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Hey there! I built a mimosa compressor that originally didn’t pass signal at all, turns out I had a loose connection on lug 4, that’s fixed, but now the compressor acts like a distortion/fuzz rather than a compressor. The voltage on q2 (I think that’s what it was called) reads 1.53, I can adjust it all the way done to .1 and it’s less fuzzy, but it’s still drives when I play hard. Also the blend doesn’t work fully it sounds like, and the signal is quieter than the bypassed signal when the volume is at noon, no matter where the blend is. I thought that it was because I was using it for bass, but I had followed the instructions and used the .33 caps exactly where specified.
Help! Thanks in advance

please take voltages of the op amp.

_________________
*patience is a virtue*

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

Your photos need to be MUCH larger and better focused for us to be able to see the degree of detail needed to help you troubleshoot your problem.

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

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

Here’s the larger photos

1-4.50
2-4.59
3-4.59
4-9.19
5-4.55
6-4.75
7-4.60
8-4.59
9-4.59
10-4.55
11-0
12-4.13
13-5.01
14-5.02

You're voltages are "okay". I think you have 8 ~ 14 transposed though. Pin 10 should be closer to 5V. Does it clip when full dry? Full wet?

Your soldering looks fairly sparse. I see several eyelets that looks pretty empty. You should reflow your solder joints and add a little extra to the ones that need it.

_________________
*patience is a virtue*

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

^ This.

Each solder joint should be conical in shape, like a tiny Hershey Kiss. You shouldn't be able to see the shape of the hole of the eyelet at all through the solder.

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

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

I've reflowed and added extra solder to the joints that needed it. it's still fuzzy, the blend seems to work better, but still clips when I play hard even when fully blended

Does it clip when the blend knob is full dry?

Updated photos might help, since you’ve done some work since you last posted them.

_________________
Scott

My band, Austin Hollow

Yes it does still clip when fully dry, but only when I play hard.

I don't know how much clipping you're getting, so it may just be the typical lack of headroom at 9v.

_________________
*patience is a virtue*

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

It’s a lot of clipping, close to a fuzz almost

Does the blend seem to be working correctly?
Is it clipping when it's fully "wet"?
Does it seem to be compressing correctly?

_________________
*patience is a virtue*

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

so I just played it again, and here's what I found: its compressing wherever the blend knob is, when the blend is all the way "dry" it clips only when I play hard and on the e and a strings, but on the d and g strings I can play hard and hear it compress but not clip, fully "wet" it clips almost all the time, but clips easier on the e and a strings. it also seems to let in more bass frequencies (or perhaps just get louder) when its fully wet

It still compresses when 100% dry (full turn counter clockwise)?

Could you please take voltages of the TL074 again, please? Make sure you are numbering the pins correctly. This is a pinout diagram of a TL084, but it's the same as the 74.

_________________
*patience is a virtue*

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

1-4.59
2-4.59
3-4.59
4-9.18
5-4.54
6-4.75
7-4.59
8-5.01
9-5.01
10-4.13
11-0
12-4.54
13-4.59
14-4.59

I'm sure Keith has you well-covered, but are you perhaps using an active bass? If you've got a very hot output from your pickups or on-board preamp, you might just be clipping the pedal. It might be worth adding a series resistor or trim pot to the beginning of the circuit to see if lowering the input level eliminates the clipping problem. You could even put it on a switch, like many bass amps have at their inputs - i.e. an active/passive toggle.

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no it's passive.

Is it still compressing when you have the blend knob full turn counter clockwise?

_________________
*patience is a virtue*

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

I have the same issues with my Mimosa. To save some time, what was the solution on this thread? Thanks.

It doesn't look like there was one, at least not that was reported. In any case, we find it works out much better if we have separate threads for each build. That's because even if the symptoms are the same, the cause and solution might be quite different—and also, it's easy to get confused when there is more than one in the same thread.

If you can make a separate thread with a full description of your problem and some photos of your build, we'll be glad to help you out!

_________________
Scott

My band, Austin Hollow