Grounding question

[Meehah]

Hello all! I am both new to this forum and diy stomp box building. I have a very silly question that i cannot for the life of me find the answer to. I understand schematics and have attempted to build the "Bazz Fuss" circuit but do not know what to do with the wire that end in the ground symbol. I have read you leave them floating together, solder them to a pot, and solder to a jack.. Thankyou!

[GibsonGM]

Hi Meehah,  welcome to the forum!
Great question that we all had.

"Ground" can involve a long and drawn out discussion, so for a noob I will TRY to make it simple!  In our typical negative ground 9V pedals (most ALL pedals, except for some fuzzes and more advanced systems like say, some reverbs, flangers, etc).   the negative terminal of the battery is going to be GROUND.

This means, the point of least potential in the 9V circuit, which is used as a COMMON point for REFERENCE for the devices in the circuit.  Think of this as "home base" for the circuit components.  Remember, you CAN design circuits that use "+" as the common, but they are UN common, and you can tell which ones they are by looking at the power supply to the circuit. 

Ok - so, when you see the ground symbol, it means that the parts connected to it must all go back to the battery's "-" terminal at some point.  Sometimes, yes, this is done at a jack's ground terminal....or at the circuit board.  Or both.     

There ARE ways to set up your grounds to reduce noise in the circuit!  The way I do it is to create a ground "point" on my board.  All component grounds go to this point.  Then I run a short wire to the input jack for switching power, and that goes to battery " - " to shut off the effect when you pull the plug.     For breadboard, just pick a lengthwise track as your negative (i like the blue one...), and plug all ground wires there. 

As you get going, you'll figure out which circuits are more susceptible to noise due to poor ground layouts...for now, I'd say just get in there with the above info, ask more questions as you go about specific circuits!     

Look at how the boards and ground are run in these layouts, and save the doc for future reference:  http://www.tonepad.com/project.asp?id=35

[Meehah]

Thank you very much! You explained it very well and I was able to build the pedal. It sounds great and I am very grateful for your help.