What'd I do wrong OR Why'd it do that?

[Hiwatt25]

Lemme preface this post by mentioning that I am still planted squarely in noob territory and that I seem to be able to get the "idea" of how things work by looking at the schematic or reading about them here however; I seem to have more "A-HA!" kind of moments when I actually sit down and solder things together.

With that, last ight I attempted to do a Mr. Clean/Clean Machine type pedal for use in my rig.  The idea as I understand it is to be able to roll off your guitar's volume without using your hand.  I know, it's kinda silly but hey, I gotta start someplace.  Anyway, I didn't follow a schematic becuase I couldn't find one that was exactly what I wanted.

Basically, I just want an LED to indicate when the "effect" is on and for my guitar's volume to be controled by the pot in the pedal.

The tip of the input jack is wired to a center lug of a 3PDT switch.  In the off position it is jumped to the adjacent pole and connected to the output jack tip.  In the on position the input goes to the center lug of a 10K pot, the number one lug of the pot is connected to the lug adjacent to the input on the switch. 

As for the battery.  I connected the black lead from the battery snap to the sleeve of the output jack along with the resistor lead for the LED.  The other side of the LED is connected to the top lug of the remaining free pole on the switch.  The red lead from the battery is connected to the center lug of the same pole so that the LED lights up when the effect is on.

Here are my problems.

1) When I first plugged the pedal in, I could hear my guitar at equal level with the pedal on or off.  I don't know why but I connected the free lug of the pot to the sleeve of the iput jack and when I tried again...voila!  A noticeable difference in volume when the pedal was on.  Why did that make a difference?

2) Even when the pot is turned all the way up the volume of my guitar is lower.  I would have thought it would be the same when there is no resistance.

3) It's really noisy when it's off but when I turn it on it get's quiet. 

4) Finally, when it's on it sounds really muddy. 

I built another pedal similar to this one but with an ac plug instead of a battery (just wanted to try and make one with a battery this time) and this one didn't come out very well.  I'm happy to offer more detail if you think it'll help.

[alteredsounds]

I might not have understood what you're doing properly but I'd hazard a guess at Grounding problems probably for 1,3 and 4.  For question 2, I'd question why you used a 10k pot?

Cheers,
Nick,

[slacker]

1) When I first plugged the pedal in, I could hear my guitar at equal level with the pedal on or off.  I don't know why but I connected the free lug of the pot to the sleeve of the iput jack and when I tried again...voila!  A noticeable difference in volume when the pedal was on.  Why did that make a difference?

When you just had 2 lugs connected your signal was going through the pot like it was a resistor in series with your output. 10K isn't very much resistance so it proably wouldn't make much difference to the signal.
With the 3rd lug connected to ground the pot is acting like the volume control in your guitar. So when you turn it all the way down all of the signal is getting sent to ground, when you turn it all the way up some of the signal goes to your amp and some of it goes through the resister to ground. Which helps answer your next question

2) Even when the pot is turned all the way up the volume of my guitar is lower.  I would have thought it would be the same when there is no resistance.

This is because the 10K is too small, even on full you've got 10K between the signal and ground which is too low an impedance for your guitar. This is also why it sounds muddy because the high frequencies are more affected by this. You need to use something like a 500K or1M pot.

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[Hiwatt25]

Wait for it.....AH HA!  Okay, thanks for the feedback.  I'll replace the pot with one of higher value.  In all my noobishness, I assumed one was a good as the next (value wise).  I'll post again when I make the changes. You guys are in charge of the planet!

Thanks!