Trying to test Small Stone OTA's with a multimeter

[trotskyismyniece]

So I have a reissue Small Stone that I fubar'd trying to do a bunch of mods to it without checking to see if it was still working.  I've gotten it back basically to stock.  Now it passes a signal again, but it does not phase when it engaged.  It definitely 'effects' the signal in some way in that the tone sounds different, very much like the very mid-range 'tone' of a phased signal without the actual phasing movement.  The color switch affects this tone as well.

My thought is that if it is passing an effected signal but not 'phasing' then one or several of the OTAs is not functional.  I would like to test them, but I only have a really cheap analog multimeter that I'm not sure how to use.

http://www.acehardware.com/product/index.jsp?productId=1292788&cp=2568454.2632224.1259271&lmdn=Brand&cp=2568454.2632224&searchId=1231156

This is the exact model.  I'm guessing it won't be easy to read or very accurate but if one of the OTAs is that off I should at least be able to ascertain that.  So I'm trying to imagine what this process would entail....
 
I know I should at least set it to 10v then put the black lead to ground and touch the red lead to each of the pins on the OTA.  I gather that this is the process for transistors and regular OP Amps, but I'm not sure if the OTAs are a different beast altogether...

[petemoore]

  Even cheep DMM [used to be 3.88 down the street..probably 10-20 buxx now to find similar.
  Analog...used to use one of those.
  I had to range to whatever it was, then adjust the trim on it to find...
  Where 9vdc battery [fresh] put the needle...looking up/down the 'window wiper' shaped dial indexes...I saw one index which had a 10 just to the right of where the needle settled. I figured this was the 10v mark on the correct range index, tried a 1.5v and yep but was 'close-read' at the bottom of the scale so put 18vdc on it to be sure.
  They read voltages, but...DMM is easier/quicker, faster to register and hence remember what the read-out digits were. The 'beep mode'...gets use A Lot, there are substitutes but DMM's the best place to have it/find a deal on it.
  For these reasons the 1rst DMM is a super deal.

[trotskyismyniece]

Yea, I know I need to get a DMM (I keep reading this as Deluxe Memory Man...I could use one of those too ).  However, I happened to have this sitting around the house so I figure that I should give it a go before I go try to buy a DMM on Amazon (I checked out some small hardware stores/radio shack and the DMMs seemed like they way too much for what they were).

My thoughts are that for the Small Stone to be behaving they way it is, then I doubt it will be a matter of decimal points difference in volts.  It should be obvious with an analogue MM getting a 'ballpark' figure which OTAs are acting wonky.  If not then I guess I'm back where I started with nothing lost, and I get a DMM.

[petemoore]

  Yep.
  I'm no small stone expert, CA3080's...
   Some of these are phase stages, as such should be similar pin # readings on them, as well as bias [check for likeness of bias resistors on schematic].
  With help of audio probe, which by itself is powerful debugging tool, to find where signal is being lost, and the analog meter...that's how we did it in the old days...should still work !
  Anyway the same stage configurations should have similar voltages, perhaps there are voltages for the SS posted at Tonepad or other site, if something is off enough to stop signal perhaps the probe/meter can ferret out where the problem is.

[PRR]

That is a 2K/V meter. On the "10V" scale it adds 20K of load to what you measure. Since many nodes in electronics are much higher impedance, it is loading-down what you are trying to measure.

The meter IS "accurate" enough, IF the point being measured isn't loaded-down.

$17 is a lot to pay. The $3 DMMs at Harbour Fright or eBay work fine, and have much higher input impedance (less loading).