Advice for choosing a basic distortion effect to build need

[fixr1984]

i tried the easy drive out and i can get sound thru it with or without the battery installed, actually there is no change when i put the batery on it. The sound i get has a lot of bass to it and very little trebble, and not a lot of boost.  Anyone else run into this? Did I maybe miss something, or put something in wrong?

[robbiemcm]

That happened to me when I made the awesome mistake of connecting guitar to the effect output and amp to the effect input. Although I doubt you did that one.

[fixr1984]

I thought that I might have done that but i tried to switch the leads around but still get the same results. The only thing that i know i did defferently was that i dont have a switch hooked up. The parts list wasnt too specific and one on my caps is a ceramic-disc, a couple are polyester-film and one is electrolytic. Would this cause a problem? even if the uf rating is the same?

[robbiemcm]

I wouldn't have thought it'd make such a large difference, I used an electrolytic for the 22uF cap. Maybe someone else who knows a little more than I do can help you out.

[robbiemcm]

Okay, I've made the Easy Drive on a propper PCB now and it's sounding brilliant. The only problem I have with it is that the volume pot doesn't work. I don't even understand how it should work. There is one point where i get no sound at all and then as soon as I turn it up a little bit it gets to full volume and every point after that there is no change. Would there be any problem with a conventional volume pot, ie taking the original schematic with no volume pot and wiring the 50k pot straight after that last capacitor and then attatching one lug to gorund, etc.