My last three pedals failed!

K

kweefthief

Active member
I've been busy with school but managed to sneak in 3 builds or so. All of them didn't work! I just kept going on to the next because i just wanted something to go right and didn't feel like troubleshooting too hard. I did take looks at all of them but i'm too inexperienced to see anything other than an empty pad lol. After those three I stopped completely for the last 2 months or so. Today I went ahead and decided to do the simplest little build i have the modus operandi and i have failed yet again. Does not feel good. Finals are soon maybe i'll take another shot after those. Thanks for reading my vent.
 
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Let me predict, based upon 1,000 other troubleshooting posts that the problem is with the soldering...

99.9995 of the time it's a bad solder joint, the other .0005% are split between "off by an order of magnitude in a cap or resistor value" and "had the guitar plugged into the out jack and the amp plugged into the In jack" or something creating a short to ground.

We've got your back if you want help troubleshooting.
 
i just thought about it a bit and i think at least 2 or 3 of the builds have no bypass and just loud hum when turned on. what is this a sign of?
 
jhaneyzz said:
Let me predict, based upon 1,000 other troubleshooting posts that the problem is with the soldering...

99.9995 of the time it's a bad solder joint, the other .0005% are split between "off by an order of magnitude in a cap or resistor value" and "had the guitar plugged into the out jack and the amp plugged into the In jack" or something creating a short to ground.

We've got your back if you want help troubleshooting.
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thanks! i thought abt the in/outs jacks for so long lol i think i got 'em right😅
 
Post some well lit and in-focus gut shots and we'll see what we can see.

BTW. post to the "Troubleshooting" forum for best visibility and participation.
 
Post a troubleshooting thread for one of them and work through the suggestions. You'll learn a lot with that.

I'd also recommend slowing down. Take time your time. Enjoying the process and focusing on one thing at a time makes everything go much more smoothly. You'll speed up quickly if you start out methodically.
 
I'd recommend getting a multimeter if you don't have one already. The continuity tester is probably the most used function on mine. It's real simple to test jacks if you're not sure of the lugs. Slip a patch cable in and test the tip again the lugs to see what your hot is then you know the other is your ground (assuming a mono jack).
 
peccary said:
I'd also recommend slowing down. Take time your time. Enjoying the process and focusing on one thing at a time makes everything go much more smoothly. You'll speed up quickly if you start out methodically.
Click to expand...
This is really good advice. I’ve been on a bit of a quick n dirty streak lately, but typically I do my builds over 3 days (mostly due to … life?…). Day 1 is marking & drilling the enclosure, test fitting the jacks, foot switch, LED, pots, switches and pcb. I then disassemble and set it all aside. Day 2, I test components and populate the board. Day 3, I solder and assemble. Everybody has a different approach and by no means am I trying to tell you how to do your thing. Just sharing in case it’s helpful to you.
 
FWIW the third latest pedal I built I soldered the in/out jacks wrong too (ground to tip, hot to sleeve). The next one I figured "I messed this up, I better pay attention", was more careful about it, and soldered them completely wrong again.

The latest pedal I made I again paid attention to how they should be done because I had messed it up twice now. This time I got one right and one wrong, so it was definitely an improvement.

I swear I'm a pretty smart dude otherwise.
 
cdwillis said:
I'd recommend getting a multimeter if you don't have one already. The continuity tester is probably the most used function on mine. It's real simple to test jacks if you're not sure of the lugs. Slip a patch cable in and test the tip again the lugs to see what your hot is then you know the other is your ground (assuming a mono jack).
Click to expand...
This for sure. I use mine to test every time in the wiring process. Test continuity from the jack's tips to the pads they are soldered to, from the jack's sleeves to the pads they are soldered to, all the ground points, the lugs/pins on the footswitch in them off and on position before I start and after soldering wires/breahout boards, etc. Anything you can, so if there is a problem at least you know where you have good connections.

Good luck!
 
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Soldering. Watch videos. Read about it. It tool me about a year and 10 pedals before it really kicked in how to do it good constantly. I had to go back and re-solder a few things in some of those pedals as time went on because there was a problem or I could see later what was wrong.

You can do it!
 
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