Nurse Quacky Problem

[Alex C]

Hello.  I breadboarded the Nurse Quacky after hearing a lot of good things about it and looking over the other similar designs.  This one seems simple yet effective.
So I got it all wired up, using a TL072 and the suggested 2n3904, and the LEDs light up as mentioned by others (one stays on and the other lights up and dims according to the signal strength-pretty neat just to play and watch that- by the way would it be possible to put that LED outside the box for a neat-o visual effect?) but when the signal does get strong and the LED lights up, the output is muted, then as the signal fades, the output gradually raises.  If I play softly I can keep it from cutting the signal off.  It's neat for a few minutes, but I want my quack!

I traced the schematic twice, checked the orientation of the transistor and polarized caps (and LEDs, although they wouldn't light if installed incorrectly), and I tried the pots in many combinations.
I only had a few deviations from the schem:  I used a 100k pot instead of the 25k range and a 100k instead of the 1k attack (I know that this is a big difference, so I tried to keep it at low resistance- later I might try adding resistors to the pot to lower the value) .  Also, I didn't have a 51 ohm resistor so I tried a 100 ohm and a direct connection, and none of these worked.  

I am easily frustrated by inanimate objects, and especially things like these circuits, where I just KNOW I'm right, so why doesn't the darn thing work?  But my frustration makes me want to work hard to fix it instead of giving up.  

So any ideas or help would be greatly appreciated.  Thanks!

Alex

[isophase]

hi,
my first post here, i just realised this was posted 6 years ago and no response ! shit ! i was interested in the eventual response on the subject since i'm building this pedal right now and i don't seem to find many info using the search funktion :-)
cheers
going to start a new post :-)

[juansolo]

I built one a few weeks ago and found that it needed a boost before it to get enough quack without having to hit the strings ridiculously hard.  I'm building another for a friend and it will have a boost with a pot before the quacky in the same enclosure, activated at the same time as the quacky.

I tried EMGs, single coils, and low output humbuckers and found I still needed to boost it to work.

[oldrocker]

It sounds like you need to build the Dr.Quack instead.  It is already setup for what you want.

[juansolo]

It sounds like you need to build the Dr.Quack instead.  It is already setup for what you want.

That is very similar, never realised.  Boards are already made, so it will be the LPB-1 in front.
If i do another I'll try that buffer instead.