BYOC Tri-Booster Pedal Kit

[duhvoodooman***]

I came across THIS informative article today, explaining how booster pedals work and comparing them vs. overdrives and amp gain stages. This shed some light for me on how my new TriBoost pedal is working, and why it acts like it does. Interesting....to a geek like me, anyway!

[Tone2TheBone]

I love this kind of stuff.

[duhvoodooman***]

OK, I finally got around to painting & decaling this pedal. Came out pretty well, I think. I call it "Tone Triage", a little play-on-words with the Tri-booster name. When your tone needs some first aid, stomp on this! The ambulance graphic on the decal is positioned so that the pedal's LED looks like the light on top:

[Spudman***]

Beautiful. The master does it again.:

[Algonquin]

Pedal looks great DVM. Is there a special paint for the metal casing you use? Just curious about the adhesion factor.

[M29]

Hello duhvoodooman,

I am curious how you go about doing your decals? I am sorry if you have already covered this. I have been thinking of giving the decal paper a try that you put in your printer. Is this what you use?

Thank you for your time and help. The clips sound great!

M29

[duhvoodooman***]

Is there a special paint for the metal casing you use? Just curious about the adhesion factor.

I generally use spray lacquer, and find that it adheres very well to these aluminum casings. For this one, however, I had to use enamel because the local hardware store near where I work didn't have the color I wanted (a light beige) in lacquer. I found the enamel harder to work with; it's touchy on adhesion and tends to "orange peel", if you're not very careful. I think that if I'd presanded the surface more thoroughly, it probably would have gone more smoothly. I just gave it a quick scuff, and it wasn't quite enough.

Bottom-line: I'd recommend sticking with lacquer, because it seems to be a lot more forgiving. Even better, buy the enclosure pre-painted! Pedal Parts Plus has a nice selection of sizes and colors. Since this was a full kit, that wasn't an option; it came with a bare metal enclosure.

I am curious how you go about doing your decals? I am sorry if you have already covered this. I have been thinking of giving the decal paper a try that you put in your printer. Is this what you use?

I've used inkjet decal paper from Papilio thusfar, with fairly good results. When I started, I used to cut out the individual graphics much like we used to do with model car and plane decals, as a kid. However, this is tedious, and you end up with an uneven surface in the top clearcoat, due to the thickness of the decal itself. There are ways to mitigate that, but it adds even more work.

I finally got smart and started doing full-face decals. In other words, that pedal has a single decal that covers the entire top. The perimeter is about a sixteenth of an inch outside of that red border. The application of the decal itself thus becomes very easy; you just have to be careful to squeeze out any air bubbles trapped underneath. They sell a "mounting fluid" that you spread on the surface to be decaled, and it makes it easy to slide the decal into exactly the right position. Then you squeegee out the excess water, pat it dry, and let it dry overnight. Add a couple of coats of clear lacquer or enamel, and you're done. Since the edge of the decal is at the perimeter of the pedal surface, it blends right in and isn't really noticeable.

The full-face method takes a lot more effort to set up, though, because the graphics have to be positioned in exactly the right locations on the decal to correspond to the controls. I end up printing it to regular paper to see how it aligns, then do any necessary fine-tuning before doing the final print to the decal paper.

I need to re-order decal paper (Warning! Not cheap!), but this time I'm going to try the laserjet variety. We have a nice color laserjet at work, and it gets around the tendency of the ink to bleed a bit, even when "sealed" with a couple of coats of clear lacquer or enamel, which is necessary before soaking them in water for application.

[SuperSwede]

Thats one classy looking pedal you have there DVM!

[Tone2TheBone]

Yeah I'm interested in how the stuff would hold up being printed with "laser" jet. Very good build Voo as usual!

[M29]

Sweet job DVM and thank you for the info on decaling I can't wait to try it out. Your work is always excellent and inspirational.

Something they have out for the scale modeling community is a decal setting solution. This helps soften the decal and draws it over rough surfaces. Not that it would be of any good on a pedal but you never know what project it might help on. The mildest product is Micro-Sol setting solution and the strongest for tough jobs when the Micro-Sol just won't bring that decal into the uneven areas is Solvaset setting solution. These can usually be found in Hobby shops or Model railroad shops.

I have found Zink Chromate to be an excellent primer for aluminum. This is what is used in aircraft and most anything commercial like buses and what not. It can be found in auto body supply stores. It is pretty toxic though so keep the spray down wind if you can but this stuff really sticks good. It is usually green to yellow-green in color.

I hope this helps some.

M29

[duhvoodooman***]

Zinc chromate, huh? Being a chemist by training, I know that's some pretty nasty stuff. Do you know if it can be brushed on, rather than sprayed?

[kidsmoke*]

Resurrecting this old thread....
Stalking DVM's page I read his comments on this pedal and it sounds pretty awesome.

You mention in the thread DVM, that you don't expect to sell these....is that still the case?

Did anyone (Robert) ever get their hands on one and make a video?

DVM, how do you ever get any actual work done? Between you BJr mods, Epi Jr mods and pedals...don't know how anyone, especially a Yankees fan, could pull that off! Impressive.

[duhvoodooman***]

I sell 'em--$150 fully finished, $120 assembled/unpainted.

AFAIK, nobody's done a video of one of mine, but you can probably find a couple on YouTube for the pedal.

Work? Wassat?