I've wanted to make bigger box enclosures for some time but haven't had time to sort out a new enclosure but recently I sat down with a few vintage Big Muffs from different periods and worked out what size I liked the most.
I love BIG pedals. I loved the way guitarists in the late sixties and seventies would have two, maybe three big pedals on the floor, probably with a curly chord running into them and then off to a half or full stack. EH, Colorsound, Univibes, Morley, Fuzz Faces and Wahs. They were all big boxes on the stage or studio floor.
With the advent of the Japanese effects market pedals got smaller with Boss and Maxon introducing the "compact" effect and since then everyone has scaled down the size of their enclosures. In the early seventies brands like MXR made GREAT pedals in little boxes and the world loved them. In more recent times micro and nano pedals dominate the market with pedal board real estate at a premium.
Well, since I don't want to be involved in that part of the market with my hand made and custom effects I decided to go back to the seventies and make enclosures that stand out on stage again.
These enclosures are "almost" exactly the same size as the original Triangle Big Muff/Foxey Lady enclosure but converted to metric so I could keep track of what was going on in my puny brain. The bigger "US" Big Muff enclosure is considerably bigger and probably unnecessary big for this project and as much as I LOVE the BIG Russian EH stuff, they're just awkward if you do want to put them on a board as they're so high you need to sort out what can go beside them and, more so, above them if you don't want to have to step over that giant brick to turn something on. Other brands like Colorsound used pressed steel or Marshall, Fuzz Face etc used cast enclosures, both of which are harder and more expensive (I've been there) to make, so, the old EH style, which is basically how my current enclosures are made was it.
So with the new enclosure I thought I'd kick off the series with some of my Big Muds re-imagined into these bigger boxes.
Just like the difference between CD and LP artwork these bigger boxes gave Tone the opportunity to stretch out with the original artwork and personally I love it. The size and artwork really stand out even more now and Tones artwork, while keeping completely honest to the original, just looks great on these bigger canvases.
So, I will be making limited edition versions of some or most of my Big Muds that will be available in the shop very soon with more to follow. I am also introducing some old, and new Tym effects in these bigger boxes and some completely custom and special ones with hand stamped "artwork" that I can easily customize to suit the pedal.
Tones in the process of re-doing some of the artwork so to kick them off here's a few of my favourites.
The Triangle is my vintage Triangle Mud using big tin can, low gain 2N3053 transistors for an open style distortion and lots of harmonics and, the tone control works backwards just like the originals.
The Violet Rams Head is my standard Violet but I'm no longer using my very limited supply of NOS "tin can" BC108s and instead have substituted them for some really nice BC239s which I'm really loving. Those NOS BC108s had a really nice "crackle" in the top end and these 239s keep a really nice harmonic that I love in my Ramshead series.
The Civil War is my standard Civil War based on my favourite and (in my opinion) best sounding original CW I've ever played owned by my good friend Raul. The Reverse logo is my standard Reverse and I LOVE the way this one looks in the big box.
The artwork on these is printed on vinyl labels with a layered ink method to make it look like screen printing. The vinyl has a brushed metallic finish to match the enclosures. It took some time to get these right and I'm happy with the results. This is a long wearing outdoor application so is similar to my smaller pedals except on a vinyl label instead of aluminium.
I will make some other versions soon along with some old favourites and previously limited edition circuits that I'd like to revisit. New Tym effects will follow once I get them sorted and Tone has time to do up all new artwork.
Until then, enjoy these.