I recently purchased an original fabbed YellowShark PCB (populated). I noticed while playing through my clean channel (Bogner Shiva), that some of the clean signal is coming through with the overdrive signal. It's about a 60/40 mix. This is regardless of where the Vol/drive/Nature settings are. Is this normal for the Yellowsharkl?
I also noticed that when turning the volume past 75%, that the volume actually goes down slightly. I checked all the components, solder joints, etc. and even swapped out the 3130 IC with a couple I have laying around. I also switched the pot (like for like). This particular board had the green LEDs. I swapped them out for red ones and I am still having the same issues.
Before I start trouble shooting further, I was wondering if anyone has experienced this and if so, what was the fix?
Thanks.
Maybe I am not explaining this correctly?
Rather than an overdrive signal that you would get from say a Tube Screamer or OCD pedal, this pedal seems to mix or blend the clean and distorted sound. The clean sound can be heard very distinctly. I really don't like this blended sound. When I listen to sound clips of the Honeybee pedal, I don't hear the blend, just pure overdrive This leads me to believe that there is an issue with the build that I currently have.
I hope this makes more sense. Any ideas as to what the problem might be?
Quote from: Alrod on July 22, 2012, 07:02:38 PMI also noticed that when turning the volume past 75%, that the volume actually goes down slightly.
If a pot is behaving wrong, it's usually a clear indication that something is wrong in your pot wiring, or you have a solder bridge. Check carefully visually and with your multimeter that nothing is connected where it shouldn't be. What you've described is sometimes a biasing issue. Some voltages might also help, and you should double check all your resistor values.
I agree with Jon -- something is wrong and it's probably a short. Voltages would be a huge help, and if you can post some well-lit, in-focus photos of the board and the off-board wiring several of us would be happy to take a look at this. Good luck!
Thanks!
I will double check solder joints, wiring, and resister values. If I still can't figure it out I will post some photos
Ok, I am feeling pretty stupid at the moment. I figured out the problem...
The C6 and C11 positions on the board called for 1uf capacitors. The original builder had some tantalum caps with 15/16 markings on them, and not the '105'. They may have been right, but I was not comfortable with them since the board was not marked for polarity in those positions. So either they were the wrong caps or they were backwards. Anyway, I removed the tants and swapped them out with 1uf poly box capacitors. All the issues disappeared!
The YellowShark sounds amazing through my Bogner Shiva and is exactly what I was looking for. In fact I will be putting a couple on my pedal board. Hopefully MadBean will decide to sell the boards again. I really suck at soldering on the single layer boards. I also like having the silk-screen to tell me where the components go. I am not ashamed to admit it ;D
Thanks guys for encouraging me to keep looking where I had looked before. It is so easy to take the basics for granted.