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Yep, I'm an idiot, and jkojoura, your snark was well warranted. I had a short against the box. My current lover is awesome.

Thanks again, madbean, for a killer build!

Edit* Sorry. My first post read a little bit snarky.

Yes, it seems like you have an issue. Without more details I can't really say for sure, but it looks like you need to work the usual debugging steps.

Jacob

Ok, yeah, that's what I thought. I was just hoping that there was something maybe simpler. And no worries about the snark.

Hey, folks:

So I boxed up my current lover in a beautiful purple sparkle box. Best wiring I've done, clean job, fired it up and...well, it almost works.

I DO get a signal when I fire it up. And I know the BBD is working, because when I turn the bias trimmer, I get an awesome slapback delay sound. The problem is that I get no flanging, no swooshing at all. The thing kinda sounds like it's stuck in filter matrix mode (and yes, I've flipped the filter matrix switch back and forth--nothing doing).

2 issues that might offer good clues: the rate knob seems not to work at all. And there's a very high pitched, constant squeal. It's not very loud, but it's there.

I'm using the MN3007 chip, but I didn;t jumper the diodes (D4 and D5) that you're supposed to leave out when you use a 3007. Should I have jumpered them?

Any initial thoughts?

Thanks so much

The Current Lover temporarily went out of stock yesterday, but I did add some more in the inventory. There are about 15 left until the re-order needs to be placed.

Then I ordered one just in time! Smashing Pumpkins, here I come.

BTW, this will be my 3rd? 4th? MB pedal...your stuff is awesome.

Well, I've learned some things: I tried wiring up the mid pot and mid switch the way jkokura mentioned, and I'm pretty sure that's not the right way. I got no mid-enhanced sound, the pot did nothing, and in fact I got a volume drop. Just to be sure I switched into "regular muff" mode and twisted the mid knob to make sure I didn;t do the LED backwards, and nothing there either. So I rewired it my way, and the mid knob works again. The main switch no longer pops. But there IS a pop back in the mid switch. It's not too bad, so I might just live with it. The only thing I can think is that the pot needs to be grounded. So I'm thinking I'll just solder a wire to the back of it and run it, too, to the output jack. Then I will seal up the back of my muff and never, ever again peek inside.

Thanks so much, Kaleb and Jkokura for the help and suggestions. This site and TDPRI are my favorites, because of the good folks.

Ok, ok. I think it was just some sloppy soldering....

Hmmmmm. Now I'm stumped. I've grounded the output jack to the input, and moved the wire grounding the PCB from the switch to the output jack. Everything's going to the output jack (I have no battery clip. I power all my pedals with a 1 spot, so I just leave it out).

Might I need to connect the grounds on the 2 switches together?

Thos guts look great! You will surely get better as time goes on, so don't be so timid about your skills! As long as it works, it's great.

Jacob

Thanks. And I just "liked" your facebook page, too.

You have a "floating" ground problem most likely. I don't know exactly how you have your pedal wired, but the rule is that you should have every ground tied together to a common place (it's a common ground). So, I think you may have at least two different paths to ground that may cause your loud pop. Think of it kinda like a daisy chain of grounds or a "star" approach where everything is connected to a single point ground (like the ground tab on the DC jack).

Make sure you have board ground, negative lead on battery, sleeve of input jack, main switch, mids switch and power jack ground tied together to ground. Also, try grounding your output sleeve as well. You can just put a wire between input and output sleeves.

Let us know if that helps

Hey, Kaleb:

Thanks so much. That was a really clear, easy description for a guy who needs it. I'll try it and post back.


-Kaleb

You're pretty close with the LED.

Usually good practice is to attach the ground to 3B rather than C. Then you can connect an LED to 3A and another to 3C so that you can have an LED for each setting. This might also remove the pop.

Also, I'm pretty sure you need to be wiring lug's 3 and 2, but I haven't verified that with the schematic...

Jacob

Hmmm, rewired it, and it certainly made the pop go away from the mid switch, but now the effect on/off switch pops REALLY loudly...Any ideas, or should I just switch it back to my original wiring?

Well that's the sound of the gauntlet hitting the dust....

Ok, if you want guts, you've got 'em.

Like I said though, they're a bit messy. I have the hardest time trying to keep the switch and jack wiring neat. I discovered with this build that SHORT pot leads are key, and I tried short switch and jack leads as well...I also tried doing the twist together trick, all to no avail (though this looks better than my SHO build, and waaaaay better than my tubescreamer. Talk about a box of spaghetti). Finally, the tape: its just a marker so I know which wire goes where.

I'd love any tips from you guys who can make it look good as well as sound good.

You're pretty close with the LED.

Usually good practice is to attach the ground to 3B rather than C. Then you can connect an LED to 3A and another to 3C so that you can have an LED for each setting. This might also remove the pop.

Also, I'm pretty sure you need to be wiring lug's 3 and 2, but I haven't verified that with the schematic...

Jacob

Hey, Jacob, thanks alot. I'll try out the new LED wiring and report back.

So here's what I'm thinking on wiring the pot (and bear with me. I'm a history guy, not a an analytical/engineering type).

On the build instructions for the MB, it says if you want to build a regular 3 knob pedal and forgo the mid pot. you jumper pads 1 and 3 on the board. Pad 2 (AFAIK) and lug 2 on the pot is for the wiper, right? So what I did is this: I connected lug 2 of the pot to pad 2 on the board, leaving lugs 1 and 3 wired to the switch. It kinda made sense to me, in a dim way, that when bypassed, 1 and 3 would be jumpered, and when engaged, 1 and 3 would lead to the pot, which is already wired to pad 2 on the board. Does that make sense? In any case, I can hear the pot working (though it's pretty subtle).

Thanks again, all of you for the help.

So, I'm not showing the guts only because I'm a bit of a sloppy wirer. I actually wired up the pots really nicely, and I thought to myself, "this looks beautiful," but then the switches and jacks killed me. It's an art.

If you want to know how I wired the mids switch, though, I posted that over on the mods forum.

So I just finished a project that I'm pretty proud of. It's a Civil War Muff on a Mad Bean PCB. "But," you ask, "a Muff with 4 knobs, 2 switches, and 2 LEDs? Surely, you joke!" I do not.

I love muffs, but their achilles heel is that they get lost in the mix because of their super scooped mids. I had a NYC Muff that I modded with 2 cornish switches for a mid hump, and it was wonderful, *except* that there was a huge volume boost, and I was afraid to flip the toggle switch with my cowboy boot.. Soooo, for this guy, I put the mids pot on a switch. Now, I can kick it in, there's no volume boost, just a thickening, an increase of presence, and I'm not worried about snapping it off.

How does it sound? Well, the Civil War is really, really awesome. Nowhere near as scooped as the NYC, very big bottom end, not as much gain, a bit grittier, not as much sustain, though the sustain knob is more useable (from very dirty OD to very singing fuzz sustain, whereas the NYC was super singing sustain to sustain for days on end). It's a much better sound, to my ears, and I love it.

Now I've got muff-itis, and am thinking of a violet ram's head clone....

This is my second madbean build...Mad bean rules.

Ok, so I got this baby all wired up, and it sounds great (I'll post pics over in the build forum). The switch for the mid pot should be wired like this

        1     2     3
A      __  __   __

B     __   __   __

C    __    __   __

jumper 1A and 2A together

1B and 2B go to pads 1 and 3 on the mid pot part of the board

3B goes to LED

1C and 2C go to the 1 and 3 terminal on the pot

3C goes to ground.


The only issue I have is that when I switch on the mid pot, there is a very loud pop. Any ideas on how to get rid of this?

And Kaleb, thanks for the help!