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MIDI Control for Delay Guitar Pedal

MIDI Control for Delay Guitar Pedal

I was recently contacted by a guy named Marcus who was looking for a custom MIDI controller that could be used with a guitar pedal that accepted MIDI input. First of all, I’ve never seen a guitar pedal that could take MIDI input but… that’s pretty cool.

Marcus said it was a bit of a rush because they were leaving for tour in two weeks. That was a bit rough, and I wasn’t sure I could get something custom built (and delivered) in two weeks.

Well, we traded a lot of emails, and I sent a render of what I thought I could get done in time using hardware I had on hand. (Marcus also suggested some large knobs.)

It was a bit large, and Marcus suggested a specific Hammond enclosure. It seemed a little small, but I did a render and included the size of knobs I usually use, and thought it would work…

So I decided to go for it, told Marcus I would order some of the enclosures, and while I waited for them to ship I did a 3D print of my model to test the fit of things.

Once I put it together I realized I had to move things bit, but was confident it would all fit okay.

Marcus shared a video with me Neil Finn & Liam Finn Of Crowded House [Guitar Rig Tour 2022] to show the existing setup. Wait. What!? Yes… Marcus is the guitar tech for Neil Finn from Crowded House, Split Enz, and Fleetwood Mac. Okay, that was wild! I was building hardware for Neil Finn.

MIDI Control for Delay Guitar Pedal

Also, I did not built one, or two… but three of them. As Marcus says “If you have one, you have none. If you have two you have one.” And this is because things break. Getting three was probably a safer bet, since if two broke they’d still have one. (I really hope these don’t break though!) Part of what a guitar tech does it make sure the guitarist always has equipment that works, so that involves a lot of spares. (This isn’t a new concept to me as it was a good rule when I built interactive exhibits.)

MIDI Control for Delay Guitar Pedal

And the pedal that takes MIDI input? It’s the Art Van Delay by Bondi Effects. (How can you not love that name!?) The manual goes into depth about how MIDI can control it. I believe the Art Van Delay will replace a Boss DD-3 delay pedal Neil has been using.

MIDI Control for Delay Guitar Pedal

This is probably one of my favorite builds. Marcus was just awesome to work with. I ended up checking out a few interviews with him and he seems like a great guy, so that make things even better. Also, I built hardware that will be used by Neil Finn while Crowded House tours across Australia. Hey now, hey now… that’s pretty cool!

MIDI Control for Delay Guitar Pedal

My only regret is that I wish I could have got the enclosures powder coated as I’m not a huge fan of the bare metal. Since this was a rush job there was no time for that, but I did polish them up a bit on the buffing wheel before they went out. Otherwise I do love how they came together and I’m proud to have built them. Cheers!

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Hygrometer Filament Roll Holder

I recently got a Sunlu Filament Dryer Box and I’ve seen a few people mention that putting a hygrometer inside of it (and another on the outside) can give you a good idea of how much it lowers the humidity. Rather than just sticking it inside the top of the clear cover I decided to make things more complicated and put the hygrometer in the center of the spool so it could spin around and I could practice reading things upside down.

Note that every roll of filament from every manufacturer may have a different spool hole diameter. In fact, even the same damn roll of filament may have different diameter holes on each side! Don’t bother printing this for a snug fit, just make it too small and add some tape either on the body of the print or on the lip to hold it to the spool. The spool is slowly spinning around so it’s not like huge forces will send it flying out into space.

You can get the STL and .scad file from Printables.com – Hygrometer Filament Roll Holder. Print it if you need it!

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Band Balls

If you liked Band Ties you’ll love Band Balls. Maybe not, but I made them anyway. Just like Band Ties you need to supply your own rubber bands, but you’ve probably got a bag sitting in a drawer somewhere.

Secure those pesky cables! Attach a thing to some other thing! There are 101 uses that I will not list here today!

To attach the rubber band you can cut it, thread both ends through the two holes, and then tie them together… Or you can thread the whole thing through both holes and loop through/around itself.

Print in any color you like. There are no rules! You like blue? Blue might look good.

Too small? Scale it up! Holes not the right size? Fire up OpenSCAD and make some changes. Have Fun!

You can get the STL and .scad files from Printables.com – Band Ball. Print ’em if you need ’em!

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USB Footswitch

I made a USB Footswitch. Someone got in touch with me and wanted a button that could work with QLab and that they could easily trigger with their foot. I designed and printed an enclosure and I made it pretty darn solid. I’ve stood on it and it hasn’t broken yet.

You can find this USB Footswitch on Etsy if you want or need one. It can be programmed to do pretty much anything you could do with a computer keyboard, and it can alternately work as a USB MIDI device. Which, as long as you need only one button, might be useful!

Here’s a shoe for scale. It’s a shoe that belongs to my wife. I asked her if I could borrow a shoe and she didn’t even want to know what I was using it for. Anyway, it shows how you might trigger the button with your foot.

There’s a port for a Micro USB cable, and you’ll get a 6 foot USB cable with it. You could use a 10 or 15 foot cable if you have one, or use a pair of USB over Ethernet if you want to go even further. Maybe your computer is in another room, or another part of the building. Maybe it’s in the control room and you’re in the booth. I don’t know.

Those rubber feet on the bottom should prevent it from sliding around. It’s also fairly heavy for its size, so that should help it from sliding around. Stay put, footswitch!

Here’s a computerized rendering of the device. I model everything I 3D print using OpenSCAD because I love it.

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Programming with OpenSCAD [Book]

I recently picked up Programming with OpenSCAD from No Starch Press. I’ve been using OpenSCAD for over 10 years, and I’ve not yet mastered it, but I’m definitely proficient at it. I’ve learned a lot of tricks over the years and I’ve created some complex 3D objects, but there’s always more to learn.

So did this book help? Yes. I read it while I was “offline” (meaning, on vacation away from home for a week) and it was good to just read a book and have a reference without being distracted by a computer. If you’re a complete newbie to using OpenSCAD, this would be a great book for you. I could still do most of what I do without ever having read it, but I feel like I picked up enough tips and tricks to make it worthwhile.

Other things to check out are the OpenSCAD Cheat Sheet, and the GitHub repo for the book which has all the code you’ll find in the book in case you want to grab any of it.