Troubleshooting pigtronix PT

[mandrewbot3k]

My buddy has the Gold Pigtronix Philosopher's Twin Germanium version from Sweetwater. It started having some erratic behavior so he asked me to look at it. I assumed it was just some dirty pot or loose connection. It's only a little over a year old and barely used in his studio. It's beyond warranty though.

Anyhow, what seems to happen is there is some kind of loose connection or something happening that will cause it drop all signal. Then when the signal comes back in, it slowly builds up, but is real noisy. The only visual thing I noticed is one of the ceramic caps looks a little awkward at the leg, like its cracked, but that seems fairly typical. Nothing spilling or anything. There is an optocoupler, VTL5c6 in it and I'm wondering if thats the issue.

I can't for the life of me figure it out. Poked around, havent seen anything out of the ordinary. Voltages seem correct everywhere. Usually Full 18V or 9v depending on the point. As far as I can tell its the Philosphers Tone circuit with an added Grit Stomp that just changes/bypasses R4, I cant remember right now.

Any suggestions on what to check next? I'll try to get a video or sound clip If I can.