Build Your Own Clone Message Board

I've just finished an Octave Fuzz build, and the pedal's not right. The intensity pot is very non-linear. Below about 90%, the output of the pedal is very weak. Once you get that intensity up to 90% or more, the signal comes back very quickly and with a lot of fuzz. Basically, it's all or nothing.

When the intensity knob is at 90%+, everything else appears to work properly. Lights, switches, knobs. Below that, it's working but with a very low output.

I'm wondering if the pot is bad, although I can't find anything obvious when poking around with a multimeter. It's also acting like there might be some sort of voltage threshold - something needs X volts to light off, and it's not getting that until the pot is at 90%.

I made a mistake when building the board and put the transistors in backwards. I caught that before I powered anything up, but getting them loose again did make a bit of a mess and the board looks bad in that area. Everything seems to have full continuity, however.

Thoughts?

Solved my own problem. I missed the fact that the level and intensity pots are different. Sure enough, I had them swapped.

With the pots in their more traditional locations, the box rocks. Really fun.

That was the first thing I suspected from reading your description of the symptoms, but you found it yourself. Well done!

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