't use caramel....... ?

Shibbibilybob

Yeah the box has always been the most expensive part of building your own pedal.
No where is cheap, unfortunately.
Although Mantech, Communica and Yebo will be significantly cheaper than RS (as with all the components as well).

Another option would be to buy a plastic box and shield it yourself. They all sell pretty heavy duty plastic boxes, in much the same designs as the metals ones, but for much much cheaper.
You can then spray the inside of the box with conductive spraypaint or even wrap it in tinfoil if you want. You may even find, for some circuits, especially if you do some good planning with your lay out and wire lengths, that you dont need shielding at all.

Either way, have fun with the build, and remember to scratch between the rails of the vero board with a flat screwdriver, or stanley knife, after you've finished. You need not have a silver solder trail, but only continuous flux, to have continuity.

Sneaky-Pete

Again...thanks for the feedback.

But it's clear you guys don't know how simple it is to make a Passive Overdrive box...no battery...no PCB...almost no soldering..
I'd explain the whole thing here...but then 3 of you would be flogging your own version on Gumtree next month.
The pedal box version is just to find the right combination of diodes.
When I get the creamy/fuzzy/harmonic effect I'm looking for, I'll be fitting the identical electronics into a Cort Zenox that's doing nothing in my guitar rack.

Watch this space...

mtmattan

Do passive distortion boxes sound any good?
Never properly looked at one, but doesn't it kill your signal? ie you'd need a boost before it

Sneaky-Pete

There is a slight drop in output...say around 3dB.
They work best with pickups of 10K or greater, but anything bigger than 7K will see a result.
They really crank with active electronics.

If you have a Humbucker guitar that's not your main squeeze, a mod like this really gives it some character, they say......(who dey..?)

makepeace

Sneaky Pete wrote But it's clear you guys don't know how simple it is to make a Passive Overdrive box...no battery...no PCB...almost no soldering..
I'd explain the whole thing here...but then 3 of you would be flogging your own version on Gumtree next month.

I hope you're not talking about this:

http://www.instructables.com/id/Passive-Guitar-Overdrive-Black-Ice/

Because that's quite a strange way of asking for help.

Sharing is caring ?

In my experience, RS is the best and cheapest means of acquiring die cast aluminium boxes suitable for guitar effects.

My guess is that part no 517-3276 will do you.

Edit: Oops. Just re-read and it seems that ones already been suggested. In that case, +1 ?

Sneaky-Pete

Wow...that was interesting! Hadn't seen that before!

Thanks for sharing...

Here's a tip for strat wiring...
where the 3 hot wires are soldered onto the switchgear,
change over the middle and neck wires.
This gives you: position 1: bridge only
position 2: bridge + neck
position 3: neck only
position 4: neck + middle
position 5: middle only

makepeace

Thanks but, I tried this ages ago. Not really for me :-[

Sneaky-Pete

Never really liked the extra tone knob on a Strat..

I see some people replace it with a mini-switch to bring the neck pickup in...

Norman86

ftcl wrote Try [email]http://za.rs-online.com/web/[/email] - part number 517-3276.

+1 to rs elec!