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Thanks for the replies!

I will see if there's any noise when moving the pots in bypass.
Then I'll throw in a different chip.

I actually really like the Klon buffer. So much so that I've even built a standalone version that was on my board all the time. 

I wasn't patient enough to try and make the buffer footswitchable in this build.
This build was super tight as far putting in an enclosure. There is almost no wiggle room.

Thanks again and I'll report back after I get around to trouble shooting it.

Hello all!

Built a Sunking II as per the build instructions recently and all went without a hitch, though, when I last played it I noticed that there is some noise when the pedal is bypassed.
It only happens when playing and increases the harder you strum. Sounds like a harsh clipping hiss that's in the background.
It doesn't happen so much when playing very lightly, so it seems there is a threshold whereby it comes in with a certain input level.
I think it happens a bit when the pedal is engaged, though, it's hard to differentiate between the expected clipping and the noise in the background.

Anyone else experience this? Is this indicative of a common issue? Something to do with the buffer components?

Any help, as always would be appreciated.

Thanks!

I socketed C18 and put in a 1uF cap. and it sounds much, much better.
Thanks!

Andrew

Thanks! Will try this.

Anyone else experience this?

The boost is super thick, which is kinda fun, but it's a little much for my tastes.

What components can I swap out and with what values to reign in the low end.

Thanks!

thanks old house scott!
i socketed a number of the components but i wish i would have known about c4 and c3 and i would have socketed them as well..
will try it and see how it works out.

i haven't yet tried it in the normal channel of the drri. i rarely use it. i HAVE clipped the bright cap in the vibrato channel. i did all the "weber" mods to the drri. weber 12f150, orange drops, negative feedback pot, etc.

i put in some higher value caps in C1 and i got more bass out of it..still too snarky with the tele and drri. i'll bet it sounds great in something like a marshall and with humbuckers, or if you wanna do the neck pickup single coil SRV thing. i love the tele bridge single sound. sometimes it's a lot of work to get it to sound good, but when it's good it's so gratifying.

the search goes on...

borrowed a friends Fulltone Fulldrive 2 and that's a much nicer sound. i played the green ringer next to it and they are very similar. i think the green bean edges it out a touch as it's a bit more transparent and fuller, though i'm intrigued with the deadringer/full drive because of the boost option. i'm trying to simplify my pedal board - going to try and keep it to one overdrive, one boost, one fuzz and possibly a distortion, though the deadringer might double as an overdrive and distortion.

i destroyed a  deadringer pcb i made trying to pull some solder of with a solder wick - pulled the trace right off the board - lead free solder is so unforgiving..i'm going to etch a new board. looking at the board it appears as though some of the resistors could/should be 1/8th watt as i had to stand the 1/4 watts for those positions on their ends.

is this the case? any help would be appreciated.

one day i'll pull out the 18 watt marshall style amp i've got and my les paul faded double cut and try out the neutrino..

finished a neutrino build recently (black).
was really underwhelmed when i initially plugged it in.
kinda harsh overdrive. the bottom end drops out when engaged. snarky in the upper-mids.
played through both a modded DRRI and Matchless C-30 clone with a tele and play 99% of the time on the bridge pickup.
this combo of bright amps and guitar means i've been struggling to find overdrives that work well with my setup.
i ended up replacing the suggested opamp and inserted a 4580d and put in all the diodes instead of leaving one out and this seemed to help a lot, but i am still disappointed in the bottom end and overall midrangey nature of the pedal.
i recently built a green bean and that is voiced much better.
anyone else have a similar experience.
i've also found the toneclone Nobels ODR1 clone to be voiced well too with plenty of low end, though, at times i wish it had a little lower mids and midrange.
next build is the deadringer..

Ok.
I feel like an ass.
Turns out, upon closer inspection, that I had resistors in the wrong places....everywhere.
I thought I was being so careful and had everything separated and marked and measured, but no, a complete cluster-f.
I pulled them out, measured again and made sure everything is in it's right place.
It's a good thing the madbean board is robust as well as resistors. Everything works perfectly now, but it sure doesn't look pretty. 
I guess it was a lesson I needed to learn and I'm not likely to do it again (I hope) because it's a complete pain in the ass to pull soldered resistors off the board, clean out the holes so the right ones can fit back in all the while working around the other parts in the board - NOT FUN!

Still need to order some new switches.

Got to play with it a bit and it's sounding good through the DRRI.
Can't wait to play it through the Ceriatone Dizzy 30 tomorrow with a bit of volume.

Thanks again for your help Jacob.
It looks like you put in a lot of time on this forum helping people out and I think that's very cool. 

Jacob,
Got both sides to work.
Channel 1 seems much louder than channel 2 and is voiced differently. Is that the way it's supposed to be?
Channel 2 seems to have a much honkier midrange than channel 1.
Also, the DIP switches are really pretty subtle and changes are more noticeable on channel 1 than channel 2.

I think what was causing the problems were the input and output jack wiring. Not sure what was wrong before as I just pulled everything off and started all over. Also seemed like something was grounding out somewhere and I had a bad joint on one of the gain leads on channel 1 on the board.

Now I just need to order some new foot switches and a DC jack and I should be good to go, provided I can wire everything up.

I'm noticing at the highest gain settings that the effect can be a bit fizzy sounding. Is this normal? The lower gain sounds are quite nice and it's pretty transparent. My Deluxe Reverb Reissue really lets you know how transparent an overdrive is. It doesn't like a Keeley Modded TS-808 much, unless you like a nice bump in the midrange. Me, I can't stand it. Just give me my amp sound with some grit on it please. Thank you.

I'd like to know your thoughts on what I'm hearing.

Thanks again and for your patience! 

I picked up a small breadboard and can now set up a better testing rig.

Jacob, can you please tell me what I might have done wrong as far as my measurements go?
What numbers should I be shooting for?

Thanks!

Andrew

I still have the input jack hooked up to the battery snap and have the black wire from the battery snap attached to the ring of the jack.

When testing I have the battery snapped in and my black tip on the ground/ring of the jack and using the red tip to make my connections to take measurements.

Should I be doing it differently? Should I wire the ground/black lead from the battery to GR.1 on the board?

Using a battery measuring 9.38V.

Voltages on IC1 are as follows:
1. 8.53
2. 8.87
3. 8.89
4. 9.34
5. 9.35
6. 9.23
7. 9.03
8. 9.35

Voltages for IC2 are as follows:
1. 8.61
2. 8.87
3. 9.31
4. 9.34
5. 9.35
6. 9.06
7 9.03
8. 9.35

Voltage at 9V is 9.38
Voltage at input 1 is 8.49
Voltage at input 2 is 9.30
Voltage at grounds 9.35

Edit: I've just read the rules for getting help and realize I'm missing a few steps.
I intend on picking up a breadboard to help me sort out the issues and to be able to "rock it before I box it", though I might need some help on setting that up.

Build is Aristocrat. Latest build (Ver 4). Madbean PCB.
I've got C1 and C12 socketed and have 47n caps in place for more bass.
Again, the only sound I've managed to get out of it was on drive 2 and the only knob that did anything was the volume knob and it changed the tone - highs were rolled off when turned counter clockwise. Nothing else worked and there was no audio when in bypass.

Original post:

Hey Jacob.
Took a stab at troubleshooting and realized I'm not even sure where to begin.
I've since taken the footswitches off as I'm pretty sure one is not working 100%.
I also don't have the DC jack, but I do have the 9V battery hookup.
What can I do to start troubleshooting?
I've got a multimeter and I've just built myself an audio probe, and I've got a camera that can take real nice macro shots if you want to see what I've got so far.
I tried wiring directly from the input jack to input 1 and from output 2 to the output jack, but I wasn't sure how or where to connect my ground. Would that work? I figured it might be easier to isolate one side at a time and bypass the switches and focus on the connections on the board.

My only experience with pedal builds thus far is a toneclone nobels odr-1 clone and that fired up the first time I plugged it in and I even managed to add a switch to swap out diodes and another to change resistor values for a presence or midrange boost.

Again, any help is appreciated and please let me know what I can do to help facilitate you being able to help me out.

Thanks!

A

Thanks for the warm welcome jkokkura!

I am using Ver. 4. and have wired it using the SS version as a guide.
I think I have a bad switch, and possibly some other issues going on.
I had forgotten to order two 3PDT switches for this build and pulled out switches from a vintage reissue rat and at rat2 as I was too impatient to wait for new ones or pick new ones up.
I know the switch on the rat2, which I haven't used much in years, was intermittent...

I'm going to have to build myself a probe and backtrack and try to find out where I've gone wrong.
I was only able to get sound with the 2nd drive section engaged and the only thing it would do is change the tone when I turned the volume pot - that's it.

I also managed to break one of the tabs on my DC jack - it just tore off completely. Frustrating..I determined that I had wired that wrong as well and the tab broke when I was trying to fix it.

Not yet able to post pictures. I'll try and get some replacement parts soon and do some troubleshooting on my own and check back in.

Thanks again!

Andrew