Zombii Help/Advice

[Tommy]

Hey everyone,

I just attempted to build the Zombii (etched) as my first build.

It's been a slow process for me, but I finally got around to wiring it up today and I thought I had it... but when I turned it on I was rewarded with the most ungodly screeching noise I've ever heard in my life no matter where I turned any of the pots. Just a constant, ear-piercing, droning sound.

So, I've since taken it apart to try and regroup and ask for some help with what I should be looking for the next time I wire it up.

I used the standard wiring diagram to wire up everything after I got all the components on the board.

http://www.madbeanpedals.com/tutorials/downloads/StandardWiring_MBP.pdf

The guitar worked find when bypassing the pedal, and when actually playing with the pedal on, I did experience some fuzz'esque sounds... but my god if you ever stop playing it's as if someone is standing next to you with a short wave radio constantly turing the dial back and forth with the volume on about 100.... and it never stops.

So, I have to be doing something wrong.

I'll attach a picture of what I had when it was making the screeching...

Maybe someone can spot an error and help me out.

Thanks in advance to anyone that can help steer me in the right direction.

Cheers.

[jimilee]

Did it work before you boxed it?


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[Jules]

Have you played a Fuzz Factory before? I don't mean to seem at all rude just helpful.
The Zombii is a fuzz factory clone and a certain amount of droning and oscillation is part of the deal. It does sound like you may be experiencing a fault somewhere though.

[Tommy]

It's cool.

I've played one before and know there's a certain amount of harshness to be expected, but this is just an ear piercing screeching at any/all settings on all of the potentiometers without actually playing the guitar. It's constant and would never stop unless I turned it off.

There wasn't any setting that I could find where it wasn't ear piercing at volume and that's just turning it on....not actually playing any notes.

I did notice that a few times when I touched the poles on the 3pdt switch, the screeching ceased, which lead me to believe that it was a grounding issue, but as I'm new to it, I just wanted to see if that's likely the problem.

I wanted to make sure that my basic wiring from the picture was correct in that I followed the standard diagram.

[Tommy]

I'll try to wire it up again in a few days and if I can recreate the jet engine'esque sound it makes all the time I'll try to put it on here.

[selfdestroyer]

A few things to try:

Whats your power source? Battery or PSU. Try either/or
Are you using just the Zombii to the amp or in line with other effect pedals? Try just the Zombii to the amp.
If you unplug your guitar and leave the Zombii directly to the amp does the noise cease?

Cody

[lincolnic]

I know you said you've used a Fuzz Factory before, but I want to confirm: you had the Stability pot turned all the way up, right?

[Tommy]

A few things to try:

Whats your power source? Battery or PSU. Try either/or
Are you using just the Zombii to the amp or in line with other effect pedals? Try just the Zombii to the amp.
If you unplug your guitar and leave the Zombii directly to the amp does the noise cease?

Cody

Using a Pedal Power and running it by itself straight into my Class 5 amp.

I'll re-wire it again tonight (as no one seems to have spotted any errors in my wiring) and take a video of it in action using all options that have been posted here.

Thanks everyone for the help so far.