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Potential issue with Retrograde build?

Started by Thinline_slim, July 15, 2014, 09:11:31 PM

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Thinline_slim

Hello everyone. I'm new to building pedals but pretty handy with a soldering iron so I thought I'd put a few kits together. But I'm having a pretty intermittent issue with I believe my Retrograde.

The issue:
Every now and then I'll be playing in the middle of a gig and my volume will just drop about 50% without warning. This probably happens once every 2 or 3 gigs (long 4 hour gigs too). And it doesn't even really matter if the Retrograde is on or not. Now to fix the issue and get the sound back to 100% if I cycle the footswitch on the Retrograde it usually works. Past that it works great the rest of the time.

Could this be a bad power issue out of my Voodoo Lab 4x4? Or an issue with the pedal? It's not power from the wall as we run everything through a Furman voltage regulator (not a power conditioner).

Looking for any ideas.

Thanks,
Jake




jimilee

Is start with pictures, but it could be just faulty soldering in the foot switch, or a bad switch  that got over heated.
Pedal building is like the opposite of sex.  All the fun stuff happens before you get in the box.

Thinline_slim

Hey, thanks for the reply.

I finally snapped a quick pic of the pedal but I'm not sure specifically what you'd want to see in the pic itself so it's just the one. I can tear it apart this weekend for other pics if that's helpful too, just let me know what you'd want to see.

Interesting idea on the switch too. That could absolutely be it.


madbean

It looks like the bottom of the PCB might be coming into contact with the enclosure. Do you have anything underneath it to isolate it? If not, that couldbne the cause of the problem.

Otherwise I would look for bad solder joints.

Thinline_slim

I used some poster tack (white gummy stuff you'd hang posters/paper without making a hole) on the back side but I'll check all the solder joints tonight. Maybe there was something shorting out against the case though.

I appreciate the recommendations.

the3secondrule

I wonder whether the poster tack is at least partially conductive?
"I have many leatherbound books, and my apartment smells of rich mahogany"

Thinline_slim

I had the same thought so I pulled it all off when I had it apart and used double sided tape instead when I put it back together. That tack was pretty old too so I thought it better just to remove it completely.