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Hello Folks!
Attempting what is more or less a first build, the Industrial Fuzz. I suspect one of the wires is not properly soldered to the PCB as that seems to be where I’m struggling the most, I just need help figuring out which one(s) and how to go about testing that for each pot.
I’ve got the LED turning on when engaged, but no sound aside from a little noise from some of the pots when I turn them, the bypassed guitar signal comes through when disengaged . Voltage on Q1, 2 and 3 measuring around 6.9, 6.7 and 6.8 respectively. That changes a bit when I fiddle the knobs around, (presumably one of the knobs is a bias control.) I checked continuity as per the Crash Course #1 Guide and things seem to be functional from what I can tell.
Photos below of everything removed from the enclosure for testing.
Any ideas are much appreciated. Thank you! 🙂
The Industrial Fuzz is one of the easiest builds to go thru only to find that it doesn’t sound right. There is a LOT of knob fiddling to do to get really good, or really bad, sounding fuzz from this circuit. Double-check the build guide at the bottom of page 2 to see how to set things for different sounds.
That being said . . . . looking at your build photos, several of the solder joints look dry and may not be complete. Try reflowing the solder joints and add a touch a fresh solder to those joints that are not completely filled. Let us know how that goes.
The key is turning the stab (stability) control all the way up. Volume doesn’t have to be up very far. As a matter of fact, for my build named the Industry Fuzz, it is one freaking loud pedal. With the volume about up a quarter it is much louder than bypass to the amp.
I would also make sure the transistors are firmly in their sockets and oriented correctly. At least I can tell the 2N3904 is correctly oriented. It’s hard to tell about the Ge transistors, although the emitter is usually designated by a dot or little tab on the case. However, this is not always true and the marked side can sometimes be the collector. The way I confirm the orientation of the leads is by using a cheap DMM that tells me what the C, B and E leads are.
For socketed BJTs I always “wrinkle” the ends of the legs a bit so they will fit snuggly into the sockets.
Thank you Cybercow & Big O! I resoldered some of the suspicious looking solder joints and managed to get it working, sounded pretty good too! Alas, once I jammed everything back in the enclosure it stopped working again, probably all the wire bending to get everything back in place knocked one of my weak solder joints loose, but at least now I know the potential for fuzz is there! 🙂
One thing I’ve noticed when soldering is, I either get it right the first time and it looks good, or I don’t get it right and I have to resolder the same spot several times, always struggling to get the solder to stay put and hold things in place.
I’m wondering, do people ever use sockets to wire up pots to these PCBs? I recall reading in another forum that mixing gold sockets and silver wire was a bad idea. True/false?
Looking at this picture:
I suggest pushing the wire in till the pvc jacket hits the board.
You can fix all of these wires by doing a re-flow. Heat pad till wire pushes forward using the technique described below.
Solder while holding the wire in place (requires some dexterous finger work) making sure the pad fills with solder. My technique is usually to hold the board on edge against my work surface with my pointer finger at an angle while using thumb and middle finger to hold the wire in place while I solder.
Using flux can help if needed depending on what solder you have.
Be sure to use a fine conical tip.
Using sockets would be an accident waiting to happen.
You just need to keep practicing your solder technique with wires to the board.
Thanks folks! Got everything working and the enclosure sealed up 🙂
Big O, you were right about this being one loud pedal. Anyone have a suggestion to bring the volume down without changing the other characteristics of the pedal? (Change in value at R6 or R7 perhaps?)
I would hate to accidentally knock the volume past 12 o’clock and turn this thing on, especially with the Stab control in “squeal” mode!
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