SSL9K preamps, any interest?

Somewhere around 4 channels for around 250-275 right now though.  That would still make it 62-69$ per channel.  

OK!

Probably be the second batch though.

Got the sticker folks straight I think. I'm not sure what's going to happen. They kept trying to resize my artwork for some reason. i'm not sure the results will match the proofs, so I'll try to come up with plan B just in case.

I have a high quality laserjet at work that I might try with clear transfers and see how it holds up.

Sweet!

So I got the stickers, but I'm not sure I'm happy with them.  They seem to be about 10% smaller than I designed which feels a little crowded.  I put one on an old front panel to check out, and it looks good from a visual design standpoint, but feels too tight from an industrial design standpoint.

I'm also undecided whether the front panels should be white, or raw aluminum. 

I ordered some clear sticker sheets to try with my laserjet and see if I can do any better.  Meanwhile I have one board stuffed that I'll need to test before I stuff more, to make sure the PCBs are OK.

Looking great, that PCB is slick! Eagerly waiting for and hoping that Batch 2 sees the light of day. 

It's more of an issue of size.  It was supposed to be 8.25"x 1.25" and it's more like 7.75"x 1" so everything is much tighter.  The switch bodies literally smash against each other and there is very little room left for the pot.  Everything will "fit" but it's not what I had intended.

I did print some DIY stickers that ended up a lot nicer than I had expected, but the sticker material was supposed to be clear and it's more of a marginally opaque white..  It also didn't bond as well when placed on the panels as the professional stickers did.

I placed one on brushed aluminum and one on white gloss and I think the white looks better, but ultimately might flake since it's not a baked finish.

I also tried using clear paint over the DIY stickers to see what would happen and if it would make them impervious to wear, but I haven't checked it out today to see how it turned out.

All-in-all I think I'll go forward with the professional stickers as they won't need to be coated over, but it's going to be a little harder to make the panels.

Got a bit done this weekend.

I drilled and sticker-ized the front panels, figured out the spacing for the backside holes with the wrong-sized stickers and drilled a few chassis out.

I also stuffed 2 boards.

Unfortunately this is taking a lot longer to bring together than I had hoped, and I STILL haven't received all my parts yet.

I'll start to wire up the two units that I've stuffed boards for and then hopefully do some testing this week.

Maybe by next week I'll have a couple units available.

Good enough for me, and there is enough room on that faceplate to put my daughter's Anna and Elsa stickers!  LOL...These will definitely be her favorite preamps.  

Either you work a lot faster than me or your food cooks much slower than mine.

Update:

Finally got the rest of my parts. Needed to spend some time with the family this weekend, so I didn't get a whole lot done. I did finish populating the front panels though. I'll need to wire up the switches and pots and see what the best approach to doing that quickly is.

So far it's about 4 hours work per unit to build these, even with my templates and shortcuts. That's about 2 hours longer than I had planned!