One Knob Fuzz Pedal Help

[fenderguy81]

I'm just starting out and decided to build a basic 1 knob fuzz for fun. I am NOT getting a signal when the switch is ON, but I am getting a bypassed signal when the switch is OFF. It's probably something very obvious, but here's a crude drawing of how it is wired up. Can anyone help point me in the right direction to get this pedal working? Thanks guys!

[nocentelli]

it's not clear where the black wire coming from the centre lug of the 3pdt is headed: It should be going to the indicator LED's positive terminal (and the LED negative leg needs a current limiting resistor then a connection to ground). At present, with the black wire seemingly heading to the power supply negative with other ground connections, it looks like the middle pole of the switch simply shorts the power when the switch is "on"

[fenderguy81]

Thanks nocentelli! You are correct, the center lug on the 3pdt is going to the ground on the input jack. I actually do not have an LED light wired in. How would I wire the pedal without an LED? Also, if I do decide to wire an LED light in at a later date, what value and size resistor (range) would be most suitable?

[aron]

Use an LED resistor calculator.
https://ohmslawcalculator.com/led-resistor-calculator

I agree with nocentelli, that middle lug on the switch is weird. Follow along with another picture of how to wire a 3PDT.

[nocentelli]

I actually do not have an LED light wired in. How would I wire the pedal without an LED?

Just don't use the central column of three lugs: The outer two columns do the actual audio switching.

This is how you would normally wire the footswitch if you put +9v onto lug 2 -

[fenderguy81]

So I've been messing with this build and still can't seem to get it working. It's probably something obvious for those that are more experienced. I went ahead and redid the switch per nocentelli. I added a green LED foot switch ring and put the red lead to the center lug of the switch and the black lead on the ground on the Vero board. The LED seems to be working properly with the 9v adapter and/or 9v battery.

The bypass signal is fine, but when the switch is activated, I am getting the faintest output. The pot is working when the switch is engaged, but even dimed it is barely audible. Any suggestions on where to look to troubleshoot this would be very helpful. Would this problem occur if the transistors were put in backwards? Any help is greatly appreciated! Thanks guys!

[RickL]

It looks like you're using a switched jack for the input, not a stereo jack. Did you do that on purpose?

[fenderguy81]

Oops. Fixed the stereo input jack. Also, scratch the part about getting a small signal when the switch is engaged. I am not getting any output when the switch is on. I think I might have put the transistors in backwards. I'm going to try to flip them and see.

[fenderguy81]

Well after reviewing a data sheet I'm pretty sure I had the transistors reversed initially. Unfortunately, I think I might have fried the transistors in the process of removing them or testing out the pedal. The pedal did not work when the transistor were put in the other orientation. I have tried testing the transistor out of circuit with my multi meter on the diode setting and am not getting any reading across the base and emitter nor the base and collector. I am only getting a 2.214 reading across the emitter and collector in one direction. I don't think this is normal, but I do not have any new 2N222A transistors on hand to verify.