Build Your Own Clone Message Board

Noob here. As silly as it sounds, the act of taking my newly built LB (stock/standard Ram's Head) off my pedalboard, replacing the knobs with some nicer ones, and placing it back onto my pedalboard has killed my LB.

With the EQ profile selector in the 4th pos (disengaged tone circuit), I get the most volume compared to the other 3 but it is very quiet and sounds really buzzy in a horrible way...turning the volume knob to 100% is only 10% of what it was like yesterday . On the other selector positions, the sound is even weaker than that. When I turn the tone knob (using EQ selector positions 1,2, &3) there is white noise as I turn the pot...not static, per se...just a smooth "whooshing" throughout the turn of the tone pot.

The funny thing is, it was all working perfectly for about 2 days prior to this! No static, no dropouts, not intermittent signal...just full, blooming glorious volume and Pi goodness...and some minimal movements later, it's FUBAR.

Bypass works fine, LED works fine when engaged.

Any suggestions or sage words of advice are welcome and appreciated. I have taken a look at my solder points at each discrete point one at a time and nothing obvious is noticeable. I am gonna go sleep on this and start in on it tomorrow evening. I guess this will be my first jump into troubleshooting various stages of the circuitry...

Thank you

have you checked the battery?

Sure sounds like a ginchy solder joint in there somewhere. Even minimal movement/jostling can cause problems with a cold or cracked joint. I'd start with the pot wiring, since you were changing the pot knobs, and then move on to the jack and switch wiring. A good way to find a bad joint is to open up the back, turn the pedal on, and probe around the joints with a non-conductive object (plastic pen body, wooden chopstick, etc.) while strumming your guitar. Listen for crackle and signal dropout as you do this. When you find it, reflow that solder joint and retest.

If you're unable to isolate the problem, you'll need to post back with photos--big, well-focused, well-lit close-ups of the jacks, footswitches and both sides of the PCB.

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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

Thank you, voodooman...if there is a sense that the problem is there in my soldering, then I just have to hunt it down and I will start with your advice and consult the troubleshooting guide...I was concerned that there was something fried somewhere.

BTW, my power supply is a typical '1 Spot' adaptor. I will move back to using a fresh 9v battery for safety and portability as I work on it.
I will update this post with my progress.

Build yourself an audio probe... you can then trace the circuit to find a bad solder or, in some cases, a bad component.