Whisker Biscuit question/problem ???

[eyeofowl]

Im fairly new to pedal building and I recently finished my first boxed pedal, the Whisker Biscuit.  For the most part everythings seem to be working ok and I am very happy with the tones this pedal gets, except for one thing, when I adjust the tone control from one extreme to the other there is a large volume increase/decrease.  On the Big muff side of the tone it has a fairly normal volume, but when I roll the tone to the Bazz Fuss(I assume) side there is a huge volume increase, the bummer is that I have a feeling this side of the tone stack is the wierd synth-esque overtone side.  I just wanted to see if anyone has experienced similar oddities with this pedal? or if this is common with this build.  Or any possible suggestions to fix it with out losing any tonal qualities.

-josh

[DiamondDog]

Im fairly new to pedal building and I recently finished my first boxed pedal, the Whisker Biscuit.  For the most part everythings seem to be working ok and I am very happy with the tones this pedal gets, except for one thing, when I adjust the tone control from one extreme to the other there is a large volume increase/decrease.  On the Big muff side of the tone it has a fairly normal volume, but when I roll the tone to the Bazz Fuss(I assume) side there is a huge volume increase, the bummer is that I have a feeling this side of the tone stack is the wierd synth-esque overtone side.  I just wanted to see if anyone has experienced similar oddities with this pedal? or if this is common with this build.  Or any possible suggestions to fix it with out losing any tonal qualities.

-josh

Congratulations! Welcome to the addiction... 

When you built it, how did you build the tonestack- with the 2 extra 22k resistors and a 50k pot, or the 100k pot? What layout did you use- their perf, or etch their PCB, or...?

I just went and played with mine  and it didn't exhibit any of that behaviour. The tone pot acted like I assume a tone knob would. One of us has a problem- it could still be me!

[arawn]

Nah dude i just fiomished building a wb yesterday Using the pcb layout, as soon as i got my volumke wireds uncrossed and my grounds all in the right place it worked awesome. Without any volume change on the tone pot. Of copurse i was lazy and confused and just used a 100k linear!!

[markm]

Nah dude i just fiomished building a wb yesterday Using the pcb layout, as soon as i got my volumke wireds uncrossed and my grounds all in the right place it worked awesome. Without any volume change on the tone pot. Of copurse i was lazy and confused and just used a 100k linear!!

Did you use Gringo's Layout when you etched your PCB?

[eyeofowl]

I used the the Pablo De Luca pcb layout from runoffgroove without including the 22k resistors and 50 k pot. 

[eyeofowl]

So, I have compared my whisker biscuit to my russian BMP.  The characteristics of both tone stacks seem to be similar, but there are some differences.  For one,  the big muff pi's tonestack on one extreme almost completely cuts bass frequencies and on the other extreme it completely cuts high frequencies(ie. it turns into mud) and there is a slight volume increase probably/obviously do to added bass frequencies.  Now, on the whisker biscuit side of things one extreme does seem to have a higher frequency character to it(a la BMP), but the other extreme does not lose all of the high frequencies, turning the tone into mud (it still retains some highs, but has the additional lows).  I wonder if its just the character of the circuit or possibly my amp.  I use a roland jc120 from the 70's that at some point a previous owner had changed out one of the speakers for a Black Widow speaker(apparently a peavey speaker, which I have usually hated peavey amps but for some reason this thing adds so much bass to my amp, it could be a bass amp speaker).  In all honesty, I have never heard a jc120 that has the same qualities of my amp, so this could be a possibility.  All in all, I am not disapointed with the whisker biscuit, I actually like it more than my BMP, but i guess I will just have to take into consideration or get use to the differences.  Thanks for the responses.

josh       

[arawn]

Yes I did, and no it's not your amp dude that just seems to be the way that circuit is! I haven't amped it yet just been playing it through my rp80 as a consideration to others in my house.