Boogeyman sounds like ****

[MohiZ]

Hi!

I have a problem with my Boogeyman build, which I've built precisely according to this layout: http://www.4thlevelmedia.com/BoogeymanPartsLayout.jpg
The pedal seems to work fine, and all the knobs seem to work... except... that the sound is absolytely horrible! It sounds like a wrongfully biased gated transistor sound, with low gain (this IS supposed to be at least a medium gain pedal, right?), although I've been noodling around with the bias enough to know it's probably not that. I can't really pinpoint the problem by audio probing, either. I've remelted all the solderings and checked for solder bridges (that is not to say there still couldn't be ones).

A couple of ideas that I have are
1. bad pots (although they seem to work)
2. are the Q4 voltages normal?
3. ok maybe I just had two ideas 

How should I proceed to investigate this?
Here are the transistor voltages without input signal:

+9V: a healthy 9,56 V, w/ a good power supply
Q1
D: 4,62 V
S: 0,28 V
G: 0 V

Q2
D: 4,72 V
S: 0,33 V
G: 0 V

Q3
D: 4,69 V
S: 0,32 V
G: 0 V

Q4
D: 4,93 V
S: 0,36 V
G: -0,32 V

Please help me! 

[oskar]

Hi!

I can't recall ever being able to help anyone with a general **** sound problem but I'm brave enough to give it a try.     
The only comment I have at this point is that the ground path is drawn like a loop(the "frame" around the pcb) and that this is not supposed to be a good thing really. Show your not a wimp and cut it somewhere like near the input.
Please provide a link to the schematic used.

[DougH]

Well I guess you just don't like the Boogey sound. It's not for everybody...

Just kidding...

Your voltages look fine. Follow the steps in the sticky at the top about how to debug. I would try tracing through it with an audio probe and see if you can isolate it down to the stage that is giving you fits. If you can get audio in/out of a stage without it sounding farty, then that stage should be okay, etc.

[petemoore]

  ..And you measure a 'beep' between the input and output sleeves of the cable and ground?
  What I don't understand:
  Q4
D: 4,93 V
S: 0,36 V
G: -0,32 V
  If the PS is supply only + voltage and ground is the other rail, why the - mark on the Gate voltage?

[km-r]

yes, recheck the Q4 because of that negative voltage on the gate... are you sure you are referencing the voltage reading to ground. and well try checking the gain pot. the low gain may mean difficulties with the signal getting into the next fet stages.

[DougH]

If the PS is supply only + voltage and ground is the other rail, why the - mark on the Gate voltage?

I assume that's noise level due to the meter in/accuracy. What we call "bit flipping" in the data acquisition world.

[km-r]

well, if thats the case, check particularly in that area...

my boogeyman lacks the aggressiveness though... maybe the post eqing in my setup is not so good...

[MohiZ]

Here's the schematic: http://www.2shared.com/file/4658088/c2a85d8c/boogeyman.html

Suddenly I seem to have mysteriously made it work after weeks of fumbling in vain  There must have been a problem around stage 4, since now that I checked, there was no negative voltage to be seen. And yes, it was relative to ground. Now I feel quite stupid to have started this thread, but thanks anyway for all the answerers 

The gain is still low-ish, does anyone have suggestions as to how to increase it? Or is the sound best not to be tampered with?

[Jered]

  For more gain you could lower the value of R3 and R5, but don't go below 100 ohms. Then re check your bias voltage. You could also lower the value of R6.

[Scruffie]

Hey, I didn't want to start my own thread about this as there are so many Boogey threads lying around, seemed like i'd just be adding to the mess but you seem to have had the same problem i'm having.
I've biased my boogey (from torchys layout) by both ear and by voltage to 5.5v and it seems low gain, very dark and bassy i.e. muddy and not the high gain treble pedal i assumed it would be, I beleive it's around Q4 aswell as if i put my finger on that area it begins to get into the higher gain sort of territory, I've checked it over and it all seems to be wired up okay with no bridges or cold soldered joints (I have substituted 1 or 2 values but nothing major, 250k for treble instead of 220, 50k pot for mids instead of 22k, 1nF in place of the 680pf for C13 & 4.7nF instead of 5nF for C7)
Any ideas would be greatly appreciated as the small amount of distortion leads me to beleive it's close to working, I have got a couple of extra J201s to socket out tommorow which I will try but by the sound of it I don't think thats really the issue.

Thanks in advance,
Scruffie.

[yy46]

Hi

I've got similar problem with negative voltage at Q4 (-0.5).
Sound is crap, thin, no gain, weak. I disconnected Q4 for a moment and didn't notice difference in sound. It looks like this stage doesn't work. I replaced j201 with new one and still the same crap sound.
Does anybody know how to fix it?