LaVache Issues w/ new PCB?

[nordicskiah]

Novice alert.

So the La Vache pcb I got in the mail recently has both a - terminal and a ground. On top of that I cannot get any signal out unless I ground the ring of the output jack to the pedal ground.

I need to check over everything again and will post pictures. I have my MS dissertation this afternoon so I clearly need to stop distracting myself.

Here is a pic I found off my Twitter feed: https://twitter.com/nordicskiah/status/209044473299214336/photo/1

[gtr2]

If your testing unboxed both the input and output jacks need grounded.

Josh

[mgwhit]

I'm not sure what you're talking about with the "- terminal and a ground".  There's a +9V and two ground pads, one on the right side with the +9V and another on the bottom of the board with the in/out pads.  The two ground pads are connected on the board.  You can wire the side ground lug to your power jack the way you have as long as the bottom ground lug is connected to the appropriate ground point for your footswitch and jack(s).

If you have not boxed your board yet, you do need to ground the rings of both jacks.  When it's boxed, as long as you're using metal jacks, you only need to explicitly ground one (as it will ground the enclosure and the other jack will ground through that).  Other than that, are you having any problems with it?

And please go take care of your dissertation!  This can wait.  Good luck!

[nordicskiah]

There's a +9V and two ground pads, one on the right side with the +9V and another on the bottom of the board with the in/out pads.

Yeah that's what I meant. I forgot to actually look at it while writing the post.

Can we take a big step back for the novice?

If you have not boxed your board yet, you do need to ground the rings of both jacks.  When it's boxed, as long as you're using metal jacks, you only need to explicitly ground one (as it will ground the enclosure and the other jack will ground through that).

I'm going to take a shot in the dark and guess that using plastic enclosed jacks defeats this convenience. Saw them on Mouser and didn't realize how huge and a waste of space they would be.

http://www.mouser.com/Search/ProductDetail.aspx?R=NYS218virtualkey56810000virtualkey568-NYS218

While it was grounded, it was working fine except the occasional giant pop from the 3pdt. I'm going to go back a re-solder it since it looks like a shit job anyway.

And please go take care of your dissertation!  This can wait.   Good luck!

Thanks! At this point there is no point in cramming which is pretty frustrating. I basically need to be prepared to talk about any structure in the human body at macro, micro, neuro, and embryo perspectives. fml

Here's my enclosure btw! Posted it on another forum a day or two ago: http://imgur.com/a/tMOTD

[DutchMF]

That looks like a work of art! Did you do that yourself? And if yes, how? Amazing looking finish, great graphics, and so shiny! Me like 

Paul

[DutchMF]

Oh, BTW: the "work in progress" background gets you some extra points, it's a fantastic picture, even for people who don't build pedals!

[nordicskiah]

That looks like a work of art! Did you do that yourself? And if yes, how? Amazing looking finish, great graphics, and so shiny! Me like 

Paul

Thanks! I got a lot of influence from Cloudscapes on DIYStomboxes.com. If you check out the album (http://imgur.com/a/tMOTD) I started with an unfinished 1550M enclosure then sprayed it down with brown/tan spray paint. I used Cloudscapes' technique to splatter on different shades/mixes of acrylic paint (50/50 with water i think). I drew the paisley directly on the acrylic with a ball point pen (something with a lot of output like a Pilot G-2 07 or 10). Then I covered everything up with Envirotex (a pour on epoxy resin). Took 2 days to fully harden. There's a good tutorial on DIYStomp... if you want me to find it later.

[nordicskiah]

Oh, BTW: the "work in progress" background gets you some extra points, it's a fantastic picture, even for people who don't build pedals!

My kitchen table is a mess! I live in an apartment, so no dedicated work space!

[mgwhit]

Wow!  Fantastic job on the enclosure.  Love it.

But, yeah, the plastic jacks are insulated from the enclosure, so you need to ground both.  (I've never used insulated jacks, so I don't know how you actually ground the enclosure itself, but I'm assuming you should.)

Regarding the pop, make sure you have your grounding all sorted out and then reflow all the joints on your 3PDT.  If your soldering is at all dodgy, that's the easiest place to get cold joints.  Also reflow your joints on R1.  If that doesn't fix it, there are a lot of other threads that deal with that issue.

[DutchMF]

My kitchen table is a mess! I live in an apartment, so no dedicated work space!

I live in an apartment as well, but my wife would have a fit if I soldered at the kitchen table I do my soldering on top of the washing machine (when it's not on spin cycle!) because that space has some mechanical ventilation, actually works quite well! Good luck with the debugging, mgwhit is Tha Man for that! Paul

[nordicskiah]

my wife would have a fit if I soldered at the kitchen table

Yeah my gf is started to despise my new-found hobby.

La Vache is up and running! If anyone is reading this: I chose a Les Lius clone as my first pedal because I think it is the best at getting the Fender cranked-tube distortion. I really love the Derek Trucks / Warren Haynes pure overdrive tone and this does a good job of covering both. It also can cover a variety of Clapton / Robby Robertson tones I feel. Not exact, but good enough for 1 pedal.

Comparing to the actual Les Lius.... the La Vache is slightly darker which is noticeable at a lesser gain setting. The La Vache has adjustable gain whether you are "boosted" or not. The Les Lius gain is only adjustable for the boosted switch. One of the best features of the Lovepedal series is the soft-touch momentary for a bypass switch <3

EDIT: I haven't experienced this to this level before - but I think dialing in tones with this pedal is extremely dependent on amp-end EQ and pickup volume knob. IMO - I still have a lot of learn

Here's an action shot of the finished pedal next to a current-gen Les Lius:

[mgwhit]

Glad you got it working -- and I hope your dissertation went well!

I've got the LaVache on one of my breadboards right now and I can't stop hooking it up and rocking it with my telecaster.  I do think it's a smidge dark, especially in boost mode, but I'm particularly sensitive to that because my 5f2a Princeton clone can get blatty when you give it too much low end.  I'm thinking of subbing a 22uF for C2, which is pretty much appropriate for Tweed front-end cathode bypass caps.

Speaking of tweed, I noticed some in that last pic.  What amp are you running this through?

[nordicskiah]

Speaking of tweed, I noticed some in that last pic.  What amp are you running this through?

Good question. There's a good chance it's a '73-74 Super Reverb based on the chassis. But the speakers date it at closer to a '71. I bought it used from probably the 3rd-5th owner. The 2nd-4th owner re-"tolexed" it with tweed and replaced it with a black-face front-plate. It is definitely a 70's silverface Super Reverb if anything. It is definitely an end-game amp. I can't think of replacing it with anything else, except maybe a solid state Roland Jazz Chorus (I know that might seem like a silly notion - but at the moment it sounds quite good in my drunken state post-MS-defense)

Thanks for all the help mgwhit! I might try out the 22uF C2 mod when I'm... not back from bars. <3

[mgwhit]

Sounds awesome!  And Cheers!

(P.S. Nix the 22uF.  Sounded like an AM radio compared to the 47uF.  That was at low volume, though.  I'll try it again in the morning when I can rock.)