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Make sure where the solder is touching other solder joints that they are supposed to touch. If they aren't it will add resistance or short out to ground all together. You can get some desoldering braid or a desoldering iron the clean some of that up. Just take your time and be patient. 

Okay. I did make sure that all the solder joints are not touching any other connections that aren't already made by the copper. 

The thing that's confusing me is that the pedal sounds good, it's just too quite. No noise, no fizzy distortion or anything, it's just not as loud as it's supposed to be.

I borrowed a camera today. Here's some pictures that I hope are a little more helpful. If these are still not very useful I'll borrow a friends super high MP camera sometime this week and try to get some really HD ones.

http://i.imgur.com/ehV31Wl.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/0lGa3Xa.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/RY4weIr.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/MicxPLF.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/RqPE85u.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/93PvxRB.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/9zSgLmR.jpg

Have you tried turning it up to ELEVEN? 


Sorry.  Couldn't resist the opportunity for a Spinal Tap reference.

Never apologize for a Spinal Tap reference. Never. haha

Check al your solder joints with a magnifyer. Reflow what you need to. I'l bet that will fix the issue. Got any better clearer bigger pictures?

Sorry, I'm a noob.

What exactly should I look for? How will I know what I need to reflow and what I don't?

Also… even more noob… solder joints are just the places I've soldered, right? There are some messy spots on the PCB. I'm still pretty amateur with an iron. Working on it.. but there are some spots I'm not proud of. If there are places where there is more solder than necessary, could that add resistance and decrease the output volume?

Better, clearer pictures should come tomorrow.  I don't have a camera other than on my phone. Going to borrow a better camera tomorrow to upload some pictures.

1M carbon film resistor bands usually go brown, black, green & gold.  do your r1 and r10 look like that?

Yeah, they are brown-black-green-gold.

That's the first thing I checked. I thought Tayda might have shipped me the wrong resistors, but that was not the case.

I just have a hard time believing that two separate packs of 10 from them would all be faulty.

Any ideas on the LED, guys?

I'm going to get a hold of a better camera tomorrow and take some higher resolution pics.

I made a thread about this a couple days ago in "General Questions." I put together a Haberdasher Yellow Shark PCB.

The effect sounds great, but I'm not getting unity volume even with the volume pot dimed. I can't figure out why. Here's what I've done to try to resolve the problem:

Rewired and resoldered everything off-board. Double and triple checked component values, placement, and orientation.

I took some DC measurements:

IC
1= 0.09   5= 0.09
2= 4.51   6= 4.51
3= 3.25   7= 9.02
4= 0.00   8= 4.78

Q1 (2N5457)

G= 0.00
S= 0.18
D= 8.51

Here's a few pictures. I don't know how helpful they'll be because they're pretty blurry, but it's the best I can do with what I have right now.

http://i.imgur.com/muv20WI.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/ZIRgM5H.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/MSZLLsK.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/1LVyiwd.jpg

So the only question I have for you all, that I could see as a problem is this:

When I tested all the resistors before I populated the PCB, they all checked out fine except for the 1M resistors that are R1 and R10. Of the 10 1M resistors that Tayda sent me the highest any of them would read with my multimeter was around 600k. Since everything else was fine I figured I'd just wire it up anyway and fix it later if it was a problem.

I had to do another order from Tayda the next week so I went ahead and ordered another strip of 1M resistors. Those all measure around 500 to 600k as well. Am I measuring them wrong, or are these all defective resistors that I need to replace?

The other problem, since I redid all my wiring the LED indicator is staying on all the time regardless of whether the effect is on or off. I've checked to make sure nothing is touching that isn't supposed to, it's wired exactly like it was the first time as far as I can tell, yet it is always on now. I even reversed the LED to make sure I didn't have the + and - backwards and that wasn't it.

Thank you all for any feedback and help you can give me. I'll try to answer any questions as best I can.

I'm really hoping the problem isn't some defective capacitor that I'll have to dig around for..


-David

That's not really common with that circuit. You should be able to boost your signal using that circuit, so it does sound like something's up.

Alright, that's what I needed to know. I am going to take a day off from it, and then I'll dig in to troubleshooting on Friday.

I read through everything in that thread and will follow along as I go on Friday.

Thanks for the help.

I just finished boxing up a Yellow Shark (Honey Bee) on a Haberdasher etched PCB. The pedal sounds beautiful, nice and smooth. But, even with the volume and gain knobs dimed I'm still not able to quite reach unity volume with my clean signal.

I figure I've probably got something not quite right. Where would be the first place to check? I did measure all the pieces I could before I assembled the PCB, everything checked out fine. I checked all my off board wiring and that all looks okay too.

Is this just part of the circuit, and if so, what could I change to add a few decibels to this guy?

Alright, a lot of love for the Bearhug. I think I might give that build a try.

However I don't think I could fit it in this enclosure I have, right?

Also, those Bilt guitars look sweet. I had no idea they were here in Des Moines.

Yeah, they're set up in the back room of the Lutherie Shop near Drake. It's the same three guys, they just have a different name for the custom guitar business as opposed to the guitar repair business.

Oh really? Huh, never knew. I used to go to the same church as Shane and we played some tunes together. Never knew he built guitars.

Guys a beast, though.

Thanks for the suggestions so far guys.

After digging around for an hour or so today, I still haven't found what I'm looking for. There are just so many perf/vero board layouts out there.

So I'm trying to refine my search. A fuzz or comp layout with a pretty small part count and only 2 pots. Does something that would fit the bill jump out to anyone?

I suppose the most distinct thing about my tone is my '73 Sears and Roebuck 40xl amp.

You have lots of space for a circuit, but a switch is probably too tall and that case might not be robust enough to handle being stomped on. Therefore, I say go with an effect you wouldn't turn off: A foundation overdrive (amp sim of some sort), or perhaps a compressor. But if you want a fuzz that's pretty easy to make on perfboard and sounds great, I have several good ones in my perfboard layout. The Sam Ash Fuzzstainer is a really good one that I built recently, lots of good sounds in it and it's super rare. But if you just want suggestions on fuzzes, it's hard to pick just one.

I checked the clearance for a 3pdt the other day and it will be snug, but should fit. I'm not that concerned with durability, it probably wouldn't find it's way to any gigs.

However, I have been in the market for a good compressor. Been eyeing the Xotic SP for quite a while, actually.

Any pert comp project suggestions?

I'll dig through some of those fuzz circuits.

that doesn't look big enough for 1/4" jacks.

Again, it's gonna be snug but I checked for space yesterday and it'll do… barely. haha

That's sweet, man! Good to see a Des Moines DIY-er getting some national exposure.

Also, those Bilt guitars look sweet. I had no idea they were here in Des Moines.

Just finished a "yellow shark" on a Haberdasher pcb (Thanks, Haber-er!) and I've been thinking about what I want to try next.

I have this empty case laying around the house leftover from a Christmas gift:




It's about 3 by 2.25 in. and around an inch tall.

So I thought I might try putting a simple project on perfboard in there.

Any suggestions on something pretty simple that would fit? I've never had a fuzz pedal so I'm thinking about going that direction, although I'm open to other ideas too.

Yes, it does, and you don't want to put them in backwards or it will fry the electrolytic cap. I recommend ordering the box caps that you need to do it right. Went through this myself recently.

I figured that would be the answer :/

Ah well, my enclosure isn't here yet anyway.