My fist Non-Passive Build!...a few questions though!

[Hiwatt25]

Here is my first honest to goodnees non-passive build.  It's the Gus Smalley NPN boost.  I used Dragonfly's Vero layout and though my soldering still leaves something to be desired, it fired up the first time.  I've got the bug bad now.  All I think about is building more stuff and my wife is getting sick of hearing about transistors and capacitors and pots and.....

Before I get ahead of myself let me give a big thanks to Gus for sharing such a cool circuit with the community and let me also thank Dragonfly for the layout.

This thing sounds really good to me especially in the 2 O'clock position.  When the thing is dimed it pushes my amp to pretty crazy distortion.  It makes for a very dynamic setup.  On for lead, off for rhythm and A/B over to my second amp for clean.  Boom, Bob's your uncle.

I pretty much ruined the finish on the enclosure while I was building the pedal (note to self: paint the enclosure AFTER) so I'll probably refinish it.  Thanks to Markm for the "cheapest flat black" paint suggestion.  It really works well and covers evenly.  The clear coat was a little trickier....



As you can see, I haven't put the LED in yet because I was too stoked to try it and didn't want to wait a moment longer than I had to. 

Now for the questions.

• The first time I plugged it in, it fired right up but I noticed it's awfully noisy when it's dimed.  Now, if my guitar volume is down all the way it doesn't appear to make noise of it's own.  I play a Tele with a single coil in the bridge and so I'm wondering if the noise is just my guitar's inherent noisiness being amplified.  One thing I did notice is that if I touch the stomp switch with my hand (but not touching the guitar strings) a little bit of the noise goes away.  What do you guys think...poor grounding?  One other thing, I plugged it in this morning, cranked my amp and turned my guitar all the way down and guess what?  I heard the wildest indian music ever.  Who knew there was an indian station in Danbury.  It came in clear as day.
• Second, the pot makes noise when I turn it.  It's sort of a rushing of wind kind of sound.  I seem to remember reading something about that before.  Something to do with DC.  Am I thinking of that correctly?
• Third, I think I'd like to install an DC plug so I can power it from the wall.  Can I just substitute the DC jack for the battery?
• And finally, If I do use the DC plug can I also use it to power the LED status light?  Will that influence the amount of power getting to the circut?

Thanks guys.  I can tell this is going to make my wife nuts. 

[R.G.]

Congratulations - and my God have mercy on your soul  You're hooked now. Having the first one fire right up is like hitting it big the first time you bet - you'll always come back.

* The first time I plugged it in, it fired right up but I noticed it's awfully noisy when it's dimed.  Now, if my guitar volume is down all the way it doesn't appear to make noise of it's own.  I play a Tele with a single coil in the bridge and so I'm wondering if the noise is just my guitar's inherent noisiness being amplified.  One thing I did notice is that if I touch the stomp switch with my hand (but not touching the guitar strings) a little bit of the noise goes away.  What do you guys think...poor grounding?

You're picking up RF, which sometimes sounds like hiss.

One other thing, I plugged it in this morning, cranked my amp and turned my guitar all the way down and guess what?  I heard the wildest indian music ever.  Who knew there was an indian station in Danbury.  It came in clear as day.

And that confirms it. You're picking up radio stations, and you hear the miscellanous noise as hiss until you get a big enough signal to be rectified into audio.
Put a 0.01uF to 0.1uF *ceramic disk* cap across your 9V to ground internally, and put a 1K in series from the input signal to the input of the effect. If you still hear hiss and Indian music, put an additional 47pF from the 1K to ground on the effect end.

* Second, the pot makes noise when I turn it.  It's sort of a rushing of wind kind of sound.  I seem to remember reading something about that before.  Something to do with DC.  Am I thinking of that correctly?

Generally pots with DC on them crackle, not a rushing sound. This could be from the RF. Fix that first, then work on this one.

* Third, I think I'd like to install an DC plug so I can power it from the wall.  Can I just substitute the DC jack for the battery?

Yes. Get the polarity right! And use an insulating jack so you don't short your wall supply to the case (ground).

* And finally, If I do use the DC plug can I also use it to power the LED status light?  Will that influence the amount of power getting to the circut?

Yes. No.

[Peter Snowberg]

Congratulations!

Welcome to the dark side. 

[Hiwatt25]

RG, thanks for the reply.  I'll make the suggested changes and post on the results when my wife returns from the Casino.  My obsession fuels hers I guess. 

One other question...are the cap/resistor values you suggest specific to Indian music or will they impair reception of country stations as well? 

Thanks again.

[Dragonfly]

congrats !  ....and...welcome to the addiction !

AC