Let's see your finished DIY projects!

[LaoWiz]

Echobase

[BassiLow]

Recorded clips of it if anybody cares

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TUtRousXRPI&[/youtube]

pretty nice fuzzplaying

[husc]

Recorded clips of it if anybody cares

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TUtRousXRPI[/youtube]

I care! Nice work!!

[frequencycentral]

Bass overdrive built for Tor Kreken of Norwegian band Shining: http://www.shining.no/v2/

[LaoWiz]

Stellar work as always!

[Teej212]

yo laowiz what mods did you do to the echo base? looks like youve added a lot, and i love that enclosure.

nice work as always rick

[frequencycentral]

.....AND

[Wes Mantooth]

.....AND

[LaoWiz]

yo laowiz what mods did you do to the echo base? looks like youve added a lot, and i love that enclosure.

I did all the mods documented at music pcb. It's a great project but the offboard wiring is a headache...

Here's one I did real quick....

[Dandolin]

Recorded clips of it if anybody cares

Really nice--cool variety of textures--particularly liked some of the lower gain sounds available.

[BlindtoFaith]

yo laowiz what mods did you do to the echo base? looks like youve added a lot, and i love that enclosure.

I did all the mods documented at music pcb. It's a great project but the offboard wiring is a headache...

Here's one I did real quick....

SICK! I love all of the knobs and shit you use. Great work....ALWAYS!

[LaoWiz]

SICK! I love all of the knobs and shit you use. Great work....ALWAYS!

Thanks! Superfuzziness coming soon!

[BlindtoFaith]

SICK! I love all of the knobs and shit you use. Great work....ALWAYS!

Thanks! Superfuzziness coming soon!

Sweet! I cannot frickin' wait man! I dream of super huge super fuzz goodness with LaoWiz "antiqued" big box, cool knobiness!!!!

[Teej212]

yeah, lao you need to do a how to on your finishes. they are unbelievable.

[eatyourguitar]

yeah, lao you need to do a how to on your finishes. they are unbelievable.

his finishes do look great but there are already tutorials on how to etch. if you want it to have dirty broken lines and paint half sanded its not hard at all. a lot of that stuff happens by accident. I sometimes throw them out or paint over the bad ones. make them into hand painted boxes. I want to know where he gets the knobs on the rat.

I pretty much always etch the boxes I make. The trick to get a raw look is a million times easier than getting a good super clean etch. At least for me. I always buy ferric chloride (the acid) from radio shack but should probably buy it in powder for to create the best strength mix for etching aluminum. If you have never etched, there's a little bit of trial and error and some folks get some really immaculate detailed designs burned in. In all of my attempts the acid has always eaten into areas I didn't want it to but its probably because I like to etch deep and would leave the acid on for too long. The acid heats up with because of its reaction to the metal and you don't want it to get too hot. I place the box in a plastic container with the box face up and apply the acid with a little rubber blower bulb. I let it burn in for awhile and then dunk the box into another container full of water to let it cool down and then I check to see how deep it is.

With this particular box, I wanted to do it fast. I made sure the dials were burned in and didn't care to much for the border. Once I was done, I scrubbed the gunk out with a stiff brush and then applied some spray paint. Let that dry and then care fully wetsanded with a fine grit to take the toner off of the non etched parts (the control dials, border) and continued sanding to take off some of the paint to ruff it up a bit. I usually clearcoat with this stuff thats made for aluminum auto hub caps but didn't do it for this one. Make sense?

The dials were done with this lovely program:

http://stiftsbogtrykkeriet.dk/~mcs/Scale.html

Try these values for a starting point on the very first one: 50,40,20
Then I import into photoshop and that's it. If you have more questions PM me. Etching is fun. I think I like it better now when it's not perfect and rawer looking. At the very least, it's easier than trying to get the super clean fine detailed etches that some of the etch masters have achieved. PM me if you have any detailed questions. I may try to do an etching demo video for fun. Anyways, PM me if you have any particular questions. Beware though, once you get the bug you won't want to do anything else!

Cheers
Richard