Messages

I looked at the build doc and from what it shows the IC is in backwards unless the screen mask is different. Not trying to beat a dead horse here just wanted to give you some words of encouragement. If it is backwards don't feel bad about it. Everyone on here makes mistakes like this so just forget it and push forward. I had a Tusk sitting on my bench for a long long time.  Couldn't get it to work after several tries so I just put it in the non working pile.  Last week I did a redirect and found I had the stereo jack wired wrong.  After rewiring it wow it worked. I haven't build as many pedals as a lot of the guys but I think I'm over 60 now and I shouldn't be making those kind of mistakes. S--- happens  LOL. Hope you get it running soon.

Dude I am sorry I directed you to those pots.  The last time I built one of the boards (civil war) that had an attached pot board those worked. I didn't realize they were straight in mounts until I went back and looked at the picture of the completed build. I am sure that someone has used the tayda ones and just bent the pins straight.  But I apologize for that.

Very nice site.

Thanks I wil give this a try.

That's awesome and congrats.

This one doesn't quite reach the Memory Man etch but it is really close.  You do fantastic work and should do a tutorial if you haven't. This and the Memory Man are very impressive.  And the inside is so clean.

Barry I always enjoy listening to your demos as well as Pages.  I think your playing is excellent as well as hers. 

That is one of the coolest looking etches I have ever seen. I am vey envious of your skills.

If you're talking about the straight strips that break apart yes you can use them. Just to keep them straight you can use the earthquake tape or cut some off and put them at the ends to keep it standing upright. 

That is really a very pretty guitar. 

The transistor doesn't look to be cut to short. Mine, when I do cut them, are probable about that size. Take a socket strip and sort of separate the legs until you get all 3 close to where they will go into the holes where you want to cut them. Once you get everything working put a little solder on one of the legs to keep it from possibly coming out. 

My first build was done without sockets and very little soldering experience (I did my own guitar stuff, quite different than soldering pcb's) and it worked. If it doesn't fire up the IC's you soldered in would be one of the first places I would look at in case you over heated one.  All the voltages should be in the build doc. My biggest concern is if the chip is damaged, its getting the damn thing out.  I have burnt up several boards with my awful desoldering technique. LOL. You are probably a much better solder man than me.  Also if you don't have any earthquake tape (clay like stuff you use for stabilizing hanging pictures) get some. Its very handy when you forget to put a smaller part (socket/diode/etc) after you have your caps in. It will hold them in place.

Yeah you have some real big ones. That's one build I would like to do one day but it just scares me (the cost of it not working).  And thats a +1 on socketing the IC's.  Since you have experience soldering you may not run into problems but it makes it so much easier if you have troubleshooting issues. As far as the 1uf film caps i don't think there is any mojo out there as long as you're using good quality ones (and I am sure their are some guys that have built them using Tayda caps and it worked just fine). I really hope it fires up for you the first time.  That would be absolutely awesome. Happy building.

I just purchased the same station (which I wished I would have bought to begin with) and it has the same tip. I am used to the pencil type tip and was having some difficulty using the chisel tip. It just seemed large and hard to maneuver around.  I'm getting better with it though.  I have been running mine at 670 and May up the temp to 700. 

I purchased a set of tips off eBay that were knock offs ($4) and I would not recommend doing it. It was $4 so not a great loss and I did read where a lot of people used them successfully.  At 670 the Hakko tip performed really well and the knock offs sort of sucked.  They just didn't seem to heat up well.  I bought a T-18 B off amazon and I'm waiting for it to arrive.  Anyway the station seems to be about 100% better than the last one i bought. Good luck with it.

And as I was going to ask some questions you were way ahead of me.  Thanks for this.