A couple of NOOB-ish Questions...

[fattcamp]

Hey everyone! This would be my first cry for help online since i started making pedals. I've made an mxr distortion+ and swapped one of the silicons for a germanium and had a blast doing it. It's not the best sounding device but when i run it before my keeley comp (which is always on slightly to make sure volumes are even with or without my distortion on) it sounds just as good as my old tonebone classic. Not as much control of course but the switches in the tonebones are crap (i had it replaced 4 times before i demanded my money back). I then build a rebote delay 2.5 and i love it! Both are wired the same way. I don't use batteries. I use the general guitar gadgets dc jack method of snapping the existing battery clip to another, then to the dc jack:

http://www.generalguitargadgets.com/diagrams/pjsnap.gif

I used this 3PDT switching method (the "standard" wiring on the wiki):

http://www.diystompboxes.com/pedals/images/3PDTwiring.jpg

They delay is fine since it's not a high gain circuit, but the mxr dist+ pops when i turn on or off. I've read up on these sites and i'm well aware of the mill. byp. as well as the problem may be solved by "pulldown resistors", swapping the stereo jack to the output, cleaning up jacks etc... I don't have room for a mill. bypass and i use 3pdt. I don't understand where to solder the pulldown resistors. It said from beginning and end of circuit to ground. I just took the input that goes to the board and also put a resistor soldered directly to the ground chain and the output on the board where it leaves the board, i soldered a 1m res. to the ground chain as well. made no difference. Can someone properly explain where i actually put the pulldown resistors. here's the tonepad file i used for the project:

http://tonepad.com/getFile.asp?id=4

I've tried with and without the led.. same thing. I don't want to have to swap out the jacks...

to recap:

Question 1: What is the easiest way using the switching method I use to get rid of pops (where do i actually put the pulldown resistors).

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Question 2: If i'm only using a dc jack, Do i even need the stereo jack?... since i don't care of the plug comes out or not. and if i can use 2 mono's, where would the black battery lead go to?

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Question 3: Since i use the general guitar gadgets dc jack wiring above that uses two battery clips, i have 3 places that can take solder on the dc jack but i am only currently using 2... does the 3rd one need anything such as ground at all?  (kind of a non related question).

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Question 4: I see that led's are considered diodes... i think. I use led's in the above diagram with the 1k res. it's a green led.. and i'm aware of the calculator to determine resistance needed for particular led. i also used the nte cross reference search to get the specs on the green led i bought off of small bear... but some people use led's for distortion/clipping and whatnot rather than an actual light.... i think.. are they just inside the pedal and you never see them or what? can someone explain how led's have multiple uses... and if i change the color of light on my current setup, does that adjust something in the distortion circuit of the mxr dist+? thanks guys.

That's all I can think of right now. This has been an amazing hobby to take on... My friends and family all want me to start making them pedals... but this is all for gainin knowledge since i'm going to be building a patchable analog modular synth. (that's my ultimate goal). I'll be making it from the musicfromouterspace.com site. Thanks in advance to anyone that has any tips or tricks they can let me in on that don't require major mods... any help nontheless is appreciated. bye for now

Dave

[Seljer]

Question 1: What is the easiest way using the switching method I use to get rid of pops (where do i actually put the pulldown resistors).
the pulldown resistor come in between the switch and the circuit board (not in between the switch and the jacks), sometimes you don't need to put in a pulldown resistor on the output as theres already a potentiometer for the volume or other such things there.


Question 2: If i'm only using a dc jack, Do i even need the stereo jack?... since i don't care of the plug comes out or not. and if i can use 2 mono's, where would the black battery lead go to?
if you're only using the dc jack, and really don't care about the power turning off when the pedal is disconnected then just connect the ground to any other of the circuit ground (the sleeve of the input jack instead of the ring)



Question 4: I see that led's are considered diodes... i think. I use led's in the above diagram with the 1k res. it's a green led.. and i'm aware of the calculator to determine resistance needed for particular led. i also used the nte cross reference search to get the specs on the green led i bought off of small bear... but some people use led's for distortion/clipping and whatnot rather than an actual light.... i think.. are they just inside the pedal and you never see them or what? can someone explain how led's have multiple uses... and if i change the color of light on my current setup, does that adjust something in the distortion circuit of the mxr dist+? thanks guys.
LEDs are still diodes and do all the other regular diode things, they just have the handy feature of producing light (and when using them for clipping, we usually don't really care about this part, but they do light up when you strum a loud chord into the pedal....or at least they do on my Rat clone, YMMV)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diode#Semiconductor_diodes

[ambulancevoice]

for Q1 look at the tonepad layouts (big muff for example)
after the input of the circuit, there is a 1M resistor to ground before the input cap and it is highlighted in red
THIS is the pull down resistor, and as Simon said (... sorry) its before the the switch and the circuit board, and the input and/or output caps