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Bypass is working. LED is working. No sound when pedal is on. Not sure if controls work. No change with battery or AC. I went over solder joints and proper connections several times. I appreciate any help. I built this pedal as a Christmas gift for my sister. Hopefully she can get it by Easter!

Most of the build appears quite good--you have the four IC's in the correct spots and orientations and the transistors look right, too. However, if my eyes are correct, you have a number of resistor placement errors. It appears that you've switched three 4.7k (yellow-purple-black-BROWN-brown) resistors with three 47K's (yellow-purple-black-RED-brown) and also a 33K (orange-orange-black-RED-brown) with a 330K (orange-orange-black-ORANGE-brown). Since I am making these judgments visually from your photos, you should confirm them with a multimeter. Be advised that resistors cannot always be accurately measured when installed in a circuit due to the possibility of parallel circuit paths which can lead to erroneously low readings. The best way to measure them is with one end lifted out of the circuit. Since you will need to pull both ends if my eyes are correct, this will hopefully not cause any extra work! Though not absolutely necessary for de-soldering and swapping resistors around, a "solder sucker" and good quality de-soldering braid will make the task easier.

I have marked the questionable resistors in the image attached below. You should cross-reference these to the diagram on page 8 of the Bass Chorus instructions:

_________________
“My favorite programming language is SOLDER” - Bob Pease (RIP)

My Website * My Musical Gear * My DIY Pedals: Pg.1 - Pg.2

Thank you. I'll work on it.

I've replaced all the resistors in question. Now there is sound. A horrible squeeling, screaching, major feedback noise. When a note is hit, it is so distorted you can't tell it a guitar. The voltage trim pot does not help at all. It will make the noise louder but not much lower. When turned all the way down the pedal goes silent. I've posted new pics of what it looks like now. I appreciate any help.

Hi mikehas -- A few questions for you on this:

Do you have two distinguishable components of the noise, "screeching" and "distorted", with the latter showing up only when a note is played, or were those two just different descriptions for the same thing?

What, if any, differences in the sound do you get by adjusting any of the three control knobs on the enclosure? (Note that for proper operation, to the extent it is possible, the trim pot on the PCB should be near the middle of its range.)

Is there any effect on the sound produced if you poke & move the purple wires around? (Kind of a long shot query for this circuit, but screeching is sometimes self-oscillation exacerbated by unshielded input and output lines too close together.)


Also--do you have a multimeter?

Actually, no, you haven't. Those are the same photos you posted before. We need to see the new ones showing the resistor corrections. Also, a shot or two of the rear (solder side) of the PCB would be extremely helpful, since that is very often where the problems lie.

_________________
“My favorite programming language is SOLDER” - Bob Pease (RIP)

My Website * My Musical Gear * My DIY Pedals: Pg.1 - Pg.2

Hi and thank you.

The squealing starts as soon as the pedal is engaged. The distortion starts with a note being played.
The is no difference when knobs are turned. no difference when trim pot turned.
No change when wires pulled. I have a multimeter.

RE: Photos
I'm not sure how I did that. I'll fix it sorry

Please remove all the chips except for the 4558. This will kill the wet vibrato signal, and the LED, but leave you with just the dry unaffected signal. The Blend knob should act like a backwards volume knob now. Are you still getting distortion?

_________________
*patience is a virtue*

Please do not PM me. email is prefered. keith@buildyourownclone.com

Removed them and it's worse than before. The led works but the bypass does not. It's a horrible sound that comes out when engaged. No change on blend knob. Not sure how I screwed this up this bad.

Well....that may seem like a step backwards, but in a way it's a good thing. If the root of the problem is with wiring/bypass, that's usually an easier problem to diagnose and resolve. So don't lose hope.

Just so we're on the same page...

1. Was bypass working before?
2. Now what happens in bypass? Distortion or no sound at all?
3. Is the LED on in bypass, or does it turn on and off as expected?

_________________
*patience is a virtue*

Please do not PM me. email is prefered. keith@buildyourownclone.com

Yes, the bypass worked before. The led lights when pedal engaged. No sound at all in bypass.
Thank you for your help!

Do you have a multimeter and know how to test for continuity? https://youtu.be/XRFtlUn4eBg At 8:30 the video explains how to test for continuity.

Test between the tip of the input jack and lug 4 of the footswitch. Then between lug 4 and lug 9. Then between lug 9 and lug 8. And then between lug 8 and the tip of the output jack.

_________________
*patience is a virtue*

Please do not PM me. email is prefered. keith@buildyourownclone.com

Will do. Thank you

Ok.
Between tip of input and lug 4=no
Between lug 4 and lug 9=yes
Between lug 9 and lug 8=no
Between lug 8 and tip of output=yes

Are you certain the foot switch is in the "on" state and not bypass? Not continuity between 9 and 8 suggests that it's "on". Do you have continuity between 8 and 7? You should be able to switch the continuity from 8 to either 7 or 9 by pressing the foot switch. 7 is "on". 9 is bypass.

No continuity between the tip of the input and 4 means you have a bad solder joint or a break in the wire internally or something going on there regardless of the foot switch.

_________________
*patience is a virtue*

Please do not PM me. email is prefered. keith@buildyourownclone.com

It's very possible. I will double check. Thank you!

With pedal on:

between input tip and lug 4=yes
between lug 4 and lug 9=yes
between lug 8 and lug 9=no
between lug 8 and tip of output=yes

I appreciate it.

In its current state, do you have continuity between lugs 4 and 5?

Are you able to press the switch and toggle continuity between lugs 8 and 9; and 8 and 7? Lugs 4 and 5; and 5 and 6? Lugs 1 and 2; and 2 and 3?

_________________
*patience is a virtue*

Please do not PM me. email is prefered. keith@buildyourownclone.com

I'm on it!

Continuity=Y

Between and Pedal on Pedal off
8 9 Y Y
8 7 Y N
4 5 Y N
5 6 N Y
1 2 Y N
2 3 N Y

Thank you!

OK, that sure looks like a bad footswitch, with the 8-9 connection being made in both switch positions. Makes sense that this would cause some horrendous feedback/oscillation in the engaged position; since lug 9 is wired directly to 4 which is connected through the switch to 5, the output at lug 8 is going to be fed directly back into the input of the effect! Yikes!!

Contact sales@buildyourownclone.com and request a replacement footswitch.

_________________
“My favorite programming language is SOLDER” - Bob Pease (RIP)

My Website * My Musical Gear * My DIY Pedals: Pg.1 - Pg.2

Hi mikehas--

(snip a bunch of stuff in light of duhvoodooman's post that got in before mine** ...)

(but I'll keep this part:)

... I suppose it is possible that the footswitch is faulty, but there may be a short in the wiring somehow. For example, note that the jumper between pin 4 and pin 9 (non-insulated in the early photos you showed) runs very close to pin 8. Could they possibly be touching now? Try another visual inspection of the wiring to be sure that there aren't any extra connections being made.

Is it also currently the case that when the switch is in the "bypass" position (effect switched out) no signal at all gets through?
Does the LED currently act the way it is expected? ("Off" in bypass; "on" when the effect is switched in)
Which of the chips are currently installed, and what seems to be the relationship, as best you can recall or re-determine, between whether all the chips are in and whether there is the awful squealing? (And does it depend on the switch position?)


** sometimes I'm the windshield; sometimes I'm the bug

The LED works properly, but now bypass does not. Pedal is dead quiet switched on or off. All the connections on the footswitch are clean.
All but the 4558 chip are still out. The bypass worked before .

Assuming the problems are with the pedal and not with the guitar, amp, or cables, then not having any signal come through when "bypass" is selected could mean there is lack of continuity in the bypass path, or it could mean that the guitar signal is being grounded somewhere along the way.

I would suggest making sure the pedal is in bypass mode (so LED goes off) and then repeat this test that was done earlier:



Of course, you could also just try to test continuity between the tip of the input jack and the tip of the output jack--it's in the case that this would fail that the more detailed test above would help find out where a break is.

If continuity from the input jack tip to the output jack tip exists, then you should try to discover whether there is a short to ground of the input signal. So test for continuity between, say, the input jack tip and the input jack ground. If your continuity tester doesn't indicate continuity, then use the ohmmeter function of your multimeter to measure the resistance between input tip and input ground (though I will confess that any low resistance that is nonetheless too high for your tester to call "continuity" likely would keep the bypass mode from being "dead quiet").

Since the effect circuit is not involved in the bypass mode, your lack of bypassed signal is almost certainly a problem with the solder connections between the I/O jacks and the footswitch, or within the footswitch itself. You should resolve this bypass issue before worrying about the effect circuit. I would recommend disconnecting all of the wires at the I/O jacks, removing the original footswitch, and install a new switch with all new wiring. Please contact sales@buildyourownclone.com and request a replacement switch.

BTW, you can test for continuity through the bypass signal path easily: With the footswitch in bypass mode, you should see continuity between the tips of the input jack and the output jack. If that checks out OK, you should check to make sure that there isn't a path to ground for the bypass signal by testing for continuity between either jack tip and its sleeve. See marked up photo below.

_________________
“My favorite programming language is SOLDER” - Bob Pease (RIP)

My Website * My Musical Gear * My DIY Pedals: Pg.1 - Pg.2