Russian Muff Mod Madness

[Brushthrower]

Hi.

I've been planning to modify my Russian Big Muff (black box circa 2003) with a power adaptor and found a simple battery snap to battery snap solution on the ggg site:

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

There seems to be considerable confusion - at least in my own mind - about polarity etc. Surprisingly I couldn't find any sort of tutorial on the web. Could someone fill me in as to the correct wiring procedure for this mod. I don't really want to accidentally fry my pedal.  Should I be using a positive or negative centred jack? I was just planning to use a standard plastic jack such as this:

http://www.ace4parts.com/images/products/247B_medium.jpg

Second question: Someone suggested replacing all the cheap stock resistors and capacitors to improve the tone of the Russian Big Muff. The capacitors make sense to me, but would replacing the resistors make any significant difference?

Thanks!

[ItZaLLgOOd]

Second question: Someone suggested replacing all the cheap stock resistors and capacitors to improve the tone of the Russian Big Muff.

I'm sure that the tone would change but it who's to say for the better.  It would be easier to make a new board than to change everything on the existing one.  Unsoldering all of those components and resoldering new ones would be a real pain.

[Brushthrower]

Yeah, just what I was thinking...too much work. Any idea on the power adptor question?

[foxfire]

you have to think of the new battery clip coming from the power jack as though it were a battery. so it will be backwards from how you would wire the battery clip for a pedal. so the red wire of the new battery clip goes to the pin tab of the jack and the black wire goes to "outer" tab. double check me but i'm 99% i've got that right.
rylan

[Brushthrower]

Perfect. Thanks Rylan! And it's no problem that I'm using a negative centred adaptor jack rather than the positive ones usually found on EHX pedals?

[petemoore]

  I start with the battery + lug [button-lug on the battery]
  It plugs InTo the multi-sided battery clip.
  Clip a DMM [beep mode] on the side of the battery clip that accepts the + side of the battery, follow that into the circuit and make sure it connects to V+, also that it does not connect to Gnd. [npn neg gnd.]
  Do the same for making sure the battery - goes to Gnd.
  Also test that the battery and the power supply don't share a circuit...I believe the DC jack has a switch for the battery that disconnects the battery when a plug is in it.

[tiges_ tendres]

Hi.

I've been planning to modify my Russian Big Muff (black box circa 2003) with a power adaptor and found a simple battery snap to battery snap solution on the ggg site:

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

There seems to be considerable confusion - at least in my own mind - about polarity etc. Surprisingly I couldn't find any sort of tutorial on the web. Could someone fill me in as to the correct wiring procedure for this mod. I don't really want to accidentally fry my pedal.  Should I be using a positive or negative centred jack? I was just planning to use a standard plastic jack such as this:

http://www.ace4parts.com/images/products/247B_medium.jpg

Second question: Someone suggested replacing all the cheap stock resistors and capacitors to improve the tone of the Russian Big Muff. The capacitors make sense to me, but would replacing the resistors make any significant difference?

Thanks!

As far as polarity is concerned, it wouldnt be wise to give you advice until we knew what kind of power jack you have.  The kind of jack you have dictates which wire gets wired where.

Go to http://www.tonepad.com and look for wiring diagrams.  Most of them will show you a way to wire the power to the circuit, without having to do that funky battery snap thing.