SOLVED First Build - Chela Troubleshooting

[mekrob69]

Good morning,
I finished my first build (Chela - Talons clone) yesterday and not to my surprise it’s having issues. Even bypassed the effect create considerable high frequency hum, that significantly drops when engaged. When engaged I get sound, but it’s very muddy especially when I try to add in gain. The EQ sections seem to slightly work but not as they should.

I tested components before assembly and did a thorough visual inspection of both sides of the PCB before install pots, wires, jacks. If need to get those underside pictures let me know if it’s better to bend the pots up or remove them all together.

The main two things that i slightly modified were I got the 5 pin jacks and on my 9v, there was a 3rd pin that was for battery that I bent over so it wouldn’t touch anything else. Could these be the cause of the problems?

Here’s a video trying to capture how it’s acting incorrect

Let me know if there’s any other info I can provide and I’ll gladly do so.
Thank you so much

 

[JamieJ]

It looks like you have your wiring wrong. You have your ground jacks going to the footswitch and your signal jacks going to ground.

Also think about using IC sockets on your next build, it saves no end of hassle if there is an issue.

 

[Harry Klippton]

It looks like you have your wiring wrong. You have your ground jacks going to the footswitch and your signal jacks going to ground.

Same. "Works but sounds awful" in my experience means signal and ground swapped on the jacks

 

[mekrob69]

Heating up my iron now, I will let you know the results. Fingers crossed

 

[mekrob69]

It looks like you have your wiring wrong. You have your ground jacks going to the footswitch and your signal jacks going to ground.

Also think about using IC sockets on your next build, it saves no end of hassle if there is an issue.

That was it! Thank you so much!!!

Now there’s no hum, and it sounds great. I’m noticing some slight fizz in the signal at low gain settings that definitely gets drowned out as you dime it. Sounds amazing though

Also I ordered IC sockets that I plan to use on future builds. My biggest worry was that with the socket it would require me to stand up the resistors to fit. But looking now it should be fine. I have another Chela I was going to build for a friend so I will use a socket there

 

[mekrob69]

Same. "Works but sounds awful" in my experience means signal and ground swapped on the jacks

That was it! Thank you guys so much! My first build, time to get addicted haha

 

[JamieJ]

Glad you got it working!!