El Sol - Gating Issue

[ckendall924]

I know this has been posted previously and resolved, but I'm having this same issue and cannot resolve it using any of the suggestions on the previous post.

I get clean bypass. LED turns on, great big Acapulco Gold sound when I dig in. But the sustain dies abruptly with a fuzzy gated sound. The signal even dies completely and back on in a sort of swelling sound as a chord is allowed to ring out. (It's kinda cool, but also not the intended sound with this circuit.)

I've posted some pics below. (Just one thing to note, the pic of the back of my pcb should've been updated. I reflowed all of my solder joints as a good measure. Also, I have 2 sets of the JRC386 chips. I swapped out the IC's to see if that would do the trick. No success.)

Any ideas would be helpful.

 

[Nostradoomus]

I can’t explain why exactly but using the LM386N-4 has always solved this issue for me.

 

[ckendall924]

I can’t explain why exactly but using the LM386N-4 has always solved this issue for me.

Alrighty... I'm going to have to order some of those and give it a try. Thanks!

 

[Nostradoomus]

If you’re in Canada I can send you some.

 

[ckendall924]

If you’re in Canada I can send you some.

Very kind of you! I’m in US. (Don’t hate me for that)

I just ordered a few variants of the LM386 (N1, N3, and N4) from StompBoxParts.com

I’ll play around with them and see if that solves it.

 

[Sturdag Lagernathy]

Where did you get the chips that are in-circuit in the pic? At first glance, printing seems odd.

 

[ckendall924]

Where did you get the chips that are in-circuit in the pic? At first glance, printing seems odd.

StompBoxParts.com

Just looked up the receipt, and it says the brand is New Japan Radio.

 

[Sturdag Lagernathy]

Lol, yeah Stomp Box Parts sell legit stuff.