Cerulean kit troubleshooting (Bluesbreaker/Morning Glory)

[jackwithoneye]

thank you for your quick answer!
no continuity of lug 3 of the drive pot to ground

[11-90-an]

Just realized I didn't welcome you yet...

Welcome to the forum!

You said that turning the volume knob your JACK IN signal to ground resistance decreases? Is this a typo? The one with decreasing resistance to ground should be the JACK OUT...

When you say that you tested the pedal first by itself and in your pedal board, what changed in your pedal? Was there the dreaded "magic smoke"? 

And, how are the other pedals in your pedalboard? Do they still work? 

[jackwithoneye]

thank you for the warm welcome!
You're totally right, my mistake, it's on the Jack OUT.

I think your investigation is fine, and logical. It might has clarified the problem.
The thing which changed beetween tests and the pedalboard is the addition of an amp simulator behind the effect (HX stomp). It might oversaturated the ampsim. I have this loss of output level, with an overclipped fluctuating sound when Volume and Drive are FULLY engaged and with the soft clipping setting on diodes circuit (d2,d3,d5,d4).
As soon as i engage the drive over 3PM, level starts reducing, pumping and degradating when an ampmodeling is on, as soon as i disengage the amp sim it sounds way better.

I'm curious about testing the D2,D3,D4,D5, is there a way to test this circuit to know if something's wrong on it?
noob question : Is it a normal normal behaviour for a 4 diodes circuit like this, in case of overcharge or excess of drive level to loose signal power?

[11-90-an]

Well, you can check continuity of each diode's anode to cathode... (red probe to anode, black probe to cathode) there should be continuity there, and when you put red probe to cathode, and black probe to anode, there should be NO continuity.

I don't think there should be TOO MUCH of a signal loss, though...

When you say that the pedal sounds better when you turn of your amp sim, does that mean "the quality of the pedal when i first ever played it while everything was working well"? Or "it sounds trash but tolerable trash"?

[jackwithoneye]

looks like the diodes continuity is fine (with the setting "2000K" in the multimeter it gives 1.1M, normal right?)

the pedal is quite new, so i can't compare, but it sounds good to me, except with the soft clipping on the diodes (D2,D3,D4,D5) with the drive over 3PM. Maybe is it the normal when overclipping diodes, to sound like crap?

[11-90-an]

I don’t think that you should be checking diodes with a measuring setting meant for resistors... but i guess that’s ok... I don’t see any problem with why a blown diode in that portion would affect the performance that much....

Maybe search the sound demos of other people... you might fing some things new...

Oh, and have you tried reflowing all your solder joints? (I.e. heating up the solder on your circuit board enough to make each melt just to make sure that everything is connected as it’s supposed to be...)

[jackwithoneye]

Thank you for your help, and time.
I think my problem was an input level with my amp+cab simulator, not the pedal herself. I have to take care not to send a high volume level before attacking the amp and cab sim, even if the input level indicator stays green . In the FX Loop, the pedal plays without issue.
I'm sorry for the waste of your time, you helped me to clarify how to analyse, (and how to use the diode testing mode on the multimeter  )
Next time i'll not come back with an issue without being sure it comes from the effect.

[antonis]

Next time i'll not come back with an issue without being sure it comes from the effect.

As far as you're sure that it indeed is an issue, despite its origin, you'll be welcome..