OLC Chunky Cheese (Lovetone Big Cheese Clone)

[adamwastaken]

Officially licensed circuits, for those of you who might not have heard of them yet, are an amazing small scale (not small time!) effects/stomp box company/manufacturer/distributor out of "Unknown Location" (I'm not sure, and information is unavailable), somewhere in the United States.

I recently feel deeply in love with the band Wilco. The songs firstly, but then I stared paying more attention to the tones and fuzz sounds. I inquired. Jeff Tweedy, I found out, uses a Lovetone Big Cheese, for most of his gated, speradic solo tones. I soon foufn out LT was closed down circa 1996, and I would not be able to get my hands on a Big Cheese, unless I forked out $1250 to a vintage guitar store down south for a Cheese Source (Big Cheese and Brown Source hybrid, reissued in Lovetones later years.) This, as for most people is not an option.

I searched youtube for a while, crying as I watched videos of Big Cheese demos. I managed to stumble upon a fellow who had actually bought a kit from OLC, assembled it himself, and low an behold, the tones of a Big Cheese, at less than a tenth of the price.

I opted to buy the PCB alone, as I have access to an electronics workshop through a family connection, so really I only paid $20 for the PCB and $40 for my desired Hammond enclosure.

The PCB took an evening to leisurely populate, and another to leisurely wire.

The case has not arrived yet, however the pedal is wired and in working order. I will be posting some gutshots and a youtube demo/review soon enough.

Unfortunately it can not be done until mid/end February. Not that the 20 odd people here in BF-DIY care. HA!

Too many peopel like me here, who talk and talk and dont show any goods.

Rest assured it is an amazing pedal, and I recommend OLC to anybody who digs good quality kits/prebuilts and dealing with a great company with flawless customer service.

Pics and demo soon!

 

[JohnnyCrash]

AWESOME!

Waiting to see/hear your clips? Not awesome... HAHA!

Why was the Hammond box so expensive?

I'll have to go back and listen to some Wilco

Any thread that encourages players to build their own gear is always cool.

 

[adamwastaken]

Johnny,

The Hammond box was so $$$ cause I am in Australia. Hammond rarely has ANY stock here, and everything is special order plus extra shipping plus it is one of the higher quality powder coated slanted boxes.

I saved so much money on everything else, I dont really mind.

I am wondering however, if another box is ever needed in future, would it be cheaper to pay someone in the states/north america a little cash to pick one up and post it privately... probably. I have some relatives over there, so perhaps.

Hammond also only ever sends a full container. which means I will have to wait 2 more weeks best case scenario on how regularly they fill containers.

Coincidently, the Cheese also performs very well for Dinosaur Jr. esque riffage.

 

[metulmykul]

Keen to hear that one myself. Sounds awesome. I have a bit of a spot for Tweedy's tone. Hell, i might just drop around (only kidding!)

The cost of Hammond enclosures has me using the cheaper Asian equivalents. Even so the enclosure is the dearest part of any build that i have done, and i get them wholesale. Let me know if you need any enclosures as i always have a few, big and small, on hand.

You should drop into Tym guitars in the valley once you get it up and running. I'm pretty sure he has an original in there that you could A/B with. Tell Geordie Mike of the fuzz sent you. He'll be cool.

I could post a swag of builds, but i don't paint them and don't think that they would be all that interesting, to be honest.

Drop me a PM if you ever need any assistance.

 

[JohnnyCrash]

Johnny,

The Hammond box was so $$$ cause I am in Australia. Hammond rarely has ANY stock here, and everything is special order plus extra shipping plus it is one of the higher quality powder coated slanted boxes.

I saved so much money on everything else, I dont really mind.

I am wondering however, if another box is ever needed in future, would it be cheaper to pay someone in the states/north america a little cash to pick one up and post it privately... probably. I have some relatives over there, so perhaps.

Hammond also only ever sends a full container. which means I will have to wait 2 more weeks best case scenario on how regularly they fill containers.

Coincidently, the Cheese also performs very well for Dinosaur Jr. esque riffage.

Ah, I see. There are cheap aluminum boxes that are the same dimensions that might be easier to find in your neck of the woods... nice powder coating though is probably not an option with those.

Sorry to hear about the 2 week wait. That's a bummer. At least you can still plug into the pedal without its box for now.

Dinosaur Jr., I haven't heard anyone reference them in a while HAHA! I might have to build a cheese myself... I can't wait to hear your clips!

 

[11 Gauge]

I know that RomanS here found the following, and they are located in Italy:

(link removed)

Those are samples of SOME enclosures.

Either way, he's in Austria, and those boxes are economical for him. IDK if they'd be much cheaper by the time you get down to Australia, but it would be worth investigating. They have an application that will give you quotes.

Kind of a half cocked idea, but I was wondering if you might contact MI Audio or someone similar who builds pedals in your homeland. Seems to me that a more economical alternative to the "real" Hammond enclosures would be smart, at least when MI Audio was small and unknown.

I only use the Asian equivalents of the Hammond boxes, unless someone is requesting the real deal for a replica or something. There's got to be a way to reroute them to your homeland for a fair price - I guess that no one has tried to tap into that potential market, yet. You need the equivalent of a Small Bear Electronics.

I actually started using baking containers for some builds, but I understand that for a precious project that someone would want it to look nice.

 

[adamwastaken]

Thanks everyone for the advice. This is actually my first built, so I havent got fed up with pricey enclosures yet. I will though. Soon I too will be old a crotchety.

thanks for your kind offer mykul. Actually I was referring to Tym's, and it is in fact a Cheese Source. I would like to A/B them at some stage, but I can't really see it happening. He scares me a little haha... He wasnt overly cheery when I had dealings with him. Who knows, could have been a bad day. I will definately scope it out though.

11, I am all for crazy enclosures, and would like to get into the more unusual side of things later on down the line. I am also thinking of making nice wooden enclosures myself, with fancy edge routing etc. make a fuzz look like soem piece of colonial collectability. antique, stead of boutique you know?

 

[metulmykul]

hahaha...was that Tim or Geordie? Let me know and i'll sort 'em out hehehe.

Yeah i'm pretty sure that the Cheese is on consignment.

 

[11 Gauge]

11, I am all for crazy enclosures, and would like to get into the more unusual side of things later on down the line. I am also thinking of making nice wooden enclosures myself, with fancy edge routing etc. make a fuzz look like soem piece of colonial collectability. antique, stead of boutique you know?

That is so cool. I have a friend who is a top notch woodworker and cabinet maker who I would love to have help me make enclosures, but his life isn't really on track right now. The boxes would look great.

I dunno what kind of scrap sheetmetal you might have locally, but that is another potential option, especially if you can borrow (or find cheap) a shear and bending brake. Also, some reverse engineered surplus tools can do some cool things.

I've always liked the idea of readymade enclosures, and some of the Duchampe/Dada approaches to things as well. Kind of because of the philosophy, but also because of the potential utility.

If/when you get some enclosures done, please post pics!

 

[HoodieMcFoodie]

Just for the info of the Aussies in here you can get genuine Hammond Enclosures - 1590A / 1590B / 1590BB (and other sizes) from Farnell at a reasonable price with free freight if you order online. And next day delivery if you order before 6pm. No minimum order. I live in Tamworth in regional NSW and my Farnell stuff always comes next day.

The best prices I've seen in Oz are from Wiltronics, but the freight charge puts them about on par with Farnell. I've never ordered from Wiltronics so I can't verify the service or the company.

You can get knock-offs from Jaycar / Electus Distribution under the "Soanar" brand. I've used these and they are OK, but be careful to get the ones of a comparable size to the genuine Hammond enclosures. Jaycar charge a freight cost too.

So for my money it's Farnell all the way for Hammond enclosures in popular stompbox sizes. Not affilliated, just a happy customer.

 

[metulmykul]

...I dunno what kind of scrap sheetmetal you might have locally, but that is another potential option...

That's how a guy here does his. He has a fabricator bend his enclosures from stainless scrap. They look cool, are custom fit and only cost him about $4 a throw.

Unfortunately, the guy doesn't have time to up his output

 

[TommyChung71]

I've been looking into these pedals myself. I love the band Wilco and they are my current favorite live band. Going to see them again in Philly in April. Anyway, I've been trying to find a kit somewhere so I could put one together myself but it has been impossible. Thanks for the lead to the OLC.

 

[ChipOnly]

OLC chunky cheese

The Big/Chunky Cheese is the main object of my fuzz desire as well. One gnarly pedal. The shortscale demo on youtube is decent and what initially impressed me.



I picked up the PCB from GGG last year but have yet to have a chance to build it. The main obstacle is taking the time to source parts. I bought a few futurlec value packs but of course that's not going to cover all the components I need. What a PITA, at least for a first timer - mouser and digikey are so daunting and immense. Anyone have any suggestions on how to make it any easier? Is there something easy I'm overlooking? Thanks in advance.

Also not looking forward to wiring the rotary switch on the cheese, looks intimidating to a novice. I've built a few kits, but this is a little more complicated, both as a project and by having to source parts. Kind of wishing now I just splurged and bought the kit, but that wouldn't have been as much of a learning experience....

Looking forward to seeing some pics of your finished build. So I can see where mine is messed.

 

[JohnnyCrash]

SmallBear.

Order all your pedal parts online at one site

Mouser aint that bad, once you start knowing what parts are what, it'll be easier to search for what you need. Mouser has almost everything you could imagine.

 

[adamwastaken]

SO!

Hello gang. Been a while.

The sloped hammond enclosure arrived yesterday! The build was an overall success.

It proved somewhat difficult to house all the innards, because as mentioned, I had wired the components way back at the end of January. I overcompensated on length and had a lot of wire to scrunch up in there. so much so that i didn't even need to mount the PCB. i zip tied a rectangle of foam on the under side of the PCB (so as not to short) and the wires push it firmly on to the baseplate. This isnt the best way I know, I could have rewired, but after nearly a month of no progress, i couldnt, nor would my migraine let me... ouchie.

I have learnt a lot during this, my first build, and i think its worth while sharing a few tips, from a beginner, to other beginners. so sorry to bore the vets.

1. Building pedals is EASY! For anyone who thinks its above them, give it a go. it's so much fun.

2. Try and acquire the same style of potentiometers, shaft wise. I had a mix of D shafts and spine split shafts, and it seems obvious now, but I snapped the split shafts when screwing on the knobs! not so bad though. simply filed down the break and butted the splits against each other. worked fine, but not recommended. It's also very annoying trying to saw the shafts to the same lengths... I am going to search for some super small shafts next time round, probably spine splits for push on knobs.

3. gear is worth it. as i said before i had access to a workshop, so it wasn't such a big deal, but you really will feel more at ease with a good, fine tipped iron, multiple rotary clamps to hold your goods together, and a clean working surface. nothing like dropping a cap into another pile of caps...

4. take your time, have fun.

I am returning home down south come Sunday. Which means I have access to my camera and video camera. I will post a demo shortly thereafter and let you guys see/hear it.

Thanks for all the input of the forum over the last month or so. Appreciated. Expect a link soon!

 

[adamwastaken]

Oh uuuuuh a few more things to say... my knobs are quite displaced from the surface of the case. I am gonna need to it probably would have been a good idea to screw nother nut/couple washers on before I screwed the pots on. (I have quite a few mm of thread to spare topside... as long as the pots seems sturdy, I don't care, but for next time I will pay closer attention to these things.

ONE other thing. I haven't drilled the hole for the power supply yet. I dunno whether I am gonna buy some kind of voodoo labs box or something... so i am just waiting on the plug style. the plug is just floating around inside the box with some heat shrink (unshrunk) around it, so as not to short out.

I kinda am bummed about the cleanliness of the innards, wire everywhere, scrunched up... but i guess my situation was a little different than most, waiting on an import case... I guess just always have your case prior to wiring, unless you just can't wait (like i couldn't)

ONE last thing... and i will show it in the video, my LED was bezelled, fixed as awell, the bezel does not screw off. these are very bright 12 volts and i have used them before and love them. anyways, you cant disassemble these bezeled LEDs unless you use a little screw locking terminal. you cut the wires of the LED at half way and screw them together in the terminal. if you didnt use a terminal, the LED would be stuck between its own bezel and the footswitch and would require desoldering to remove/change the LED

i lied THIS is the last thing. regarding wire lengths again... best case scenario, i will have a case with me when i start an future builds, but i think next time, i will wire the board, mount it, mount the pots, and THEN cut my wires to the best length and solder them. i am reluctant to even show you the mess hall inside... but will do so reluctantly.

 

[adamwastaken]

again all my little tid bits of info are obvious things, but I am speaking from a beginner to beginner standpoint. but I think this is what this forum is all about, and I welcome, and think we should discuss all of our special little tricks so we all produce cleaner and more efficient builds.