Simple offboard wiring question.

[steveyraff]

Howdy.

I can't get my troublesome Bassballs build to work so I am going to do something different for a while.

I want to build a Klon clone as shown here:
http://tagboardeffects.blogspot.co.uk/2014/07/klon-centaur-silver-edition.html

I've never wired a switch like the one shown. I take it the switch shown in the diagram is the footswitch? Is that a DPDT footswitch for non-bypass?

Can someone link me up to a good wiring guide to use for this?

Thanks!

[Kipper4]

From the schematic on the page it looks to me like a dpdt
one side used to illuminate the indicator led and the other side of the switch used to do buffered bypass.

[steveyraff]

Cool.

I looked up a few wiring guides - and it tells me to wire jacks etc on the same poles as the layout tells me to send wires to. I take it you can just go ahead and solder multiple connections to each pole?

Cheers.

[wattsb1105]

In a situation like this, where one wire is supposed to go two places, always wire to the switch first and then to the next connection indicated. You 'll attach two wires to the same pole.

[steveyraff]

I'm trying to wire this Klon up.

I've never wired a dual potentiometer before. It has two sets of 3 lugs, so 6 in total. The diagram only gives instructions for wiring lugs 1-3. I find this confusing. Can someone please explain how I wire a dual gang potentiometer up using the Klon layout linked above?

Also, if I follow a DPDT wiring diagram like this: http://media.stinkfoot.se/2010/11/basic-dpdt.gif where it says input jack and output jack, does it mean the tip or sleeve? I am presuming tip, no ?

[mth5044]

The tip. There is never a time you are switching the grounded sleeve. But that's not the wiring you want to use for the Klone. Use the wiring it says in the guide. It is not true bypass.

The diagram does not only give directions for 1 - 3 of the gain pot. I see connections for gain 1-1, 1-2, 1-3 then gain 2-1, 2-2, and 2-3. The first number is the pot number, the second is the pin, so there's your six connections. Doesn't matter if you use the top of bottom pot as 1 or 2, just make sure all 1-x connections are on one pot at all 2-x connections are on the other.

[steveyraff]

The tip. There is never a time you are switching the grounded sleeve. But that's not the wiring you want to use for the Klone. Use the wiring it says in the guide. It is not true bypass.

The diagram does not only give directions for 1 - 3 of the gain pot. I see connections for gain 1-1, 1-2, 1-3 then gain 2-1, 2-2, and 2-3. The first number is the pot number, the second is the pin, so there's your six connections. Doesn't matter if you use the top of bottom pot as 1 or 2, just make sure all 1-x connections are on one pot at all 2-x connections are on the other.

Oooh. See I thought when it said Gain1 - 1 it meant you go to gain lug 1, and then jump from there to the first lug of the second row too. Like 1 AND 1. So really it means Gain1 as in row one, where you have lugs 1, 2 and 3 and Gain2 as in ROW 2 where you have 1, 2 and 3 also?

Sorry, it was just a little confusing to work  that out. And also, I'm pretty slow.

[steveyraff]

Ok, sorry, but this is still confusing me.

I was following this DPDT wiring guide:


So I wired the input wire from the board, to pin 2. But now my layout diagram shows a wire going from the board to "Output and SW5". This is confusing, because the wiring guide above shows pin 5 as being output anyway.

And the diagram above says pin 1 ground, but the layout says Sw2 to ground. So confused...

Sorry, but I need this all cleared up as I just can't figure out what I'm supposed to do now.   

[mth5044]

Like I said, this is not a true bypass switching scheme. The images are you posting are for using a DPDT to true bypass. The Klone doesn't use this scheme. You're trying to use wiring diagrams that aren't what the Klone uses. You won't find an image of it because it's not typical.

Have you taken a look at the schematic that is posted in your original link? The switch is on the right at the output jack.

[steveyraff]

Like I said, this is not a true bypass switching scheme. The images are you posting are for using a DPDT to true bypass. The Klone doesn't use this scheme. You're trying to use wiring diagrams that aren't what the Klone uses. You won't find an image of it because it's not typical.

Have you taken a look at the schematic that is posted in your original link? The switch is on the right at the output jack.

Yea Im not really great at reading schems.

I guess I could just go ahead and wire it as the vero layout shows. If I did that, would it mean the green wire labelled input would go to the input jack, and the blue wire labelled output to the output jack, and the black ground wire straight to the DC neg lug? Or am I still not getting it?

[mth5044]

Now's the time to learn! Because this isn't a standard bypassing scheme, the creator of the schematic added the jacks and switching to the schematic.

Open it up and find the input jack. Since the little red x in the schematic means R1 isn't there, so
look for the 100n that the input connects to on the layout. Looks like the green input does connect to the 100n. There's our input jack connection.

Power connects like... power always does. Not sure what the confusion is there. Just make sure everything that needs grounding is grounded.

For the bypass switch, the two white wires that say SW4 both connect the 4th lug of the switch in the vero diagram picture. The wire that says SW6 & volume 2 connect to lug 6 and the middle lug of the volume pot. The wire that says SW5 & output connect to lug 5 and the output jack. SW1 wire goes to lug 1. Lug 2 to ground. Lug 3 to cathode of the LED.

[steveyraff]

Ok.


Well, I've it all wired up exactly as instructed now. It sounds like when the pedal is engaged, there is mostly clean signal and when the gain is turned up full, its almost like I can hear the overdriven effected signal in the background, but its being obscured by my clean signal still. I'm not sure this makes sense, I hope it does. Sounds more like a clean boost at the minute.

I've double checked all my wiring and looked for any solder bridges. All seems to be ok. The only additional/different thing I did was wire the input and output sleeves together, and then wired one of them to DPDT pin 2 and the other to the ground negative lug of the DC.

Only thing I can think of. In the tagboard layout I followed, I was a little confused about the D1 and D2 diodes. I got Russian D9E's, but its hard to tell how to orientate them as they have both a blue and a red band on them. They look like this:



The layout shows D1 with a red band facing upwards, and D2 with red band facing downwards - so thats how I soldered them in. Maybe its the wrong way around??

[steveyraff]

Also, there seems to be a lot of background noise, and when I move the power cable around its audible through the amp. Sounds like a grounding issue, but I've checked all my grounding. I've also checked another pedal to verify the power supply, guitar and amp, and guitar leads are all working.

[steveyraff]

Well, I discovered I made one super idiotic mistake. I left out a capacitor. The 47uf between IC2 and IC3. I've double checked and counted all other components now.

However, now that I've soldered it in, there actually isn't much difference.

Seems the only time I can clearly hear the effect of the pedal, is if the pedals volume control is up full. Then it actually sounds like a nice mild crunch. But anything below that, and the clean guitar signal is all I can hear, but there is still a faint overdriven sound in the background. It's almost like my volume control is working more like a Blend control now. I don't think its how its supposed to behave and the video demos do not sound like that.

Anyone got any ideas?

[mth5044]

Have you read the debugging thread?

[steveyraff]

Have you read the debugging thread?

Oh yea. Unfortunately I'm used to it lol. I've built dozens of pedals before - I just usually work very meticulously to ensure when they are done, they work. It usually pays off. If it doesn't, its something simple like a little accidental solder bridge etc. Just new builds like this I'm not used to throw me. I haven't built a DPDT switching pedal with a buffer before so I was worried I got the wiring wrong.

Sometimes if I ask, some one can spot quite easily what it is before I got through the longer process of debugging it all. I was wondering if I'd made a simple off board wiring mistake.

Part of me wonders if this is just how its supposed to work. It just seems weird that there is only a noticeable overdrive when the controls are cranked - then again, I realise its supposed to be transparent. This just seems milder than I'd have thought. I can't A/B it, but I've looked at Klon demos and I still think its not working fully as it should. Its confusing me a bit.

At the moment, all I've done is double checked all components and values, and used a jewellers loupe to check all tracks for unwanted solder bridges.

I'm still working in the studio right now, but tomorrow I'll measure the IC voltages and see if that turns up any clues.

[bluebunny]

Only thing I can think of. In the tagboard layout I followed, I was a little confused about the D1 and D2 diodes. I got Russian D9E's, but its hard to tell how to orientate them as they have both a blue and a red band on them.

Doesn't really matter which way round those diodes are, since they're in an anti-parallel arrangement: one goes one way and the other goes, well, the other way.      If you really, really want to know which is which, you could test with your DMM?

Edit: I think the layout picture is giving you clues, btw: the red band is the cathode.

[steveyraff]

well in that case, its just acting weird. I think. I mean, I know its supposed to be transparent - but I dont really hear any drive until the last quarter turn of the volume control. Anything before that, it sounds like I'm hearing mostly clean tone but with some sort of hidden drive buried int he background. Its hard to explain.