# UniCab



## SYLV9ST9R (Aug 21, 2020)

Really liking this one, it will be a big plus playing direct in my mixing board to play with my other gear, or just to play into headphones.
It really makes the sound fuller and instantly more enjoyable both to play and listen.

I had trouble keeping my box caps straight, but pretty happy with my soldering on this one, getting better with every build. The only problem I faced was soldering the LED with polarity inverted. I know I’ll remember the Anode is the posi+ive side from now on… Unfortunately, I burned the LED pads unsoldering it, but thanks to @zgrav ,   I was able to solder it in the path (note to self: gotta learn to properly read schematics).

On the design side, I had bought a matte black enclosure as I tought it would look cool, but I quickly realized that I like my knobs to be labelled, just the way I am. So I did a quick and dirty underlay with some old gold model paint I had at hand (I actually bought that to repaint the numbers on my Strat knobs, but that’s another story). The paint was a bit sticky, but I left the imperfect lines as I liked their graininess, which looks good under the clear coat that is pretty glassy. I also had  trouble with my decal, but after many coats and some wetsanding, the finished product looks good to my eyes.


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## Danbieranowski (Aug 22, 2020)

I’ve been meaning to try one of these. Very cool that you knocked one out. I’ll have to give one of these and the amp sim a shot.


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## Dali (Aug 22, 2020)

Nice work!

My PCB is in the mail...


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## Mcknib (Aug 22, 2020)

Looks great I'm liking the black and gold look

With box caps I'm such a cork sniffer I usually bend both leads outwards, solder one lead in then basically melt the solder and move it around till it lines up with the silkscreen then solder the other lead in

Sad but true


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## SYLV9ST9R (Sep 7, 2020)

Danbieranowski said:


> I’ve been meaning to try one of these. Very cool that you knocked one out. I’ll have to give one of these and the amp sim a shot.


You really knocked it out the park yourself on this one!


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## Danbieranowski (Sep 7, 2020)

SYLV9ST9R said:


> You really knocked it out the park yourself on this one!


Looking forward to what I can copy next!


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## SYLV9ST9R (Sep 7, 2020)

Danbieranowski said:


> Looking forward to what I can copy next!


Hehe, I think I can say that myself looking at your stuff.
I'll have to slow down a bit this fall (and maybe actually make music in the little spare time I have), but still have some build coming up.


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## Chuck D. Bones (Sep 7, 2020)

Caps are fine.  I usually use the method Mcknib described.  Jovi Bon Kenobi describes in detail how to restrain parts during the assembly process.  If you haven't already, you might want to *read this.  *It's a long read, but well worth it.

To paraphrase Fernando:
_"It is better to work good than to look good."_


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## SYLV9ST9R (Apr 20, 2021)

Did a rehouse on this one, because the clear coat had cracked like crazy.
As I also enjoy designing and having fun graphics on pedals I like, I had a new enclosure printed, and as a bonus, the empty enclosure gives me an excuse for another build...


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## JamieJ (Apr 21, 2021)

That design is so good. Amazing job. I’ve been thinking about this build too.


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## cooder (Apr 21, 2021)

Really excellent, top shelf!
For the design did you use a jpeg of cabinet or vector graphic or how did you do that? Cheers!


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## SYLV9ST9R (Apr 21, 2021)

JamieJ said:


> That design is so good. Amazing job. I’ve been thinking about this build too.


Thanks! Do it, it’s a must for headphones playing or plugging direct in a mixing board.


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## SYLV9ST9R (Apr 21, 2021)

cooder said:


> Really excellent, top shelf!
> For the design did you use a jpeg of cabinet or vector graphic or how did you do that? Cheers!


Thanks! I used the "Trace Image" function to vectorize a jpg of tweed fabric, then transformed that as a pattern to use as a "colour" in Illustrator. I drew the cab and used the pattern as a fill colour.
For the grill cloth, I vectorized a jpg and used that directly.


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## ADAOCE (Apr 26, 2021)

SYLV9ST9R said:


> Did a rehouse on this one, because the clear coat had cracked like crazy.
> As I also enjoy designing and having fun graphics on pedals I like, I had a new enclosure printed, and as a bonus, the empty enclosure gives me an excuse for another build...
> 
> View attachment 11170


Looks so good. Is this UV printing on a matte army green enclosure from tayda?


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## SYLV9ST9R (Apr 26, 2021)

ADAOCE said:


> Looks so good. Is this UV printing on a matte army green enclosure from tayda?


Thanks! Yes, it's exactly that, with a gloss layer on top.


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## ADAOCE (Apr 26, 2021)

SYLV9ST9R said:


> Thanks! Yes, it's exactly that, with a gloss layer on top.


Perfect I’m building a protein so that will work just fine


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