Build Your Own Clone Message Board

Hi all. i have a weird problem. My Large Beaver Ram's Head was working but seemed to be getting a little noisy. It was my first pedal build so I took it apart and laughed at my beginner's soldering skills. I've built about 40 pedals now so I've learned a lot since then.

Since my soldering was weak, I decided to reflow the solder (also added some solder so I got solder thru both sides - which was sadly lacking). my solder joints look good but...

BOTTOM LINE: My once working pedal no longer works. When Tone Bypass is engaged, the pedal works as expected. When the Tone Bypass is off, I get no sound at all. Pedal bypass works fine as well. I've tested both switches and got continuity as expected. Any idea where to start continuity testing on the board? Pics below...

PS - My LED is not soldered yet. I always wait until the pedal is fully functional before I solder the LED in case i need to readjust.

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-Jamie

I would assume the problem is somewhere in the tone pot. Test signal to see if anything is coming out of the center lug of the tone pot. Check to see if you have a very trebly signal on lug 3 and a very bassy signal on lug 1.

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*patience is a virtue*

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

I am not sure what you mean by "very trebly signal on lug 3" and "very bassy signal on lug 1" in regards to a multimeter.

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-Jamie

One the tone pot, the center lug (when viewed from the open back, looking at the component side with the footswitch at the bottom) is lug 2. The lug on the right is lug 1, and the lug on the left is lug 3. The function of that pot is to blend the two EQ'd signals together (lug 3 = treble, lug 1 = bass), which then comes out of lug 2 and on to the final transistor stage. What you're testing for is presence of those signals up as far as the pot. But you'll need a signal tester to do that.

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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

Looking at the board, it looks like the middle tone lug should have continuity with the switch lug on the right (component side up) - which makes sense with the direction of the switch bat. I wasn't getting any continuity so I reflowed the solder there and boom! Pedal now works. Sorry about that. I should have figured that out before I posted. And, how sad is it that I had to reflow the solder on my reflow job. I will say I did completely remove the switches and pots before I started so I could easily get to all the soldering joints.

Thanks again for all the input. You guys are the best.

I'm gonna need y'all on standby - I just bought the Super 8 Looper.

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-Jamie

Ah, great! Glad to hear you got the pedal working correctly. Moderator Stephen's famous quote is once again validate: "It's your soldering."


Nah, you got this! (But we're here if you need us!)

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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