Brown Betty slowly dying

[TSReppe]

Hey Guys!

I’m new on the forum and pretty new to pedal building. I recently(almost) completed a Brown Betty, but it has issues and I’m nor sure how to look for them. Hopefully someone has any advice.

1. The bass control does nothing. This might just be a malfunctioning pot, but If anyone has any other ideas of what I should look into I’m all ears. There is a little bit of a scratching sound when I turn it, but not a lot and there’s nothing happening with the sound.

2. This is a bigger issue. When I fire up the pedal it works perfectly(except that pot ofc). But after playing a while it slowly dies. Almost soujds like a rapidly dying tube. It starts scratching, than falling in and out before it goes total dead. Takes about 10-15 minutes for this to happen. If I unplug the dc power and plug it back in it works great again, for 10-15 minutes. I can’t see any cold solders. On cap was badly soldered, but that has been fixed.

Hope someone can help me out cause I love the sound of the pedal.

 

[Nostradoomus]

My continuity test stops working when the battery is on its way out.

 

[music6000]

Cheers man!

I’ll do this tonight when I’m home ?

This is what you need, How Cheap Ass are we talking here!!!.

View attachment 7717

Updated the PCB Continuity Layout!

 

[BurntFingers]

It sounds like an electrolytic has died.

 

[music6000]

It sounds like an electrolytic has died.

Are you referring to the Brown Betty PCB?
That was next on my List!

 

[BurntFingers]

Are you referring to the Brown Betty PCB?
That was next on my List!

I'm referring to whatever problem someone was having with a pedal dying after 10 minutes. It really sounds like an electrolytic is losing charge and crapping itself. Same thing happens with boned filter caps in old amps.

 

[music6000]

I'm referring to whatever problem someone was having with a pedal dying after 10 minutes. It really sounds like an electrolytic is losing charge and crapping itself. Same thing happens with boned filter caps in old amps.

Yep, that is this Pedal's issue but he has a Bass control that isn't doing much either.
A dry solder joint can have a similiar effect also when things start to warm up.

 

[PJS]

If the pot measures an appropriate change in resistance outside the circuit, but no change when it is in the circuit, then it sounds to me as if something else nearby is shorting out near the pot and causing the lack of measured change when you turn the pot.

 

[music6000]

If the pot measures an appropriate change in resistance outside the circuit, but no change when it is in the circuit, then it sounds to me as if something else nearby is shorting out near the pot and causing the lack of measured change when you turn the pot.

Or the Trace is damaged!

 

[TSReppe]

Happy to announce that this pedal has been fixed! I put a jumper from pin 5 to 7 on ic4 and now it doesn’t die and the bass pot works(its now a linear instead of rev log pot so it reacts all wrong, but that I can live with at least for now).

Thank you all for your help. Especially Music6000! I really appreciate it.

 

[music6000]

I dont take credit for something I didn't & would not have advised, ie Jumper from pin 5 to pin 7 on IC4!

 

[TSReppe]

I dont take credit for something I didn't & would not have advised, ie Jumper from 5 to 7!

That’s fine, but I still appreciate the effort you put into trying to help. That was my point ?