Build Your Own Clone Message Board

Hello everyone,
I had bought the discontinued Silver Pony kit from Alchemy Audio many years ago and finally got around to finishing it. I had to buy a couple of components because the kit I received was either missing them or had different values from the instructions. Well it works and mostly seems fine but there is one thing that bothers me. If I am hitting the strings hard it sounds great! however, if I am playing lightly there is an unpleasant low level buzz that sounds like distortion or fuzz that is maybe 1/4 of the volume of the regular signal. At first I thought I was getting string buzz but I knew that could not be the case. It is definitely a low level distortion/fuzz. I know that everyone is going to want to see photos but I will have to take the pedal apart to check it later for the back of the board. I can show you the top but the bottom is probably where the issue is. My question is whether or not it is possible that the gain channel might be bleeding over into the clean signal somewhere? It might help me when I am looking. I am very new to soldering and electronics in general so I am looking at this as a learning experience. If anyone can answer my questions in general for now I think it would be very helpful.

1. Am I right that this pedal mixes the gain into the clean signal?
2. Am I on the right track thinking that somewhere the gain is bleeding into the clean somewhere at a low level giving me the unfavorable low level overtones?
3. Am I right thinking that i bridged something somewhere with messy soldering and should probably be looking for those on the back side of the board?

Here is the front of the board in the case

You've made a significant resistor placement error that needs to be fixed. See marked-up image below--you have switched a 47 ohm resistor (yellow-purple-black-gold-brown) with a 47 Kohm (yellow-purple-black-red-brown). Consequently, you have two places in the circuit where the resistance value is off by a factor of 1,000 from what it should be. Correct this placement error and see how the pedal sounds then.

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

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

Wow, good catch.. thank you. Guess I will be taking it apart sometime today to make that change. One of these days I am going to have to get a breadboard so I can really start to understand how the circuits work. Very very new to all of this. I built a ESV 2 knob Bender and this one so far. First time with a soldering iron in my hands. I hope it is the culprit for the low level noise but I also hope it does not change the rest of the sound too much when I swap those. As is, if I was just using the pedal after a compressor, it would be perfect, but since I like touch sensitive playing more I really want this pedal to work that way as well. It is also amazing when I run my fuzz pedals into it or it into my timmy pedal. It stacks really well.

Okay, I made the switch and now I wish I had recorded some audio before. That was def the problem and now it is behaving more like what I was expecting. Thank you so much for catching my error. Very much appreciated. Makes me want to learn more and play with this circuit because the way it was with those two switched was not bad at all except for that buzz. Makes me wonder if there is a happy medium that would give me the best of both worlds. So much to learn.

You're most welcome. Glad to hear that did the trick. Enjoy the pedal!


You'd probably be better off characterizing what it was about the initial build that you liked and then seeking an effect pedal that is designed to do that, or something very close to it. How would you describe the things about your initial that you liked and that the corrected circuit no longer does as well?

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

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

It's really hard to say. That is why I wished I had recorded the sound.

The gain was a lot more sensitive.. it went from off to clipping pretty nicely in a quarter turn. About the range it has now on a full turn. At a half turn it got really meaty with amazing mid overtones. at a full turn it was more of what it was at a half turn. Now the character is different, like it lost a lot of the mid overtones.

The output was also a LOT more sensitive. Unity volume was hit a lot earlier.

BUT.... I have had a chance to put the pedal back into my dirt chain to play around with it and I can get almost the same tone running this pedal into my Timmy. Also my Fuzz pedals into the silver pony became a lot more interesting. So I can say I am extremely happy with the way it is now.

Here is my dirt chain... from left to right (signal is right to left).. Timmy, BYOC Silver Pony, Vicks Audio 73 Rams head, E.S.V. 2-Knob Bender (extra special vintage). Please excuse my BYOC pedals. I am still trying to figure out the best way to decorate them but I love my design for this one. Once I get it on right it should be really nice. My design for the fuzz is pretty cool too but that's on another computer.

Check out the Green Pony, it’s close to the Silver (though not identical), and the EQ/gain and clipping toggles open up a lot of different options. I use both on my board (silver for cleanish, and Green for dirtyish) and they complement each other (and other gain stages) very well.


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