ridiculously cool pedal vibe
how to etch an enclosure
So, you’ve built the perfect $400 boutique overdrive circuit that makes your guitar sing the sweetest of songs. Your wiring is immaculate and the parts are top shelf. How do you add that cherry on top: The Pedal Enclosure Art
For us DIYers, a lot of the time the pedal art is the last thing we’re thinking about. We want the tone, and settle for a pedalboard of Sharpie-labeled boxes. That shouldn’t be. When we look down to stomp that newly soldered creation, it’s look should inspire us as we play.
Let’s face it: We aren’t necessarily graphic designers, we don’t usually have airbrush gear, we don’t have vinyl cutters, sand blasters and powder coating machines. How are we supposed to make our boxes speak to us visually?
We can ETCH THE ENCLOSURE! We etched the PCB, why not the enclosure!? You can achieve some pretty wicked looks via etching and the proces isn’t that bad or expensive!
PrestonsMusic.com has a great tutorial that walks through the process from preparation to the etch. I’ve etched a few boxes myself and his steps as well as knowledge learned from his experience is spot on. Suffice it to say, the first one I tried I nearly burned the house down…follow his instructions and you’ll be fine 🙂
Here are some examples of the possibilities of etched enclosures. As well as here.
undergroundpedalmods 