BugBrand Introduces the Weevil 20/25

video upload by BugBrand

"A new Weevil to celebrate 20 years of BugBrand - the first regular production since 2015 and perhaps the first 'cased' version since around 2008!

Thanks to everyone who sent in pics of their old Weevils!"

via BugBrand

"I'm excited to present the new Weevil to mark 20 years of BugBrand and Weevils - it's the first regular production since the 2015 BoardWeevil and, I think, the first 'cased' design since 2008! Quite a change from the old cigar boxes of the early days ;)

The main listing for the 20/25 is here - I'm doing a run of 50 for now, which will be built up in batches of 10 over the coming months. The 2nd batch should appear in early April.

The overview video features a load of pics of old Weevils after the callout last time -- thanks so much to everyone who sent in pics & memories, it meant a lot to me 💚💚💚

Next week I'll do another mailout to mark the actual 20 years - stay tuned!

All best! Tom"

"Weevils were the first designs I made as BugBrand and, between 2005 & 2015 I made a whole slew of them – you can see some on the Weevil Archive page. So it seemed apt to make a special one to mark 20 years – the first regular production for 10 years and the first ‘housed’ one since perhaps 2008!

The core is a simple little circuit I found in a library book – a cymbal sound synthesiser made of some CMOS 4000 series logic gates to make squarewaves that are quasi-ringmodulated together. Back in my early days I was doing a lot of circuit bending, so I tried out adding power starvation and body contacts and discovered a deep & chaotic sonic world. This Weevil Heart has stayed pretty constant over the years while I’ve played extensively both with the surrounding circuitry and how to present an instrument. For example, the STEIM Cracklebox was always an inspiration as an almost acousitc electronic instrument that had to be played in a truly experimental manner. It has really been a case of iterative refinement and the developments nicely highlight how my build techniques have evolved.

The 20/25 Weevil is really quite similar to the last BoardWeevil of 2015 – we’ve got the 3 Oscillators, 2 RingMods and State-Variable Filter – but I wanted something cased so took the existing modular boxes and fashioned a new PCB frontpanel with accompanying side-cheeks that could hold a speaker, battery box and line output. Smart!

For further details, have a read of the Instruction Sheet & refer to the Block Diagram – but really the best way to learn is to dive in and experiment!"