Build Your Own Clone Message Board

hey folks!

long time troller first time poster...
first of all thanks for all the great info, tips, and tricks!!!
you have inspired me to get back into learning about electricity and circuits!

just finished my 1st AT. the build went pretty smooth and everything seems to work .
was just curious about the noise floor of the compressor.
i've read in the forum here that the circuit is known to be a bit noisy and that it may be cleaned up with switching out the op-amp.
but just wondering how noisy is "normal"???
the noise is pretty high freq. and sounds a bit much for use in a "clean" tone.
i am not too familiar with the squeezer to know this to be comparable.

also my ear is having a bit of trouble noticing any change with the attack toggle.
is there a way to test this via voltmeter?

the solder job is my first in a long time, so it is in no way close to perfect.
i can up pics if necessary.
but as mentioned above, seems that the pedal works and my ear may just be shot.

in all honesty i am not a guitar player, but a long time drummer looking to break away form the kit every now and then

thanks everyone

A high frequency noise sounds more like an oscillation problem than your typical noise (hiss) problem. Post large in focus photos of both sides of your PCB. Include clear detailed shots of the wiring to and from the jacks too. Do NOT post blurry photos. We need to see as much detail in the photos as possible. The pix need to make it seem as if we have the build right here in front of us.

The original of the orange squeezer used a 741 op-amp, a single op-amp in an 8 pin package. The early 741 was not great for noise and noise did not normally seem to be a problem with the Squeezer.

The BYOC version uses a dual op-amp chip, but leaves one half of it unused and as far as I know completely unconnected. That unconnected op-amp might be oscillating. As far as I can see the unused op-amp is on pins 1,2 and 3. Try connecting pin 2 to pin 1 and pin 3 to pin 7. If it is oscillating you may find that carefully touching your fingers to those pins may influence the noise you hear.

The attack switching should be pretty obvious. The only thing you can check with a multimeter is whether the switch is really switching the ends of those capacitors to connect to circuit ground. Use a continuity or resistance setting to do this.

thanks for the tips!


will get pics up asap.
i am a student so my "play-time" is limited. thinking that probably this weekend will allow for some free time.
will also try to short out those pins on the op amp.

thanks again

my apologies.....
school has been getting in the way lately but finally got around to some pics...
i hoping to get around to working on this soon.

noticed a loose solder joint on the sleeve terminal of the input jack
so that will be my 1st repair..

any other suggestions?

There are a few bad joints. A general clean up and your pedal should be good.

any specific ones that stand out?

it is finally spring break!!!!.....
so i fixed a couple spots and everything seems to be the same as before. just a high line noise....
what would you folks recommend for getting rid of hiss?


should i just re-solder the whole thing?

also checked the toggle continuity and everything is fine.
maybe a capacitor is out? wouldn't a blow cap stop the signal???

may just give the pedal to a friend and see what another set of ears hears.

thanks in advance for any feedback..

-bk

Your soldering of the jacks and stomp switch is very poor. A quality solder joint should never look clumpy like yours do. I would suggest setting this project aside and spending some time learning how to solder properly. Having good soldering skills are a MUST if you want to have a working pedal when you're done.

thanks for the honest response.

It is the large metal tags on the switch and jacks that people seem to have difficulty with.

Make sure these surfaces are clean first - they tend to build up a lot of oxides. With the sockets you can buff the tags up with a small very fine file or scrape them with a scalpel blade. The switch tags are a bit trickier. A useful tool I have is a fibre glass brush which will do a good job of cleaning contacts, just watch out for the fibre fragments. Tin the socket tags with a little solder - you want to get a smooth coating of solder on the tag but you don't want to block up the hole. Best leave the switch tags alone as they are quite small and any solder will tend to close the holes.

Then prepare the wire - strip the insulation back with a good pair of strippers that cut the insulation cleanly. Make sure the strippers do not cut any of the wire strands. Twist the exposed strands together tightly and then tin the twisted strands with solder and the iron to form a neat solid wire termination that will easily poke through the holes in the tags.

Pass the solid tinned wire tails through the pre-tinned socket tags and you can even bend the wire over to lock it to the tag and cut any excess wire off before soldering. Apply the iron firmly to the junction of tag and tinned wire and then apply enough solder to complete the joint. Keep the wire on the joint long enough for the solder to flow out and form a smooth solid joint. Do not jog the joint as you remove the iron or while the solder cools because it goes through a semi-solid phase and can crack and crumble. Having the wire and the tag pre-tinned makes it much easier to get a really good joint on those jack socket tags.