Build Your Own Clone Message Board

Hey all. I saw another topic here that seems to be a similar to a funny thing I have been encountering.

So I finally got the build finished. Bottom line is everything works as it should and I'm happy with the build. But one thing.

I noticed that when I first plugged in the high frequency section was acting very strange. Turning the pots only in that section produced a lot of cracking and loud pops. I thought it was an issue with the pots. The q pot either crackled or popped or when turning it there was in fact a volume increase which shouldn't be the case because it is a width pot. The volume jumped when turning this pot and sound completely cut out when turned low at about 10 o'clock. And jumped when turning up past that.

First thing I thought was the solder connections might in fact be a bit stressed after tightening the screws as I had heard in another topic. So I reflowed the problem pots to "de stress" them. The problem persisted. I tried re flowing the
The ground connections to the input and output jacks as well. But same thing.

So next thing I did was I loosen the screws on the pots in the high section. Pushed the pcb back a little so that the q pot in that section was not tight against the case. After this I re tightened the cut boost pot and the frequency pot. Now all knobs show no sign of crackling and popping. And all ranges are good.

My question is.. aren't the pots supposed to be tightly touching the enclosure so that they are grounded? Because quite the opposite happened. When I loosened the pot the grounding issue pops and crackling stopped.

I did take the pcb apart from the enclosure to see if anything from those issue pots were touching the pcb in any way but they are all quite far away from the pcb so that shorting would not really be an issue. Only the legs of the pots were touching as it should be. And I even made sure to slight lift the pcb from the pots before soldering as the byoc instructions usually suggest on some build like the reverb 2.

Nice job trouble shooting - I think you identified your issue. It sounds to me that the Q pot is the only issue, and maybe the pot got hung up on the enclosure or something when you first soldered anything in. I think I had a similar issue when I built my PEQ - it is a tough build between all those 1/8 watt resistors and the 10 pots to worry about.

I would hit the solder joints on that pot a few more times - maybe hit them once or twice as-is, then tighten the pot and hit them a few more times to try and get that thing set well.

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MasterDelayer/Reverbrador/Ampaholic/TopJacker

Thanks for the input Morgan.
I will have to retouch the q pot again with some solder. For some reason the high section is popping and crackling as well as intermittent. Do the pots have to be flush against the enclosure? I thought it should be grounded up when the pot is tight against the enclosure that's when I notice the problems occurring that involve grounding .

Not to work, but yes, they should be snugged up against the enclosure for proper fit. Did you snap off all the anti-rotation tabs as described in the instructions?


Mounting the pots to the panel grounds the pot casing but does not ground the lugs. Typically, when you get intermittent operation when the pots are tight to the enclosure, but not when they are loose, it is because the pot is being somehow twisted or otherwise putting some sort of stress on the solder joints that connects them to the PCB, as you have already mentioned. I think that is going on here and I think you'll get it sorted out after some more re-work.

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MasterDelayer/Reverbrador/Ampaholic/TopJacker

Ok. Just wanted to update for all of you that might be having an issue with the eq build. But this is a very possible thing. So no matter how many times I checked and rechecked I couldn't find anything wrong with the soldering of the pots as I had already reflowed all joints especially my pots in the high eq section. So I opened it up again and found something that I overlooked.

One of the film capacitor leads was touching the back of the cut boost pot in the high section. So I cut the lead and now absolutely no popping or crackling. Works as it should. Knock on wood.

So for anyone with issues you should check and recheck the pots especially where the film capacitor leads are. The film capacitor leads sometimes are short and it is easy to leave these leads and not clip them. That's what I did only to find that they can be long enough to touch the back of a pot.

Next question is.. I tried the error correction where you take the 100k out of R29 and solder the 100k to the pads 2 to 7 where the header should be. I did this before only to find that when I click the pedal on there is a loud pop when I engage the pedal. Since I have rev 1.0 I did this modification. But it didn't resolve anything and brought in more issues. Not sure if I did something wrong here.
I put the 10k back into R29 and it works well with no popping. Is there something I missed?

This is something that should be checked in the normal course of troubleshooting several kinds of problems. And not just for capacitors--a long lead left on any type of component could potentially contact the back of a pot and end up grounded. And if there's signal present on that lead, it can kill part or all of your output.

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

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

We are going to need some in-focus photos showing your work in order to help you with this.

http://byocelectronics.com/board/viewtopic.php?f=33&t=6103

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MasterDelayer/Reverbrador/Ampaholic/TopJacker

Thanks for the help.
Here are some pics of the pedal.
Please excuse me. The pedal doesn't have distortion anymore or that loud of a pop although the pop is there. I noticed that the pop is in fact there regardless of whether the 10k is in the 2 to 7 eyelets or in r49. The reason for the loud pop and distortion was due to the fact that already the pot issue wasn't fixed. After I clipped the lead and soldered the resistor on r49 to 2 to 7 eyelet there is no loud pop or distortion
However. There is no difference in the hiss as it is still there whether I move the resistor or not. So there is no real change after I do this. Unless I missed something. Is this normal?

I also do notice a bit of scratchiness when turning the pots and when I press the foot switch there is a brief static noise which wasn't there before I moved the 10k.

Thanks again.