Build Your Own Clone Message Board

Hello, I built a BYOC vibrato pedal in the summer of 2021 and really loved the sound it had to offer. It was the first pedal I built from BYOC, and the only thing I couldn't get to work was the ramp mode. But I really didn't care for that feature, so I didn't attempt to fix it. I used it for about 4 months until one day I noticed a large decrease in volume (basically an inaudible output) when I turned the pedal on, along with my guitar sounding distorted. I flipped the footswitch on and off and it went back to normal. This occurrence then started to become more frequent, and I would fix it the same way every time: flip the footswitch on and off, and sometimes I would have to do it multiple times until the output was normal. Eventually, my trick of turning it on and off until it sounded right stopped working and the quiet distorted output is all I can get out of the pedal now. What's weird is when it originally started happening, it was only when the pedal was engaged. When I bypassed it, the output was loud and clear, and completely normal. However, it eventually started to become distorted and quiet with the pedal being bypassed and with the pedal engaged. The pedal was never damaged, aside from it softly falling onto my carpet from my desk once or twice (it fell only about a foot and its landing was cushioned by the carpet). I can take some photos tomorrow of the pcb if needed. But, everything appears the same on the PCB since I finished the job originally.

This kind of thing is usually the result of a so-so solder joint that worked at first but didn't stand the test of time. Some photos of the inside would be helpful, but if it were my build, the first thing I would do is go through the build and reflow all the solder joints. If you've never done this before, it takes a lot less time than it sounds like. The important thing is to melt each joint completely and then remove the tip to let it freeze again. Sometimes you'll need to add a touch of solder, or the tip of the iron will pull some away if you had too much. Be sure to wipe your tip clean between each joint.

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Scott

My band, Austin Hollow

Yes, please. They need to be LARGE, well-lit, well-focused shots of BOTH sides of the PCB and all of the jack and switch wiring. You can post them to a publicly accessible hosting site and display or link them here, or post them directly here using the forum's file attachment function (found below the main posting text box). If you use the latter, know that there is a 1 Mb size limit for image files, so it may be necessary to 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.


Some detailed guidance here: viewtopic.php?f=9&t=52188

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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