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[list=][/list]When I turn it on, it works fine, if I don’t, no signal gets through. I probably hooked something up wrong, pictures attached.

Is there any solder on your stomp switch middle bottom lug?


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Pedal building is like the opposite of sex. All the fun stuff happens before you get in the box.

Broadly speaking two major possibilities are (1) lack of continuity between the "tip" lug of the input jack and the "tip" lug of the output jack when in bypass mode, and (2) a short between the "tip" lug of the input jack and and some other unfortunate point (such as ground) in the circuit, when in bypass mode.

Assuming you have a multimeter or some other way to check continuity, remove the 1/4 inch plugs and ...

(1) put the pedal in bypass and see if you have continuity along this sequence: input-jack-tip-lug, footswitch lug 4, footswitch lug 9, footswitch lug 8, and output-jack-tip-lug. Bad solder joints, a bad footswitch, or even a broken trace could cause a discontinuity here. A general a re-flow of the whole circuit could be called for, or in checking this route you might identify a particular solder joint that needs attention.

(2) put the pedal in bypass mode and see whether there is continuity between the input-jack-tip-lug and ground (there are many places to access ground). It's not as easy to predict where this might short-circuit might be, but inspection of the *other* side of the PCB could be useful (and normally at this point we would recommend showing us that side as well). NOTE however that since the pedal seems to work when switched on, it's harder to imagine how this problem crops up. If for some reason the footswitch lugs 4 and 5 are electrically connected permanently, in bypass mode the input signal will be routed through pins 6 and 3 and 2 to ground. This is admittedly quite a stretch for an explanation, but sometimes foot switches are bad, or some short circuit has been made. The jumper between lugs 4 and 9 of the footswitch passes close to 5, so it could happen.

My money would be on either a bad solder joint on the 4-9 jumper on the footswitch or a bad internal connection between the 8 and 9 lugs of the switch itself. Both are easy to check using the continuity setting on a multimeter.

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

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Haven’t had a chance yet, but I’ll break out my multimeter today or tomorrow and double check solder on the foot switch lugs. If all else fails I have a few extra 3PDT switches kicking around and I’ll set it up and install a new switch.

I’ll get a better macro photo of the switch wiring in case there is something I don’t know to look for/am not knowledgeable enough to recognize.

TL:DR It was operator error, full recap follows

Ok, got some quality time with a multimeter and was kind of horrified by how bad the solder joints were on the switch, so I reflowed the lot of them.

Then I tested continuity everywhere indicated. With the pedal in bypass I got continuity from tip to switch lug 4, to lug 9, to lug 8, between 4 & 9, between 8 & 9 and between input tip and output tip. I may have fixed the problem by reflowing a couple of cold joints on the switch, plugging it in to check.

And the same problem, fine let’s pull the pedal out of the chain and see what happens. Hmmm… same problem. That’s curious.

<reads the manual on his amp>

Oh FFS, I had the preamp turned off so it only took signal into the power amp directly. Which means the PEQ has the juice to substitute for my preamp if I so desire. Which is both fun to know, and a really embarrassing way to learn it.