TS9 mod gone wrong

[eeijcon]

Hi All,

I tried a mod from the site below to get a little more bass and more gain from my TS9:
http://www.premierguitar.com/Magazine/Issue/2012/Oct/5_DIY_Mods_to_Perfect_Your_Ibanez_TS9_and_Boss_SD_1.aspx?Page=4

I did it a couple of times - first time was way too bassy and gainy using a .47 uF cap and 1k resistor for C3 and R6 respectively. So came up with my own formula using a .068 uF and 4.3K.

The mod seemed to work fine the first time and sounded fine apart from the fact that there was too much of everything.  The second time I got closer to what I was looking for but now I have a problem.  When I turn up and down the guitar volume know I get a lot of static noise.  It's not the guitar or the amp or leads  (I tried different ones of everthing). I tried using DC power vs battery - no difference. It's definitely the pedal.  It stioll works but I have all this noise that I don't need!

Have to be truthful and say that the second time I was doing the mod I stripped some of the track of with my sucker (if that's even possible) so I had to solder the leg of C3 to R6 on the underside.  I even went back and redid these components in case I had fried any but this made no difference.  I checked and, where they looked any way suspicious, reflowed the connections to the pots and jacks ecause from looking at the forum I got the suspicion this was a grounding problem.  I also then reflowed all the coloured wires coming to the board.  Still no difference.  The underside of the board looks a bit messy now - I checked for shorts and through connections and, in my limited way, can't find anything wrong.

Will add some pics as soon as I find a way to do it.

At this point I have run out of ideas.  I am a bit of a newcomer to this - have done a few repairs, one BYOC etc before but this is the first time I've had a major problem.

Can anyone help? 

Thanks,
John.

[eeijcon]

Some pics:





Hope you can see them - (I can)

[Seljer]

sometimes the flux for the solder is slightly conductive, try cleaning the board with some denatured alcohol

[eeijcon]

Oh...    that's a basic one - I'll try that

[eeijcon]

Simon,

That worked - I so grateful. Sorry it was such a basic thing - I should have known that ..

Working great now and sounds great too.

Cheers,
John.

[bigguitartone]

Alright, so I'm a complete virgin to all of this, and I've just been browsing the forums and reading up on DIY pedal material in anticipation of trying my own BYOC or pedal mod in the near future.  In fact, this is my first post on this forum.  (Coincidentally, my first project is probably going to be a TS9 mod.)

Introduction aside, what does it mean for the "flux" of the solder to be conductive, and why does denatured alcohol help?  Through wikipedia and google, I've got a rough idea of what flux is and how it applies to soldering, but I'm not entirely sure how it applies specifically to pedals.  I don't mind reading (even if it's a long article), so any good resources on the topic are highly appreciated in lieu (or addition) to a personal reply.  Thanks guys!

[Quackzed]

some solder has a flux core. flux just helps solder flow and become liquid, it also helps prevent oxidation and is made from different things, usually rosin.
so when you melt some solder with rosin flux core the rosin part of the solder is more liquid than the solder so it sort of puddles around traces and places where you melted solder. alchohol is just a good solvent / cleaner for rosin flux... cleans/melts it so you can scrape/clean it off...also the alchohol will evaporate so its less messy than other cleaners...
pedals need solder, so flux is in the solder... not specifically but yeah...

[bigguitartone]

A perfectly understandable and brief reply -- thank you!

Are there any key symptoms that cleaning the flux with alcohol may be what needs to be done?