Glory Hole build on Protoboard - Tone and Vol not working

[zakco]

As per the title, I've built the Glory Hole circuit on PPCB's proto board using it's built in Vref. The circuit passes signal right to the end, but the Tone and Volume pots have no effect. The Drive control works perfectly, so does the Hi Cut switch and the clipping sounds as expected. I've gone through the connections many times, I can't find a mistake and there are no points where a probe doesn't get signal. Vref measures 4.5 volts at every point I've checked including pin 5 of the IC.

I checked the signal at each major section as I built it and everything worked as it should right up to the tone control.

I had assumed that the Protoboards built in Vref and power filtering would mean that I could ignore the Glory Hole's power circuit and start building at the input, which is what I've done. Maybe this isn't the case?

Sorry for the tape labelled resistors - I know it looks ridiculous. I'm trying to memorize the color codes but it's hard and I want to make stuff while I'm learning.

This is my first breadboard project that uses Vref and and an IC, so it's possible that I'm misinterpreting something in the schematic. Any ideas?

 

[Erik S]

Do you have voltage on the rails on the right side of the board?

I see them connected on the left, but I think you also need jumpers to get across the center gaps.

 

[zakco]

Aha! All of my other breadboards have continuous power/ground rails - it never occurred to me. Thank you!
Initially the output was extremely low and I thought that the biasing was off on the Jfet but it turns out that my 2n5457 was faulty. I replaced it with a J201 and everything works, but I think the J201 is probably clipping. Can a J201 be biased for this circuit or should I get another 2n5457? Should I replace R18 with a 100k trim pot and if so, what voltage should I see at the drain?