Bluesbreaker ain't bluesbreaking

[skrattadu]

I'm just built a Bluesbreaker and it's not working. Both the volume and drive pots are acting as passive volume controls, so there isn't any volume boost at all with the volume knob all the way up, it's the same volume as when it was being bypassed. I know Bluesbreakers don't give much of a volume boost anyway, but there's usually some volume increase (I've built more of them than I can count, which is why I'm so confused as to why this one won't work). Did all the normal stuff, reflowed solder joints, make sure nothing was shorting out, blah blah blah. Still, all I get is two knobs acting as volumes. Tone knob works and I can here the slight bass cut when I turn it on. I thought it might be an op-amp issue, but I had two TL072s at my disposal so I tried both of them and it didn't make a difference. Maybe the socket I used is bad. Also, I just moved and my multimeter seems to have run away so I can't measure anything until I stumble across a new one.
Any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

[HamishR]

Two issues...

1 - you simply MUST orient all of your capacitors the same way. If you can't read the type of every component with the pots at the top, the tone leaks out.
2 - You're using a blue LED... seriously? blue? in a blues breaker? groan!!!

No, definitely a ground issue.

While I agree with your observations regarding the orienting of caps I think we could be a little more tactful when discussing fellow builders' LED colour choices. LEDs can be very personal to a person, especially a building person. Perhaps he/she chose blue because it reminded them of their late partner's favourite undergarments, or the colour of their skin as they lay cold and frozen on the slab, dead. We may never know. But I can think of worse things a person can do than use a blue LED in a Bluesbreaker pedal.

This is why I use water-clear LEDs. It avoids the pain of ridicule and peer pressure on online discussion groups.

 

[MichaelW]

While I agree with your observations regarding the orienting of caps I think we could be a little more tactful when discussing fellow builders' LED colour choices. LEDs can be very personal to a person, especially a building person. Perhaps he/she chose blue because it reminded them of their late partner's favourite undergarments, or the colour of their skin as they lay cold and frozen on the slab, dead. We may never know. But I can think of worse things a person can do than use a blue LED in a Bluesbreaker pedal.

This is why I use water-clear LEDs. It avoids the pain of ridicule and peer pressure on online discussion groups.

I never even knew my LED color choices was being critiqued.....I generally pick whatever's on the top of the pile in my plastic (dis)organizer...

 

[Chuck D. Bones]

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Are we being helpful?

 

[HamishR]

Well I was being helpful. In a kind of oblique, postmodern way...