Flattley Guitar Pedals 'The Chief' British Overdrive (Early Hand-Painted Prototype) 2016 UK

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Here is a very early prototype (around 2016) from Flattley Pedals UK. It's a transparent overdrive of the highest order. It's hand-painted and numbered LMN308. Like all Fattley pedals it's top notch and sound great. A very rare find.

Flattley quitar pedals are hand built in Gloucester in the UK. They are a boutique brand popular amongst professional players for their reputation of providing perfectly crafted units appropriate for touring and recording. This is "The Chief' overdrive pedal, which oozes that distinctive '80s British cranked rock tone.

FROM FLATTLEY:

Flattley Guitar Pedals is a family run business established in 2016 and based in England. We do all of our product processes and manufacturing assembly within small radius with the aim to keep our carbon footprint as small as possible ensuring Flattley pedals are all truly made in England. After repairing the electronics in guitars, bass guitars, effects pedals and amps for many years in my spare time, I decided that it was time to venture into something new, making effect pedals. I had been working in the Aviation Avionics Industry for over 30 years after starting my working career as an avionics technician in the Royal Navy Fleet Air Arm working on helicopters. I was very confident that I could produce a high-quality product based on my aviation quality assurance and standards which would live up to my very exacting requirements whilst producing the sound and tone that musicians are looking for. Each effects pedal is hand built, hand wired, and our enclosures are hand finished giving our pedals that personalized touch.

Being a musician myself, I know what I like, and I know what sounds and tones I look for. This can be quite challenging when playing in a band covering many different genres of artists and requiring a variety of sounds; I make my effects pedals as versatile and functional as possible and I am constantly re-evaluating and assessing our pedals to ensure continuous improvement.

Each Flattley pedal is a work of art as well as a tonal delight and to get that very high standard involves a great deal of hard work and processes. A Flattley pedal starts life as a concept schematic diagram which is then tested in basic prototyping formats, once we are satisfied that the sound and component values are right this then goes off to our Gloucestershire based PCB design and manufacturer. Once we have our un-populated PCB the hard work begins, and we populate this with the highest quality components. We then assemble the PCB to the off-board components and then hand tested in the product’s build jig enclosure, once we are happy that the completed circuitry produces the tonal sounds that we are known for this is then installed into its hand finished enclosure.

Each hand finished enclosure is prepared in exactly the same way in our Gloucestershire based paint facility whether it is a platinum or silver range product, this process usually takes five days from start to finished enclosure.

They are hand abraded, then the etch primer is applied to seal the aluminium surface as an anti-corrosive measure and to allow the base coat primer to bond to the enclosure. Once the base coat primer is dry it then has the base coat colour applied and repeated three times to ensure a deep lustre of colour.

For our platinum range metallic holographic chrome flake is then applied using a clear inter coat which adds that all important Flattley sparkle. The pedal enclosure is now ready to be hydro dipped in its Flattley graphics. This is the process whereby the graphics are applied using water activated film and the enclosure is slowly dipped by hand through the activated hydro graphic film, the residual PVA film is then washed off and the enclosure is then allowed to dry naturally. Once dried the lacquer process begins, each enclosure has a minimum of three coats of lacquer which are all wet sanded between coats. Once the lacquer has hardened, it is then hand polished using three different grades of polishing compounds and it then has a final polish to achieve a high gloss finish using a wool finishing pad. This process gives the smooth deep lustre finish that is inherent in all Flattley effects pedals.

Our silver range pedals then have a minimum of three coats of lacquer applied which are all wet sanded between coats. Once the lacquer has hardened, it is then hand polished using three different grades of polishing compounds and it then has a final polish to achieve a high gloss finish using a wool finishing pad. This process gives the smooth deep lustre finish that is inherent in all Flattley effects pedals. The graphics designed in house by our graphics designer Phoebe Flattley are then applied to silver range effects pedals by UV direct printing in our Gloucestershire based printing facility.

The platinum range pedals are finished with aluminium control knobs which have laser etched descriptive text on them. Both the platinum and silver range products have LED halo ring lights installed which dissipates the light to avoid blinding musicians whilst performing and operating the pedal. We also add Flattley logo laser etched aluminium foot toppers on the pedal switches as standard across both ranges. Finally, the product name is attached to the enclosure, this is a sublimated brushed aluminium logo plaque as its unique identifier.

All Flattley products are RoHS, CE & WEEE compliant, packaged in sustainable recycled materials and come with a 12-month guarantee. We welcome all feedback on Flattley products as this allows us to evolve and develop our pedals.

I would like to take this opportunity to thank all Flattley Guitar Pedals customers, both new and old, for purchasing Flattley Guitar Pedals. I hope that you all enjoy your pedal as much as I did making it and that it is a fantastic addition to your pedal board.

Paul Flattley

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