Tone Report Bluesbreaker Question

[kzoolou]

If there's a better noob thread where this question belongs, feel free to move it where it's most appropriate.

I've been lurking about here for awhile, but  I finally decided to take the plunge and try my hand at building a pedal for the learning experience and maybe even something that could end up on my board at some point.  If it turns out that I brick the thing completely, I'd like to figure out what I did wrong for the next time.   

I thought that I would try something that might actually be useful, and I've been dying to try out a Bluesbreaker so here's what I came up with:

http://www.magazine.tonereport.com/mag/0036282001504821279/p34

I bought the parts kit that Tone Report sold for simplicity sake and the layout has been pretty simple to solder up so far, but now I'm getting to some gaps in what I'm able to figure out from the pictures and diagram.  Unfortunately, there's not schematic so I'm trying to build it off of the instructions and the pictures.  D4 and D5 are LEDs that I can't figure out which way they need to be oriented on the board.  Does it matter which end is the positive in this design?  Is there something on the diagram that indicates which way these should be installed?

Thanks in advance for any guidance anyone is willing to provide!

[GGBB]

D4 and D5 are in series with each other, and the pair is anti-parallel to the D2-D3 series. So yes, orientation matters. In the diagram, the flat sides of the LEDs are the cathodes. The circuit is close to the original - all he's done is tweaked several of the resistor and cap values by very small amounts (which explains the uncommon values like 24k, 30k, 9.1k, and 18nF), and used asymmetrical clipping with an LED series pair opposite a germanium-silicon pair. Overall it looks like he's attempting to get a little deeper bass response with the resistor and cap changes, but I think those changes would be subtle at best. There's probably a subtle change in the gain structure as a result, too. As for the clipping mods - that could change the character a fair bit or not - don't know.



EDIT: And welcome to the forum!

[kzoolou]

Thanks!

I'm probably in a little over my head, but I wanted to give it a shot so I really appreciate the help.   I'm sure the next phase in my journey will be figuring out why it doesn't work when I get it all together. 

Thanks again!

[antonis]

I'm sure the next phase in my journey will be figuring out why it doesn't work when I get it all together.

Wellcome to finished build nightmare..!!