Build Your Own Clone Message Board

Comp works fine, bypass fine, LED lights for each function, no green ringer and no combo, if I touch the big .047 cap in the upper left corner I get a loud buzz, leading me to suspect a ground problem somewhere...

I saw a few spots where I was shy with the solder and added some more, but same result...

nothing obvious is jumping out at me. First thing I would try is to clean up the board...ie, reflow your solder joints (all of them)...clip the leads a little better. While doing that, examine for any tiny little solder bridges that may have formed.

A – This looks like a blob of solder on the end of the lead with no contact with the solder pad.

B – Good solder joints should never look like a blob. Especially the one on the right.

C – Looks like a solder starved joint.

D – Do not leave excess component lead sticking thru the PCB like this. They are short circuit risks.

E – Looks like poor soldering



A – The different angle makes these joints look bad to me.

Set it aside and meanwhile had some successful other builds (Looper, Dist+, Orange Distortion)...followed the above suggestions with same result. I am beginning to wonder if I fried the rotary switch somehow (I put it on the wrong side at first)- it took ages to desolder, and I wonder if all the heat might have messed with the contacts- although I do get the LED color changes, just no signal in the Ringer- comp works fine...

i am having the same problem! compressor works but ringer and combo don't, but LED and bypass also work fine.

if you have an audio signal tester (they sell it on the site but you can build one its a 1/4" jack connected to 2 test probes) I would suggest tracing the signal through the ringer circuit and seeing where it cuts out (the ringer circuit is the one with many components mirroring each other, NOT the one with the op amp) use the diagrams provided in the sticky and let me know what you find. I am fairly confident that the problem is in the rotary switch or the ringer circuit.

i'll be doing the same thing and i'll update you if i find anything

ok so i fixed mine in about 30 min with a signal tester, here's what you do

-set the pedal in bypass mode and connect up the signal tester to make sure you are doing it right (one end can be grounded on the enclosure touch the other probe to the metal tab that normally touches the 1/4" jack and strum, if your bypass normally works then you should hear your bypassed signal fairly clearly

-now set the pedal in ringer mode and check your signal at C1, R1, R2 you should get the same signal at each spot which will sound like the bypassed signal (you can see they are all virtually the same spot, its the node before the first transistor)

-if you didn't get bypassed signal here, make sure your signal tester is set up proberly, make sure your pedal is in the right mode, make sure you tested the correct side of each component, it pays to double check

-if you did get bypassed signal then check the signal at R12, here you should get the ringer output, if you don't something is wrong between R12 and C1 so go from C1 and figure out where you are losing signal (i had forgotten to solder a pin on my first transistor, when i fixed that the pedal worked perfect

-if you get signal at C1 and R12 as it should be and still no sound from the pedal when plugged in normally then check that you set up the rotary switch correctly (that it is going to the first 3 positions only) and check the connections from rotary to board (a simple continuity test will do, this is a feature included on most multi-meters that tells you whether whatever is between the probes is shorted)

I wish you success!