Damn, that mixer looks amazing Doc! So clean inside and the aesthetic is mega fly, very 3D. I also dig that prototyping box Jero, so practical. And cool alcohol inkage! Wanna try that method soon, as I've found painting enclosures to be a long process...
Whew, SFD finally finished. After grinding/sanding off the first paintjob because the clearcoat (probably too thick on the box face) had a bad reaction and bubbled... My first design looked pretty much the same as this, except with the S and F trading places, suggesting maybe a name like Fucking Sick Drive.
The letters I made with linoleum cut stamps. Of course couldn't apply them perfectly, so the distressed look just did itself. I changed/simplified the knob titles and painted them with silver paint. Base is grey, with some of the first finish showing through (esp on the sides), the splatter is courtesy of old black spray can, then stamps with white/silver mixed email paint. Finished with three coats of a new matte clear coat I like much better than the gloss.
Inside, the wiring was a tight job, but it fit snugly into this (foil insulated) 1590b. I had measured, brained and drilled very carefully, but of course ONE simple thing gave me trouble: Due to the jacks being very close to the bottom lid, the orientation u see in the pic grounded at least the out jack, thus making no sound. Opening it up again and rotating the jack positions fixed it, but I'll go back and do some groovy filing on the lid later.
Transistor-wise I used sockets and tried out a 2n2222a (the dull metal one) in Q2 (Q1 is 2907a) which I liked. Finally, I used a 3904 instead of MPSA18, just because I have a lot of those and I thought it maybe sounded less bassy, idk. The sound is very gritty and pleasing to my ears (it's set about the same as the first pic), the description MAE gives (splatty, octave-y) is spot on, but still vague enough so I didn't have any particular expectations but good inklings. It does things none of my other dirts do, while still fitting in nicely (using it as a post-everything dirt). I think this will stay on my board for a good while.