"The Rocket" drive pot confusion!

[THOMMO]

Hey Guys! I've BB'd this circuit:   http://www.diystompboxes.com/pedals/rocket.JPG
I've just started BBing from schematics(2nd or third time). The circuit worked first go and sounds great. All the controls work as they should.

My question lies with the drive pot. The way I read the schem(and is the way I've got it setup) is, one outside lug connects to the circuit,
the other outside lug to Gnd and the wiper to the rest of the circuit. Is this right? As it is, the drive pot cuts all sound when turned right down.

There should still be sound, just the minimum gain setting. I'll check the circuit over and see if I can pickup something I might have missed.

On a side note, I don't have a 4.7k trimmer. So I tried all the resistors I had between 1k and 4.7k. Settled on a 3.3k. Sounds bloody good!!

Jason.

[THOMMO]

I checked over the circuit and found that I had .1uF caps before and after the drive pot, instead of .01uF. Swapped 'em over, made no difference to the pot function.
I actually prefer the sound with the .1's Could it be the pot? Though, I've been using the same one for the gain pot in a DOD OD 250 clone circuit,
that's on the same BB and it works fine.

I have realised that the whole signal is passing through the drive pot, therefore cutting off the signal when at zero. Is this just the way this one was designed to work?
To me, this one has a sort of Big Muff vibe to the sound. Maybe not as much gain and a little more under control. I might call it the Medium Muff!!

Jason.

[Ripthorn]

The drive pot is simply and interstage volume control.  That means that, when turned all the way down, you get nothing.  This is a very classic "gain" control in tube amps and is also quite common in stompboxes.  If that bothers you, you can put something like a 1k resistor from lug 1 to ground so that, when all the way down, you still get some gain.

[THOMMO]

Cool, thanks Brian! It wasn't really bothering me as such. Just wondered why it went from nothing to max, instead of min. to max.
And you answered my question.

Cheers,
Jason.