Build Your Own Clone Message Board

I bought the Li'l Grey pcb along with the C500k pot from BYOC. I was expecting an easy build with so few parts, but for some reason I can't get this one to work. I've built several of your other pedals with little trouble. This one let's the signal go through in bypass and the light comes on when I click the switch, but then there is no sound.
I've more than triple checked the wiring along with the resistors and everything else. The switch area looks ugly because I had to desolder it to change the 470k resistor I thought was bad.
I used Sprague electrolytics which are in correctly and a LM1458 chip because I read the original used that IC. I did notice the checklist has only one 22k resistor, but the pcb uses two.
This has to be a simple solution because everything appears to be correct. Possibly a bad part? Idk I would appreciate any help. Thank you.

The problem is the chip you used. The Lil Gray OD uses a single op-amp. Your LM1458 is a dual op-amp. Try a TL071 or other single op-amp in it's place and see what that does.

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"It’s your soldering."

Ah! I will try that. Thank you very much. I really appreciate it!

The store had a NTE857m chip that crossed with the TL071 and I put it in the pedal. Now the pedal has sound that goes through when I turn it on, but it's a muffled and dead sound. Turning the pots really doesn't do anything either.
Any ideas?

A set of much larger photos would be helpful. Your photos need to be about 4 to 6 times larger than the ones above. They need to be up close and in crystal clear focus. Blurry or grainy photos aren’t of much use to us. We need to see as much detail as possible of the wiring and both side of the PCB.

_________________
"It’s your soldering."

+1

I notice that you used open-frame jacks on the build. How are you preventing the possibility of signal or voltage from the solder joints on the back of the board shorting against the metal parts of the jacks?

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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

Ok. The message board makes me downsize the photo or it won't upload it. I'll see what I can do.

The board doesn't touch the metal points of the input jacks. Could the dual op amp have blown out the diodes or anything else? The first .001uf film cap I had in it turned black on the top part of the capacitor so I replaced it. It was an older cap so I thought it just went bad.

Very doubtful. It usually takes over-volting or a power polarity mistake to blow out components. And it's usually the IC that goes first.

Let's see those larger pics, please. We're just guessing, at this point...

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

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

Ok. These pictures should be a better size. Let me know if they are not.

Your original LM1458 IC is installed upside down in that photo, so if you installed the new one the same way (with the dot or notch marking at the bottom, toward the footswitch), that would be a definite problem. If you did that, by all means, try flipping it around, but it may have been damaged by the mounting error and need to be replaced.

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

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

Oh, I flipped the IC around, and the pots were responsive, but it's not sounding really good so it may be damaged like you say. I was basing the IC direction off the direction the numbers were facing on the board. I will buy another one and I'm thinking that will fix it.

Thank you for the help.

This “new” op-amp is a single op-amp, right? The LM1458 is a dual op-amp and will NOT work in this pedal. Since a single op-amp does not have the same pin configuration as a dual op-amp there should not be any damage to the original chip that was installed backwards. Dual op-amps get their positive voltage connection on pin 8 and ground at pin 4. When you install a dual op-amp backwards into a spot that was meant for a dual op-amp the power connections are reversed which will result in a toasted op-amp. Since single op-amps have their positive voltage on pin 7 they cannot be inserted backwards like duals and end up as toast.

A better & much closer photo of the solder side of your PCB would be useful. The one you have posted provides none of the detail we need to see to inspect your soldering work. We need to be able to see the texture and quality of your soldering.

_________________
"It’s your soldering."