Help - FET overdrive problem

[blackieNYC]

Built the Azabache on a ROG pcboard.  http://www.runoffgroove.com/azabache.html
I have all the 4 drain trim pots maxed out, and all the FETs and the q5 transistor socketed and removed from the sockets. All empty.   Plugged in like that, 9v shows up at the drains.  If I plug in ANY one of the FETs, the voltage at ALL drains drops to 2v or less. If I turn down the tri pot on the installed FET, the voltage drops below 2v - measured at any drain.  
I've checked the resistance of the 1.5k source Rs, and they're fine.  What is drawing my supply down?
Here's a bit of a troubleshooting thread from awhile back.  Doesn't really apply but it's all I've found. P
http://www.diystompboxes.com/smfforum/index.php?topic=98609.20

[slacker]

Check the value of the 68 Ohm power supply filter resistor. If that was a much larger value than it should be it would drop too much voltage once there was some current being drawn by the FETs.

[PRR]

> What is drawing my supply down?

Did you measure the supply?

The drains are supposed to go down. But the supply shouldn't. Measuring the drains does *not* really tell you what the supply does.

If the supply *does* go down, as Ian says, re-re-read the 68 Ohm, 68K or 6800 might be popular mistakes here. If you don't have a 68, 47 or 100 will do as well.

[blackieNYC]

Yes - the 9v supply. Not clear.
Im still not there.  Its 68 ohms.  Swapped that 220u for the helluvit. One problem was staring me in the face, with its big red parallel eyes.  Flipped one of those, but as you can imagine, that wasn't causing the problem.
Any one device installed in its socket will pull the supply way down - the 201s, the5088, the 5457. Empty the socket and the9comes right back.
Gotta be a wrong part or a solder blob.  I have to stop thinking about it and just fix it, if you know what I mean. I'll ask Ronan (and anyone else out there) if he has an image of the pcb unstuffed, though it's not too hard to figure out what goes where. (Part values conveniently screened into the very nice board, but now that it's stuffed...)

[GibsonGM]

Seems like you could try checking for continuity between your socket pins and then their associated resistors to gnd etc - if yes, try to determine where the short is....the symptoms now sound like a short between + and gnd, maybe across the sockets (??).      It does this with a battery attached, not just your power supply, right?   Also check for continuity along the + and gnd rails.

When I've had this kind of frustration happen, I've found it helpful to maybe isolate Q1 from the rest of the circuit (remove power to the other devices - cut the 9V line etc)....get it up and running, see what's up, and then apply that to the other stages.....sometimes I'd have made the same mistake a few times, and could go correct it.   Other times, it's still a mystery, ha ha.  You'll get it, just takes patience.

You're SURE the FETs are being installed with the correct pinouts, right?

[blackieNYC]

Fixed - the tip of trying a battery was helpful because the battery worked.  The problem turned out to be the 1M pot I was using to dial down the 9.7 out of my boss PSA.  The voltage divider was 75k over 1M.  A perfect 9 volt, but when the transistors are added as a load, it crashed to two volts.  Does this mean I had it backwards - 1M over 75k?  Just occurred to me.  That would do it.
Sounds good so far but it triggers a broader question that deserves its own thread:
That noise I'm hearing (RF, buzz, others) - how do I know it's going to go away when I move from breadboard to enclosure?
Thanks for the help on this. A cool overdrive, the Azabache.   Gets clean.  Bright is optional.  Gain dials up a nice distortion.  Gotta tweak all 4 drain trimmers to taste I'm told, but starts off nice at the ROG spec voltages.

[sigmoid]

When you get power from a voltage divider you have to think of your load as being parallel to the bottom resistor. In this case the load was 68 ohms plus Ron of the fet plus the biasing resistors.