Build Your Own Clone Message Board

So, I may be in over my head.. I built the classic delay a few months ago and loved it, relatively little trouble. Just put together the Silver Pony 2 yesterday and wiring the footswitches in such small space on the PCB was definitely a challenge. Anyway, I put it in the enclosure and plugged it in, and both channels' LEDs turned on and stayed on. No bypass signal, no sound when engaged, but I can hear the signal changing when I engage each footswitch, and I can hear that the Output knob is responsive (when I dime it the signal volume increases from my amp, even though my guitar isn't coming through). The clipping LEDs flicker at times but aren't on consistently. So clearly I've botched something(s).

A bit more context, I used mostly lead-free silver/tin solder which I'm regretting because it was definitely harder to work with. It was also .061 thickness which I'm now realizing is twice as thick as I need. So, definitely some clunkiness there.

I reflowed some joints and redid some wires for the footswitches and input/AC jacks. Pics attached of the PCB and footswitches.

I read some of the board discussions on issues with the Silver Pony 2 and tried the 'Boost skip' that DuhVoodooMan suggested here: viewtopic.php?f=50&t=59547#p498469 so that's why the footswitch wiring might look off/different.

I'd love any insight here on what looks good, what doesn't, areas to focus on for troubleshooting. Hoping I haven't toasted this whole kit and that I can salvage it! Any and all advice gratefully accepted.

More pics here:

Sorry, but these photos are far too small to show the detail that we need to effectively help you troubleshoot. You can check out the type of photos that we love to see here: viewtopic.php?p=482910#p482910

Granted, not everyone has the capability to provide such stellar quality, but that's the kind of pics that can be really helpful. Be sure to show all of the wiring to the jacks and switches. You can post your photos to a publicly accessible hosting site and display or link them here, or post them directly here using the forum's file attachment function. If you use the latter, know that there is a 1 Mb size limit for image files, so it may be necessary to crop or otherwise reduce their dimensions or their color depth to get them below that size limit. Any of a number of image editing applications will allow you to do this. I often recommend IrfanView for this purpose, since it is free and very easy to use.

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

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

Ah, my bad! Didn't realize they came in small. Thanks for the info and tips. Link here to better images: https://imgur.com/a/NViDUL1

The first thing I would do is to rewire both footswitches, which both look pretty bad. Detailed guidance: viewtopic.php?f=9&t=33293

If you have no bypass signal, it's almost always a problem with the I/O jacks or the footswitch(es).

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

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

On it, thank you. Dumb question but I need to get more wire and the description of the wire on the BYOC store seems a bit ambiguous when I Google it. Any concrete names/terms I can look for/ask for when getting more wire?

The BYOC hookup wire is good stuff--24 gauge, multi-stranded. Pliant, easy to strip, and takes solder well. My favorite hookup wire is the stuff that Barry over at GuitarPCB.com sells, but he's out of stock now and has been for awhile.

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

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

Thanks, off to snag some of that from a local store and will update once I fix up the footswitches. Fingers crossed that's the only thing I beefed

Okay, some progress here. Redid the foot switches and the PCB connections, and realized I had one of the IC chips in backwards.. Fixed that up, and now I have bypass, and both footswitches respond. But with the boost channel, I get no signal, though I can hear the level being raised when I crank the pot. On the OD side, all three pots function properly, and the diode selector does indeed switch, and I get signal from all three positions, but especially with the LED and silicon positions, it goes in and out of being just a clipping mess, and when I crank the gain, it gets to be like an unusable tremolo. Same thing does not happen when I crank the level. The LEDs light up like mad too. So, Boost channel, no signal when engaged, and OD side gives me signal and distortion, but its spotty, and the LED and silicon especially aren't very functional. Also signal seems a bit quiet compared to bypass. Wondering if it's a power issue. I have a 9v Boss daisy chain but its reading 14v when I use my multimeter. Could that be to blame? Any ideas of next steps to troubleshoot here?

If you put one of the ICs in backwards, it's likely ruined. Do you recall which one it was? Take it out and see if that fixes your voltage problems.

_________________
*patience is a virtue*

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

Tail is tightly tucked between my legs, but it was actually the charge pump, and it was not only backwards but in the wrong spot. Had it where the second-from-right TL072 should've been. Fixed that up, and OD channel is working beautifully. Now resoldering the boost side footswitch hoping to get that online.. One quirk is that the OD on-off LED is on permanently, regardless whether it's engaged.

The way the LEDs are wired in this and most other BYOC pedals is with power always supplied to the anode (+) side, but no connection to ground for the cathode (-) side, without which current can't flow and the LED can't light. So if your OD-side LED is always on, it means that you have a persistent ground connection to the cathode, which is connected to lug 1 of the OD footswitch. This could be caused by a couple of things:

• A bad footswitch where the internal connection between lugs 1 and 2 (which is the grounded lug) is always made, regardless of the switch position.
• A short between the LED cathode and ground somewhere else. The most likely cause would be a solder bridge between eyelets 1 and 2 on the PCB above the footswitch, though other less common shorts are also possible.

A close-up of BOTH SIDES of that area of the PCB could be helpful in providing you with further guidance on resolving this.

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

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

Solder bridge between 1 and 2 eyelets was the culprit. Fixed up, housed, rocking! Boost is bassier than I was expecting, which I enjoy, but anyone else notice that?

I played some more today, and realized that if I roll back my guitar(2018 ampro Tele)'s volume a touch, that heavy bass response (or maybe it's just a cutting of the high end?) rolls off too. Basically same volume since it gets some punch back. Is this normal with boosts? Harder you drive 'em, the more high end gets shaved off? If I'm wanting the sound and boost I'm getting when I roll off my guitar volume 10-20%, should I turn my amp's master down a touch and run it that way?

FWIW I play through a Dr. Z and like my master high as can be in whatever setting (with an attenuator) and my gain/volume around 9-11 o'clock, just a bit of dirt. Love my natural tone and just use boost to give it a bit more guts/breadth, same with OD basically.

Adoring this pedal though. Such great clarity on the OD side. Gonna unseat my Pigtronix OFO (and maybe my old Hot Cake clone too) before long I think.

Something else you could try would be to reduce the value of the input cap (C16 on THIS PCB MAP) to reduce the lower bass frequencies going into the boost stage. The stock value is 100nf (104) but you could try a 47n (473), 22n (223), or even a 10n (103) film cap and see what sounds best to your ear. A good way to do this would be to install a couple of single inline (SIL) sockets in the two eyelets for C16, allowing you to "audition" multiple cap values without soldering and desoldering.

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

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

Thanks for this tip, just put in an order! Can't wait to test that out. I've never used these SIL sockets, do you solder 'em on the PCB for good then just swap out caps at will, or do they eventually come off when you find the right fit?

I would say they are "permanent" even once you find the right fit. The only reason I'd remove them and hardwire in the caps is if you were going on tour or something where you really wanted to make it as secure as possible. But even then I wouldn't worry about it. Unless you've swapped out caps so many times that you've worn the sockets out, as long as you can feel a little "snap" when you push them into the socket, they are quite secure.

_________________
*patience is a virtue*

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

Got it, thanks. Gonna tinker this weekend and will report back!

Haven't been able to get my hands on the right caps yet, just waiting on them to swap in, but in my tinkering I also noticed that when I run the SP2 AFTER my Pigtronix OFO Disnortion (running on 9V though they recommend 15), even without the OFO engaged, the SP2 boost channel sounds brighter, not as dark. The OFO is not true bypass, so I wondered if it's doing something to the signal that impacts the SP2's operation? I'm tempted to keep the OFO on my board without ever engaging it purely for this effect it seems to have on the SP2 boost channel. Any electricity buffs know what might be happening here?

This was 90% a tone suck issue, oops. Buffered pedal in the chain cleans it way up.