Help to understand PCB layout on Cry Baby clone

[Nordskov]

I dont agree with you in my way of doing things.

Im pretty sure the thing works when I resolder those wires. If not Ill make it work, no problem, its a simple circuit.
As I said earlier I was thinking about modding it till I saw it was pretty much as the Zakk Wylde model I had in mind.
But you dont know what you like till you have tried a few options. Thats the reason for the variable Q, gain and sweep mods. Cheap and easy way of finding your preferences.
To know up and down on this thing I have to understand the circuit, and the two trannys got me puzzled. They deviated from any other schematics I have seen of the variety of Cry Baby's.
And no, the darlington pairs are not original for that board. Components have been moved and altered to make room for them by the manufactorer. The place of the 10nF input cap is marked R2 and the V1 and V2 marks dont line up with the trannies. Hence my comment on reusing an old batch of PCBs with a new component layout.

People talk so much about tone sucking because of the lack of a proper buffer. So I had to know if that fourth tranny was some kind of buffer or not. Should I go true bypass or not. I still dont know the reason for using darlington pairs. Gain only?

The Anderton optocoupler is the LED/ldr coupling mod to prevent pot noise from old/cheap worn out pots. The pot controls the light intensity and thereby the resistance in the ldr. No noise. By Graig Anderton.
I dont know the condition of the pot.

I hope this cleared up my intentions and priorities.

Thanks

[duck_arse]

nords, yes, that extra trace does make it make sense. if it were my circuit drawing, I'd rotate the trasistors so that the bases pointed to the input. then the 2 bias resistors look right.

it does seem a little odd to a low-grade bozo like me that they would add the darlington extra, but then use the pair as an emitter follower. is there anything to gain from that?

I'm off now, with mr stab.

[Nordskov]

Thanks for your help duck.
You are right, with that extra trace the base should point to the left. But then I'd have to redraw the whole input stage. Adding the trace was much easier

Im still in the dark whether to keep or scrap the input stage.

But thanks both of you