[Billy]

If it’s a standard single colour, wire the LED anode plus to the middle pad and LED cathode negative to the outer pad without the white box

Jumper R5 if your LED already has the current limiting resistor

 

[Billy]

D1 is part of the LFO circuit so the LFO won’t work without it installed on the main pcb

As Cybercow says you can’t use a 3PDT board with this build for that reason

 

[Billy]

It’s more what you’d want Steve

As you’ll know from the build doc you can also use a 2N5457 for a grittier tone adjusting the drain resistance

I’d start at the usual 5v on the drain and go from there

[Billy]

It’s one of the bass ready circuits requiring no modifications for bass

[Billy]

Excellent glad to hear it

I usually always bias by ear to what sounds good to me so if it’s sounding good to you job done Chad

[Billy]

Did you reflow all your joints that’d be my next move

Especially round R2 and 3 the trimmer and Q2 collector

If you haven’t already with no power to the circuit check the resistance you get across pins 1 and 3 of the trimmer and rotate it to see if it alters

 

[Billy]

I’m not as confident haha

Anyway if you can lift the bottom leg I can’t see you’ve said you’d reflowed joints anywhere but the bottom one looks a wee bit chalky so could be dry inside

[Billy]

Lift a leg of R4 out Chad then with no power to the circuit check resistance on it

And we can put the blue, black, 166 or 100K to bed

These metal film resistors can sometimes be hard to read even under magnification the colours sometimes run or bleed into the light blue during manufacture and make it hard to see I’m still unsure whether it’s black or blue even zooming in

Anyway as you’ll know if you’ve read RGs technology of the fuzz face it’s part of the voltage feedback biasing circuit whether it would have a dramatic effect I don’t know I’ve only ever lowered the value in the past an increase in value would obviously affect current

But defo worth double checking

http://www.geofex.com/article_folders/fuzzface/fftech.htm

 

[Billy]

First thing I’d say is keep calm Chad I didn’t actually read it as a reference to you

As you probably know people who are new themselves actually call themselves newbs or newbies so definitely not derogatory in the DIY community we were all newbies at some point

I’ve been on this site for 15 years and never had a problem with the quality of the boards or service so I’m reading: you’re understandably frustrated, but calling Barry’s pcb a pos is more of an insult than anything he’s commented especially when he’s trying to help you

Now I’m not implying anything but it’s a fairly simple circuit  built by many including me I’ve probably built at least 12 of these not all without problem I admit but usually with me it was an error on my part

I understand frustration, I’ve built many complex circuits but as I say the fuzz face is defo my achillies heel and usually gives me the most problems with over 500 builds in the bag

Every member and moderator is here to help so I’d say the apology should be yours from what I’m reading

I work full time doing fairly heavy shifts I don’t get paid for moderating Barry looks after us with a few freebies here and there in fact he’s way too generous most of the time, as I’ve mentioned to him many times to no avail

So you’ve gone on a bit of a rant to a guy that’s all about his customers hence the reason I remain on this site 15 years down the line

It’d be a lot cheaper for me to buy in the UK being in Scotland but Barry’s always been a top man with me and everyone else

Obviously we’ve no idea of your experience unless you tell us or we ask

When we ask for anything it’s because without seeing the same as you it’s difficult to help

I can guarantee you if you get it going we’ll be as happy as you, so take a breather maybe step away from it for a couple of days and go back to it and we’ll still be here to help

And I’m confident you will get it going

 

 

[Billy]

Your problem sounds like transistor biasing

I’d actually read your biasing voltage but forgot you’d already given that info doh!

The only resistors I can’t clearly see the colour bands on are R2 and 3, double check R3 value is 330 to 470 ohms and solder joints are good

I can’t really see what R3 is

R2 isn’t too clear either should be orange orange black red brown

[Billy]

3PDT looks fine Chad

If you’ve placed the LED as shown in the build doc green would be effects mode, red bypass

Did you bias the collector of Q2 to around -4.5v to -7v

The pots I don’t understand looking at the V5 PCB lug 1 is the square pad to the left so as far as I can see if using pcb mounted pots your pots look wired correctly

The only reason they’d work backwards is if the 2 outer lugs were reversed if you’ve used wire swap the 2 outer lug wires on the pot lugs ie desolder at the pot lugs and not pcb pads to avoid heat damage to the solder pads and swap the wires around

[Billy]

Your in jack tip looks to be wired to ground on the 3PDT board try swapping the red and black wires on the jack

Also can’t really see but is your white wire going from the main pcb ground to a 9v pad on the 3PDT board

[Billy]

I can’t see if R2 has a red multiplication band and R4 specifically the rest look good

I’m taking it you get bypass sound no problem?

[Billy]

Here’s some info that should help you narrow down your problem area

Use the schematic to check you get the correct voltage at your VA (9v), VC (5v) and VB (around 3.5 to 4.5v ish) points you will obviously get a little voltage drop through components and your readings will depend on what your power source is actually putting out as you’ll know not all 9v adaptors put out exactly 9v especially if they’re not regulated

You could potentially drop up to 1v through D4, in the power section so just be aware your voltages may be less than shown

This won’t be a problem with the number of sucessful builds of this circuit I was fortunate enough not to run into problems with mine unfortunately I didn’t note the voltages but remember getting some VB voltages of around 3.6v so if you get similar at your VB points it’s fine

Post your voltages for all transistors and IC’s this may help indicate the cause

Input buffer stage (blue) a high impedance input to get as much guitar signal as possible going into the circuit and a low impedance output to drive the next two stages.

State variable filter (yellow). Without getting too techie, this is the part that goes “Wah”. If you are interested, look at the application notes (Google NE5517 or LM13700 data sheet) – warning !! this can be rather boring for normal sane people.

While we need to keep the signal going into the State Variable Filter (yellow) quite low, a slightly higher level signal might be needed for the envelope follower stages (green, pink and lilac).

The “green” stage boosts the signal, the”pink” stage converts the signal into a DC voltage, the DC voltage is proportional to the signal coming from the “green” stage – higher signal level, higher DC voltage level.

The DC voltage output of the “pink” stage drives the transistors in the “lilac” stage into producing a control current (more DC voltage at the base of Q2 means more current), the control current, which is connected to pins 1 and 16, tells the State Variable Filter (yellow) how much it should “Wah”.

 

[Billy]

Yes post a link to your video

Here’s some voltages to check

[Billy]

It’s very difficult to see your values and resistor colour bands Derrick

Even if you open the image in a new tab you can’t clearly see the colours or zoom in for a better look

[Billy]

8 excellent looking pedals you’ve got there Graham very nice

[Author]

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