Beginning Builder Needs Help

[familyortiz]

PK, sorry for leaving you hanging!
Here is a pic showing the added 10k tone pot (blue) and the 0.1uF cap (white with yellow end cap). Looking at the bottom of the pot, you will see two leads tied together, the center lead and the one opposite of the lead that has "cw" marked next to it. This connection will give more treble when turned clockwise. You can see that this connection is wired to point V3. The other pot lead is connected to the cap and the remaining cap lead is tied to ground (black wire on either jack). I used a 0.1uF film type cap, mylar or other, since they are more stable over temp and time than a ceramic type but you could certainly use a ceramic if you wish. And that's that.

[pkvine]

PK, sorry for leaving you hanging!
Here is a pic showing the added 10k tone pot (blue) and the 0.1uF cap (white with yellow end cap). Looking at the bottom of the pot, you will see two leads tied together, the center lead and the one opposite of the lead that has "cw" marked next to it. This connection will give more treble when turned clockwise. You can see that this connection is wired to point V3. The other pot lead is connected to the cap and the remaining cap lead is tied to ground (black wire on either jack). I used a 0.1uF film type cap, mylar or other, since they are more stable over temp and time than a ceramic type but you could certainly use a ceramic if you wish. And that's that.

No worries...if I had more time to learn about schematics I'm sure it would have made sense....until I learn a little more it really helps me if I can see what I need to do.
I appreciate the extra time you took to explain and send a picture!

[cloudscapes]

There's several ways to identify the anode & cathode on an LED:  One leg is longer than the other, one side is flattened (easy to see when looking from the top, and one side has a "flag".

Got an old PC laying around?  Grab the motherboard battery and use it to test your LEDs.  Typically 3.2v.  Also available at drugstores.  Simple. 

At the electronics surplus store in my town, they actually sell LEDs who have that "flag" and shorter leg reversed! and grab-bags often have two kinds mixed. I have no idea where they get them.

best to test!

[familyortiz]

Pk,
Having some of that heat shrink tubing in assorted sizes and a heat gun is a plus for your projects. Good for LED and component leads as well as covering spliced wire joints.

[familyortiz]

PK,
Two corrections:
1) The pot value is 20k ohms.
2) I had the pot wiring convention backwards, i.e. for a clockwise turn of the pot you want more treble, so you need the pot resistance to go higher. You don't have to use 3 pot terminals... only the middle and the terminal opposite of the one marked CW.

[tyronethebig]

When I first learned how to read schematics I got a breadboard.

Here is great resource
http://www.beavisaudio.com/techpages/SchematicToReality/


Then I looked at the EasyDrive. http://www.diystompboxes.com/analogalchemy/sch/easydrive.html

Start at the input and take it one component at a time. Don't look at it as a whole first, just think
1. input connects to one side of the capacitor
2. the other side connects to a 220K resistor, the two diodes, and the base if the transistor...and so on until you have all the parts on your board, then look over it and make sure everything is connected to what is is supposed to be connected to.

Keep it simple at first, after reading and getting the hang of whats on the beavisaudio site, try to breadboard some simple boosters or christian hemmo's bazz fuzz.

Lastly, on the http://www.beavisaudio.com/bboard/projects/ there are a ton of great practice circuits to breadboard.

Did I mention keep it simple at first? 

[pkvine]

Thanks guys...all great stuff!  I'm going to start checking all these resources out and build a couple more kits!