Guitar Volume knob must be on full, or my effect is muted. Transistor biasing?

[kimelopidaer]

I've been setting up random transistors on my breadboard and dialing them in with trimmer resistors and caps.
Right now I have this loud thing rigged up. It's sounds promising to my ears, and I want to refine it.
First though, I'd like to understand why i cannot use the guitar volume knob at all - if i roll it back from full, even a bit, it just kills the signal.
I have a 100K Audio pot for master volume hooked up before the output of the circuit and it works just fine.

For some reason, the circuit requires my guitar to be at full volume.
I set the circuit up quickly and trimmed those trimmers until i had decent sound.
Guitar vol knob was likely on full while i was doing this.
Did i tune the circuit to need a particular input signal strength?
Is that plausible?

Ruminations or directions?
thankyou readers

[cortey]

A photo of your breadboard, or a schematic drawing... to help narrow down the possibilities?

[jafo]

Does your guitar do that with other circuits? That'd be the first thing to check.

Also, the 100k pot you used is not usual for a guitar volume control... maybe it's an impedance thing? Not likely, but hey...

[DavenPaget]

Does your guitar do that with other circuits? That'd be the first thing to check.

Also, the 100k pot you used is not usual for a guitar volume control... maybe it's an impedance thing? Not likely, but hey...

What he meant was the circuit's output 100k .

[jafo]

Does your guitar do that with other circuits? That'd be the first thing to check.

Also, the 100k pot you used is not usual for a guitar volume control... maybe it's an impedance thing? Not likely, but hey...

What he meant was the circuit's output 100k .

D'oh!

[kimelopidaer]

Hello everyone,
Yes the 100k Audio pot is on the breadboard.

This is the first time i have run into this problem.

I can't photograph the breadboard right now, sorry. My workbench is another castle!
I'll be there later this week, and can certainly do it then, though the post will likely be stale so for now,

all I can recall is....a 2n5087 into a 2n404a
with many trim pots of unchecked value after tuning.
huge dark gargly fuzz.

I suppose I thought the answer might be an obvious overlook
and didn't intend for anyone to be scouring photos of my cluttered bedroom breadboard.

However, if need be.
Cheers,
K

[alparent]

If no photo......can you draw a shematic of your circuit?

[DavenPaget]

And you must remember that germaniums are quite leaky / varies violently , so you should check the transistor's _Hfe .

[kimelopidaer]

Sorry, at the moment all I know are the transistor types.
If i submitted a schematic it would look like a story problem.
All the resistors are unmeasured trimpots...
If there are no immediate thoughts coming forth,
I'll certainly send the schematic once i have access to the breadboard again.


Thanks everyone
K