How Many Parsecs?

So my latest project is something a little different - the Aion Parsec. The Parsec is based on the Systec Harmonic Energizer from the mid-70s. It's a nifty little filter/equalizer pedal that lets you get some really interesting tones if you want to mess around with it. It will take your guitar tone anywhere from very growly bass to fairly tinny treble. You can also do some basic boost with it if you play around with it. This is another one of those long out-of-production pedals that the "real thing" will cost you north of $1000 (I recently saw one on ebay for $1495), but building your own is far cheaper, and a heck of a lot of fun!

As you can see from the circuit board above, this isn't a terribly complex circuit. A few resistors, two IC's, a transistor, and a few capacitors. Absolutely nothing that is going to be difficult or exotic. Although this is a vintage pedal, I went with all modern components in my build including metal film resistors and modern film capacitors. Based on my reading, one should always use modern electrolytic capacitors as vintage units are very prone to failure.

I often like to give my pedals a unique name, and given this board is marketed as the "Parsec", I had a fun idea. In the classic move, Star Wars, Han Solo quips that he's "...made the Kessel Run in less than 12 parsecs." This always seemed like a bit of a non-sequitur as a parsec is a unit of distance not time. In the pre-Disney Star Wars novels, this was explained as the length of a route through a series of black holes that was normally 20 parsecs, but fast ships could cut distance (and time) off of it. Although Disney would declare all of the novels non-canon, many of their newer movies have borrowed concepts from them, including the Solo movie.

Therefore my Parsec has been named the "Kessel Run" in honor of one of sci-fi's greatest debates. I found a decent photo of the Millennium Falcon online, added a suitably "Star Wars" font, and created my own graphics for the pedal. The graphics themselves are printed on white decal paper which is placed over a white Tayda 125B enclosure

As you can see, since I was able to do full color, I went all out with color "Steggo" badges front and rear, though I kept the text black for better visibility. The LED is a blue color, to match the Falcon's engine color! I went with aluminum knobs for this one, but I may end up getting some slightly smaller ones. You can just see the control labels above them, but it is uncomfortably close in a few cases. 

This was a fun pedal to put together, and I've been able to get some great tones from it, and a lot of really odd tones as well. I imagine this will likely be a less frequently used pedal, but it's great to have for when you need it!