Build Your Own Clone Message Board

ok....so i finished the tremelo kit and i followed the directions carefully for this build cuz i didnt want it to not work. I was finished, but then when i pushed the bypass switch the led wouldnt come on. i thought maybe it might be a bad led, but i checked with the DMM and it works. I also know i didnt put it in reversed cuz of the DMM. I checked the switch and it had continuity. I have no clue what the problem is. I also checked with another battery. I resoldered some of the joints that looked bad. maybe not all of them. I dont know if the effect works right now cuz i dont have my guitar with me but either way the led doesnt light up when i plug in the battery. Help plz I had this same problem with the OD i built which was really my first build. but that one i reversed the opamp and right now im waiting for the piece i messed up. but for now i just need help for the opamp. Also, the led should turn on even if the guitar isnt plugged in right?

oh also i will clip off the excess leads and add solder to some of them....but plz look to see if there are any other problems

Unlike most BYOC pedals in the Tremolo the LED is a vital part of the circuit and if it does not light your Low Frequency Oscillator (LFO) will not run and you will not get a tremolo effect. Like most pedals the Tremolo is only turned on when there is a jack inserted into the input jack socket. With a good battery, and a jack in the input, flipping the footswitch to active should result in a flashing LED that pulses at the speed of the LFO.

If you have a dead LED or it is in the wrong way round the Tremolo will pass signal in both bypass and active modes but there will be no effect. Like most of the BYOC PCBs the trem PCB white overprint indicates the flat portion of the LED plastic moulding on the wrong side. If your LED flat faces in this direction (even though it is on the other side of the PCB) you have it in backwards.

Also - check you haven't mixed up the positions of the 2N5457 FETs and 2N5088 bi-polar transistors on the PCB.

lol....ill see if it works when i put in the input jack...then ill come back here...and im pretty sure the LED is in correctly...maybe once i put the jack in it will work. Also, my LED is facing the opposite direction of the white overprint and its on the bottom side of the pcb. so i dont think it is in backwards....i think my problem was that i didnt know you had to have the jack in to have it on.....now i know THANK YOU! i will come back if that doesnt work

and if it works...that means my first build was a success then i will be happy
also transistors are correct

what is this for?

The first is a lock washer for the switch and I think the other two are for the jacks. You put them on the inside of those parts inside the case and they help to stop them twisting as you tighten the nuts and they help to stop them loosening.

hey ive been looking around and saw something about unity gain. i researched it so i know what it is...and have an idea of how to find it but just in case can you tell me plz

Unity gain is where your effected signal is the same volume as unaffected as in when the pedal is off. That really applied to older versions of the trem because the volume was set via a trimpot and so was only accessible to change when the pedal was open. This version has the volume knob so you can set it wherever and whenever you like.

how do u set it? o.O

Unity gain is a general term meaning there is no difference in gain / level, or volume, between the input and the output.

Guitar effects may introduce an apparent or actual difference in level which can be heard as you operate the foot switch to switch between the bypassed signal and the signal with the effect applied. So pedals are usually designed with the necessary 'make up' gain applied in the circuit. This may be fixed, or it may be adjusted by an internal trimmer, or very often by an external control knob. This may be called - volume, level or balance.

To adjust it you switch first to bypass and listen to the guitar signal without the effect and then flip the foot switch to hear the effected signal. You can adjust the volume, level or balance control so that there is no apparent difference in volume as you flip the foot switch back and forth.

Of course you may decide that you actually want the effected signal to be louder (or quieter, although that is unusual) and turn up the level, as would certainly be the case with a boost pedal.

Since these level controls are normally used just to balance the un-effected level with the effected level you might expect that they wouldn't turn down to no signal when fully anti-clockwise, but most of them do. You might also expect that perhaps the right balance would be found with the control at '12 o'clock' but very often you will find the unity gain position is at maybe '1.30'. If you want you can offset these controls by adding a series resistor to ground so they don't turn down to zero and the unity gain point is closer to '12 o'clock'.

Thank you for your help! and for the info. the pedal actually worked lol. i thought it didnt but it was just that i didnt know you had to have the jack in already. now i know! thought it was wierd for it not to work since i followed the directions correctly and followed the troubleshooting steps with no problems