A Little Help from my Friends...

[JccJr1961]

...hi, I'm new here and fairly new to modding and building stompboxes.  Needless to say, it's a very addictive thing.  I began doing the Monte Allums mods on about a dozen pedals then I started the BYOC kits.  That's where I need a little help.

I began with the Triboost.  I made a mistake on it with the rotary switch and pulled some trace elements off the pcb board.  Wound up running some jumpers and it worked.  Atleast two of the three boost modes.  Sounds pretty good.

I then went to the Optical-Compressor.  Easy circuit and fast build.  Got a little sloppy (over confident) with adding the resistors and had two of them in the wrong place; found my problem and it works real good.  I like it alot.

Now the problem build.  I went for the BYOC Overdrive. Did the build and the pedal works, but the volume is low and almost no gain.  I have to crank the volume and drive knobs to max to get unity with the amps volume.  I went back through the build and nothing stands out as a mistake at the moment.  I rechecked the volume and drive pots to make sure I didn't have them in the wrong place and all looks well.

I decided to to the optional clipping mods provided to see if that helped any and it did increase the volume a tad, but nothing significant.  I want this pedal to work and wondered if anyone had any suggestions as to what I can try.

Thanks for your suggestions and help.

jc

PS - One more question.  Can anyone provide a link to other places to buy kits for effects pedals with good instructions?  The BYOC kits are fine, but I was just wondering what else is out there.  Thanks!

[JasonG]

JC
There are so many connections and components in a pedal that a number of things could be causing those problems. I would recommend going through the Diy FAQ and the GEO FAQ . I have been here for a while and still go to it every now and then it full of good info.
Do you have a multi meter?

[petemoore]

I went for the BYOC Overdrive. Did the build and the pedal works, but the volume is low and almost no gain.
   The description [other than the part where it says 'the pedal works' indicates a non-function condition.
   See the debugging thread and follow along.

[GREEN FUZ]

Here are a few sites for kits.

http://www.generalguitargadgets.com/
http://olcircuits.com/
http://www.4mspedals.com/kits.php?mode=desc