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Does turning on something like a true bypass overdrive buffer your signal? Or is it still useful to have a buffer in a long chain? I'm curious if the signal degradation only happens when everything is turned off, assuming all of your pedals are true bypass.

Hi all. I've now built two Moar ODs and the LEDs aren't working on either one. Here's the story...

I build the first one as my first ever build. Everything worked, including the LED which was soldered to the board. I build it according the build docs, including the switch wiring.

I then build a second one, but this time used this 3PDT breakout to wire the switch (http://www.rullywow.com/product/3pdtv3-1a/). When I finished, the pedal worked perfectly except that the LED didn't function. I figured I had just made a mistake and did a bad solder on the LED and decided to live with it.

So now tonight, I went back to the original pedal with the working LED and moved it to a new enclosure with a new switch and new jacks (my work was very sloppy the first time and the jacks and switch were scratchy. When I moved it, I wired up the new jack using this type of 3PDT breakout board (http://www.bitcheslovemyswitches.com/#!/PCBs/c/10252302/offset=0&sort=normal). I turned it on and the pedal works fine, but now the LED that used to work perfectly no longer functions!

So now I'm stumped. Do these 3PDT breakout boards screw up the LED function on the main board since they have their own pads for a LED? I can't see why one would affect the other, but it's the only thing I can think of. Ideas?

Hey guys. I'd like to build something along the lines of an Xotic SP Compressor or Wampler Ego. I know the FourOne from Madbean has a blend like those two, but it's optical and I don't think the others are.

Anybody build the FourOne and willing to share their experiences? Anybody know of any other PCBs along the lines of the SP or Ego?

It's finished and it works! Honestly, I'm blown away by the sound of this one. I've never played a King of Tone, but I was impressed by the YouTube clips I'd seen and wanted to give this a try. I wasn't sure how over hyped they were though, so I'm really pleased that it does indeed sound great. Thanks to all the helpful folks around here who have been willing to answer my noob questions along the way!



http://imgur.com/a/aAv9Q
http://imgur.com/a/g7DnD

Hi guys. I'm starting a build on one of these (http://www.rullywow.com/product/queenofbone2/) and I think it would be really nice to be able to change the clipping settings without having to take the back off to access the DIP switches.

Any bright ideas that a beginner could handle on how to make the switches accessible from the outside of the pedal? Is it possible to mount the DIP on the back side of the board (facing up along with the pots) so that I could drill a hole and access them that way? Or mount some other kind of switch that would accomplish the same thing?

As I mentioned, I'm a beginner, so I'm not sure if I'm totally off base with my thinking here. I've never wired a DIP before and I don't know if what I'm thinking is even possible or if the orientation has to be a certain way to make it work.

I just got my first order from Smallbear and none of the components were labeled. I've placed orders from Tayda and Mammoth in the past and everything came in baggies that were either stickered or hand written identifying the value of the part.

Does Smallbear always not label what they send you? It's huge pain to have to and identify everything in dozens of different small bags. 

[Does the voltage rating matter as long as it's above the voltage you'll be using?]

For my next build, I'm taking on the Queen of Bone 2 (http://www.rullywow.com/product/queenofbone2/).

The build docs don't specify the type of caps to use. For the electrolytics, I assumed that since this board has a charge pump to bump the voltage to 18V, that I couldn't use 16V caps. Does the voltage rating matter as long as it's above the voltage you'll be using? Some parts were out of stock on Smallbear, so I ended up ordering a few of these (http://smallbear-electronics.mybigcommerce.com/electrolytic-radial-50v/) and a few of these (http://smallbear-electronics.mybigcommerce.com/electrolytic-radial-35v-4-7-mf-1000-mf/).

Will there be any problems with using the 35V and 50V caps interchangeably as long as they're the correct capacitance value?

Hi guys. Just finished my 2nd build! I did a 2nd Moar Overdrive, this time using correctly sized components and managing to fit it in the 1590G box as intended. It sounds better than the first one too. I don't know if the components are the difference, or the fact that the soldering and wiring are much cleaner, but I'm very happy with it.

The only problem is the that LED isn't working. I wired it straight to the LED spots on the board, just like I did with the first build and it didn't work. One big difference with this second build through is that I used a 3PDT breakout board (http://www.rullywow.com/product/3pdtv3-1a/) and since that board has its own LED spots, I thought maybe that was the problem.

So after adding the resistor to the breakout board, I took a second LED and touched it to the pads on the breakout board and it lit up just fine. So from there, I attached wires to the breakout board and then to the LED after cutting the leads short so that I could put the LED back in the original hole, and again, the LED won't work. And yes, I confirmed that I used the longer lead on the positive pad.

So what gives? I think it's unlikely that I got two defective LEDs, and also unlikely that there was some problem with the pads on both the main board and the breakout board. Are LEDs easily damaged by heat? The only thing I can think of is that I somehow damaged them during soldering, although I really doubt it. I can't think of anything else that would be the problem, and the pedal continues to work and sound great.

Thanks for any suggestions. It's not the end of the world if I have to live without the LED, but after putting in the work to build a 2nd one of these, I really want it to be perfect.

I hope this is the appropriate place to post this. In this build guide (http://www.madbeanpedals.com/projects/1590G/Moar.pdf), R11 in the BOM is listed as 12k, but there's no 12k resistor listed in the shopping list. The shopping list does include two 10ks though, and only one 10k is listed in the BOM.

I'm assuming that R11 is actually supposed to be 10k instead of 12k?

Hi guys. I'm about to build my 2nd Moar Overdrive (http://www.madbeanpedals.com/projects/1590G/Moar.pdf), using the right components this time so that it hopefully fits in the 1590G.

I picked up some of these (http://www.rullywow.com/product/3pdtv3-1a/) to simplify the 3PDT wiring, but I'm now realizing that I'm not sure how to wire it. I'm going to wire the LED directly to the Moar board, so I'm guessing I can just leave that part out on the 3PDT board, but how do I connect the G, L, I, and O from the Moar board?

Also, when I did my last build, I followed these instructions to wire the 3PDT (http://www.madbeanpedals.com/tutorials/downloads/MBP_FootswitchWiring.pdf). I'm assuming when using a breakout board like this, I don't need to do any of the jumpering or other wiring because the board handles that for me. Is that correct?

Thanks in advance, and sorry for the noob questions. You all were great help during my first build. Can't wait to get this one done and see how it compares to the first one where I used the wrong style of caps (and did a terrible job on most of the soldering). 

Hey guys. I notice that the pedals on here don't have the ability to use a 9v battery. That's fine most of the time, but if I want to grab a pedal and go without bringing my whole pedal board, it's problematic. Is there an adapter out there that plugs in to the power jack and let's you use an external 9v in a pinch?

Hi again guys. First time builder. Finished my build and got a bunch of issues. I'm doing the Moar Overdrive. I don't know what I'm doing enough to know where to start the troubleshooting

Schematic: http://www.madbeanpedals.com/projects/1590G/Moar.pdf
Build Guide: http://www.madbeanpedals.com/tutorials/downloads/1590G_BuildGuide.pdf

Here's the pics. Biggest obvious issue is that it doesn't even come close to fitting in the enclosure. I checked the values of the caps before putting them in, but all of them are too tall. I used the pots and switch recommended in the build guide, so I know that's not the problem. Did I get the wrong type of caps?

http://imgur.com/UnObgPh
http://imgur.com/1rwp77k
http://imgur.com/vVkdyec

Despite the non-fitting enclosure, I figured I'd see if it works since I could always get a new enclosure for it later. Plugged it in and it initially seemed to work. LED would toggle on and off, and I got a sound thru it when turned on. But when I started turning up the knobs, that's when the issues began. Turning up the volume or gain (either gave the same issue) gave a horrible squealing sound that changed pitch as I turned up the knob. Didn't happen if I kept them low. The pedal does seem to work though. When I turned the volume and gain up, you can hear an overdriven tone behind the squealing. Here's a video.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jcIdbZ_kKfI

My wife likes it because it sounds like the call of the orcas, but I'd prefer to fix it. Any ideas or suggestions are welcome.

Ugh, I think I might have screwed up. Here's what I'm building and what I've done so far.

http://imgur.com/Q3ZYfWT
http://imgur.com/xafD9Qf

I just realized, after having soldered everything, that the diagram shows a notch in the IC on the left hand side. The IC I used didn't have a marking like that, but rather a small dimple, which I oriented to the upper right. Now I'm thinking that the orientation of the IC matters and that I might have put it in backwards. Did I just majorly screw this up?

Hi all. Total noob here trying to muddle through my first build. I received all the components in the mail today and am beginning to put it all together. I realized I made one mistake with my order. Instead of getting a dpdt on-on, I got a dpdt on-on-on. The switch in this build switches the pedal between hard and soft clipping.

My question is, in a on-on-on switch, what does the middle on do? Is it both circuits on at the same time rather than one or the other? What would happen if I tried to use this switch with this build? Hard and soft clipping at the same time?

More curious than anything. I can get the right switch easy enough, but I'm not sure if I could just make this one work.

Thanks for your help!