# DIY Effects Pedal Graphics



## dcole (Oct 8, 2008)

Hello,

I am looking at building a Fuzz Face pedal for the fun of it. I have done a mock up in Libre Office Draw. Basically, I don't like painting or sanding much so I want to make this as easy as possible. I intended upon purchasing a pre-painted Hammond BB enclosure. What's the easiest/quality way of putting the graphics on the pedal as per the attached photo? I don't mind if I have to do a clear coat after but basically I don't have the skills/patience to do something in depth but still want as good quality as a guy can get.

Thanks


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## keto (May 23, 2006)

The crispest looking is going to be a waterslide decal done well, but it takes a bit of patience and depends on the quality of your printer. You can find the decal paper at hobby shops that carry model car/plane kits. Buy some extra and practice before committing to the pedal, getting the air bubbles out without tearing the decal can be trying. I believe there's also a solution you can buy to help ease the process, but that's just a vague recall and I haven't used it myself.

The biggest advantage to a waterslide is that you can plan out 1 graphic for the whole thing, tailor different fonts and lettersizes for different words, and your enclosure colour still shows underneath. You could also do it a word at a time, but almost no matter how much clear coat you use after you will still see ridges around the words. If that doesn't bother you, it's way less stress to do a word at a time than to try and line up and get the air out of 1 massive decal.

When I was building, I went into craft shops and looked for letters - stickers, square beads, and so forth - and built words from those. But it's hit and miss what you find - you never know what font or letter size you'll get on any given day. Does give a very cool 3D effect.


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## keto (May 23, 2006)

Most of the lettering on these is craft store stuff, applied a letter at a time, then clearcoated.


[URL=http://smg.photobucket.com/user/keto/media/Pedal%20Builds/Pirate1.jpg.html]


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## elliottmoose (Aug 20, 2012)

keto said:


> Most of the lettering on these is craft store stuff, applied a letter at a time, then clearcoated.


This one made me chuckle at my desk.


Sent from my iPhone


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## dcole (Oct 8, 2008)

Those look pretty cool. Did you super glue the items on?

So water slide decal then clearcoat will be my best option for easy and good looking?


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## keto (May 23, 2006)

Good looking. The easy part, try it and see  Like I said, practice. It's so easy to tear the decal when you're trying to get the air bubbles out, and you have to work fairly quickly as it dries fast. Actually, I just remembered a tip - it helps to put a really light layer of clearcoat on the printed decal before immersing in water. Gives it a bit more substance/stiffness, and keeps the ink from smearing.

Also, if your printing isn't perfect, you can touch up the letters with a Sharpie.

No superglue on those. Most of them have a peel-off backing. Except the cube/dice shaped ones, those are beads with a hole drilled. I threaded them onto a piece of wire and did use superglue on the strings of letters.


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## dcole (Oct 8, 2008)

Anyone tried overhead projector transparencies and an iron to put images on?


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## mhammer (Nov 30, 2007)

The fundamental difficulty with that is that adhesion of the image from the transparency to the surface requires heat. "Yes, but I have an iron", you say. "Great start", I say, "But an aluminum box is fundamentally a *heat sink*".

In other words, attaining the appropriate amount of heat to transfer the image is not feasible. Sure, you _could_ have a hotter iron, but at a certain point the acetate transparency says "Nah, I don't do that. I think I'll just crinkle here."

That's why people use decals; no heat is required to transfer the image from the sheet to the box.

Me, I just use rub-on letters. I guess my aesthetic was forged on early MXR pedals. :smile-new:


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## dcole (Oct 8, 2008)

Thanks for the heads up on the transparencies. I think I was just reading somewhere of a person printing out on transparency, cutting to size and just glueing that on to the box. My initial idea was just using Sharpies as I hate doing box work a lot.

By the way, are you *the *Mark Hammer I see all over the Internet?


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## mhammer (Nov 30, 2007)

Yeah, unfortunately.

For, um, THOSE sites, however, I do have a stunt double standing in for me. :sFun_dancing:


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## dodgechargerfan (Mar 22, 2006)

Another vote for water slide decals.

The clear coat on the decal is a must if you're using an inkjet printer.
It does help strengthen the decal. More importantly, it stops the ink from getting washed off.

I've done pedals with one word at a time and I've done a full decal on the top surface.
The one word at a time is so much easier AND you can just jam all the words together when you print them out to save on decal paper. You're going to cut them out anyway.


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## dcole (Oct 8, 2008)

Thanks for the replies guys. I think I will try the water slides at first as you guys are suggesting them. Hopefully I can get this done in the new year!


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## TWRC (Apr 22, 2011)

I think a decent alternative to waterslides would be to use sticker paper found at any office supply store. They come in letter-sized sheets and as long as you have a printer, you're in business. Here's a couple of examples that I did. All I did was spray lacquer on top of the sheets after I printed them out. So far they're holding up quite well.


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## GTmaker (Apr 24, 2006)

I would spend all my efforts on making a good sounding pedal
then I would buy a Black magic marker...

G.


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## TWRC (Apr 22, 2011)

I made those two pedals and for the longest time just had labels from my label maker on them. Eventually I just got sick of it and wanted to spice things up a bit.


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## dcole (Oct 8, 2008)

Those don't look bad at all. Is the graininess we see in the first two pedals from the process or is it just the picture?


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## TWRC (Apr 22, 2011)

I think it's the photo because I probably cropped it. The graphics on the stickers themselves are pretty crisp in person.


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## Cartcanuck (Oct 30, 2012)

After working in a print shop for several years (I don't now) I would say make friends with a local print shop or shop that does vehicle decals and wraps. Where I used to work our guy used full colour printed vinyl (super adhesive) to wrap laptop lids, doors, a beer cooler, the seat of a stool, etc. If you know someone who can do this they can print exactly what you want, do wild and crazy full colour graphics, and then wrap your pedal and use a heat gun to make sure there are no visible seams or wrinkles. If you had to pay full retail, you'd likely be looking at $150-200 for the service, but the trick is to NOT pay retail  But it would look dang cool. The laptops and beer cool were incredible. We even wrapped a set of filing cabinets so they didn't look so ugly in our office..

I'm considering having a couple of pickguards done up this way if I get what I think I'm getting for Christmas. Unfortunately I WILL have to pay retail or pretty close to it to have these done.


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## dcole (Oct 8, 2008)

TWRC said:


> I think it's the photo because I probably cropped it. The graphics on the stickers themselves are pretty crisp in person.


Now that I have looked closer, it does look like the graininess is through out the whole photo. I might try your sticker method first then. Or sharpies.


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## mhammer (Nov 30, 2007)

My son just informed me that he has joined a hackspace with a laser cutter, and was trained on using it yesterday. So now I'm musing over ways that a laser cutter could be used to engage in pedal graphics. What some folks do is use acrylic retrofits over the surface of the pedal. The graphics go under the clear acrylic. Alternatively, one can cut the graphics into the acrylic itself.

So much potential to mull over.


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