Double pedal grounding issue (resulting in no sound for one side)

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Sonik Stach
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Posts: 11
Joined: 27 Jul 2012, 21:26
my favorite amplifier: Tech 21 Trademark 10
Egnater Tweaker
Completed builds: Fuzz Face (Fulltone clone)
Zendrive clone
BSIAB (Wampler Pinacle)
SHO/Landgraff boost
Stage 3 booster
Mr442 (MXR/CAE line driver clone)
modded Wah
TS808
K.O.T. (or Prince of...)
A/B box, True Bypass box, parallel loop
Keeley like DS-1 mods
Byoc Orange Dist & Optical Compressor
Location: Paris, France
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Post by Sonik Stach »

Salut/Hello from Paris

Let me share with you my problems as I couldn't find (yet) any solution searching the web.

I've built two overdrives in one enclosure (TS808 and KOT): each has his true bypass footswitch with led, but one global IN/OUT and a cascading order switch. Both circuits are built on one veroboard, inspired by the layouts of Guitar Fx Layout (great site!) with a common ground stripe, and a daughter board for the diodes so I can easily change them for more "magic" ones :wink:

While testing before closing the box I thought everything worked fine but then noticed that my wire going from the DC jack ground to the star-grounding point on the input jack popped out. Corrected it but then the TS side doesn't work (no sound) and the leds are brighter. The 9V goes thru a protection diode and is dispatched between the 2 circuits and the leds CLRs.

If I remove this wire, everything works (beside the second problem explained below), but of course I cannot daisy chain the power with other pedals as the same issue is occurring.

The second problem: after trying to debug (or was it from the start?) the KOT side works when engaged, but then the sound disappear for one second and fade in back, and then stay rock solid... Happens each time I'm engaging the true bypass... Bad capacitor maybe? (I've used a few vintage parts, NOS and used...)

I've triple checked the vero (with a cutter) for unwanted cross strip contact, redid some bad looking solders, powered only the TS side... no luck... I didn't do the Bajaman isolating power trick described here, have to get my hand on 100R resistors (might have 68R if it's enough...).

Does anyone have any clue of what's happening? Or what should I check?

This is not my first build, nor the first double one, but maybe something went wrong as I've built it by episode across 5 years because of, well, life happening! I'm quite frustrated, because it sounds as expected, and beyond!

Merci/Thank you in advance for your help and sorry for the long post

Stach

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mauman
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Post by mauman »

Hello! Schematic diagrams and photos, please. It's difficult to help without them.

User avatar
Sonik Stach
Information
Posts: 11
Joined: 27 Jul 2012, 21:26
my favorite amplifier: Tech 21 Trademark 10
Egnater Tweaker
Completed builds: Fuzz Face (Fulltone clone)
Zendrive clone
BSIAB (Wampler Pinacle)
SHO/Landgraff boost
Stage 3 booster
Mr442 (MXR/CAE line driver clone)
modded Wah
TS808
K.O.T. (or Prince of...)
A/B box, True Bypass box, parallel loop
Keeley like DS-1 mods
Byoc Orange Dist & Optical Compressor
Location: Paris, France
Has thanked: 2 times
Been thanked: 2 times
Contact:

Post by Sonik Stach »

Thank you for your time.

I should be ashamed... before answering I checked once again... and found out the problem: :oops:

A lug of the volume pot was touching the casing of another pot! The nut was not tight enough... and the space too tight.

Then I was able to solder all the grounds, and all the mentioned problems are now gone. So you can boo me before I delete this topic, or should I leave it so someone can learn from my mistake. (Maybe writing it down helped me troubleshoot!)

Now I can keep on rocking!

Bonne journée / Have a nice day

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mauman
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Joined: 17 Jun 2017, 20:01
Location: Texas, US
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Post by mauman »

We've all been there. Congratulations on finding the problem!

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