Having volume issues with my Tyrian Distortion

[ShatteredOne13]

Hey all, just build my first pedals and the second one I put together was the Tyrian Distortion. When I play through it, I have to turn my amp up quite a bit more then I really should have to.. The tone sounds great, I get beautiful distortion out of it, and have no complaints on that end, which is what confuses me. I’m not sure what exactly would cause this sort of result when building. All values were double checked with volt meter before install, and after soldering in place just to be sure I didn’t mix anything up. I mean, the way I do my assembly is pretty fool proof as well, but the perfectionist in me still needs to double check things. Any help or suggestions on what might be causing this issue would be awesome. My other pedal pushes out at the same volume as it should, but this one when engaged is quieter then my clean channel when pedal is on bypass when it should be quite a bit louder with the volume pinned. If I need to pull the pedal apart to show the solder joints I can, but I’m pretty positive those are fine with my experience in soldering and how anal I am about it anyways I posted pics with this, but if more are needed just let me know please and I’ll pull it apart and get whatever photos/angles are needed !! Thank you all ahead of time for your help, couldn’t ask for a better forum then what I’ve seen from this one, it’s amazing how good of a group you guys have built here !! Thanks !!

 

[music6000]

Yea. With the exception of the volume being so low when it comes out, I can adjust the tone and it makes changes like it should... see why I’m so confused on this whole thing, it’s just throwing me all off..

As you noted, when you touched the Gain pot, Volume increased!

Try reflowing the PCB solder pads on the Gain pot, it might have a dry joint ????

 

[ShatteredOne13]

using your audio probe, compare the sound levels at the middle leads on your bass, treble, and volume pots (max out the volume, and check minimum, mid and max positions on the tone controls). Are they all about the same volume?

Yes they are, the left sounds like the tone is at its lowest, the right at its highest, and the center is just a straight mix, but all the same volume except for the gain pot obviously. The volume pot responds to being turned up and down, as well as the gain pot, just as they should.

 

[ShatteredOne13]

As you noted, when you touched the Gain pot, Volume increased!

Try reflowing the PCB solder pads on the Gain pot, it might have a dry joint ????

I’ll try, but I’m getting the same output from both the top and bottom of the solder joint, like off the actual pot and the bottom side of the joint, so I’m pretty sure that’s not it. I can post a pic of all my solder joints but I can pretty much guarantee that’s not the issue, they all looks very clean and I’ve gone through and double checked them all as well as applying pressure to the components to see if the joint shifts or has a poor contact, so I feel like it’s something else, I just can’t for the life of me figure out what in the hell it is...

 

[ShatteredOne13]

As you noted, when you touched the Gain pot, Volume increased!

Try reflowing the PCB solder pads on the Gain pot, it might have a dry joint ????

Also, when I said touched the gain pot, I meant with the audio probe, not physically.. I just realized what you meant and why it seemed like it might be a cold joint.

 

[music6000]

Righty 'O' Then, What about this, R32 :

 

[music6000]

Righty 'O' Then, What about this, R32 :

View attachment 10004

Did you have a win with R32, you wouldn't be the first to miss one?

 

[PJS]

I fixed a commercial boutique pedal once where one end of a decoupling cap had never been soldered, so it can happen in commercial businesses as well.

 

[ShatteredOne13]

Did you have a win with R32, you wouldn't be the first to miss one?

Nope, didn’t solve a thing.. it was soldered just fine on the bottom side, but just to be sure I reflowed it, and nothing, still having the same issue... I have no idea what to do now.. I’m just gonna go through and reflow everything tomorrow even if it doesn’t need it I guess and hope for the best unless someone else has another idea.. I’ve gone through and pushed and wiggled every component while running a looper and had absolutely zero change of fluctuation In the audio send, but I’m out of options at this point and it’s driving me crazy... I really hoped I could figure this out before my next set of pedals got here and now I have them and didn’t work on them today because of this one.. I mean, I built the audio probe and have gone over the circuit, but it only helps so much when you don’t know exactly what to look and listen for, which of course is going to be the issue with these being my first pedals obviously, but I’m not giving up.. Just going to hope that someone comes up with an idea of something to try and go from there :-/

 

[ShatteredOne13]

Also I think it was just the lighting of the photo, because R32 looked just find from the bottom, and though it didn’t flow through causing the bead on top of the board, I didn’t think that was necessary for a good joint, but I guess I could be wrong.. obviously I’m not perfect by any means and though my first attempts look really good and I have a lot of time working on electronics and soldering, it doesn’t make me an expert or anything by any means, I just do clean work and usually do pretty good at trouble shooting and problem solving, so this whole thing is driving me a little bonkers.. especially since the other pedal works so well and that was the one I made first and actually feel like I did a sloppier job assembling that one since I was just getting used to how to do small PCB work and of course building my first pedal..

 

[music6000]

Have you tried lifting the Op Amps & swapping them around to make sure their seated properly.
If no change, Can you give the Voltages of all the Op Amps pins, 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 .

 

[ShatteredOne13]

Have you tried lifting the Op Amps & swapping them around to make sure their seated properly.
If no change, Can you give the Voltages of all the Op Amps pins, 1 2 3 4 5

Have you tried lifting the Op Amps & swapping them around to make sure their seated properly.
If no change, Can you give the Voltages of all the Op Amps pins, 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 .

I will get that taken care of today, it’s 4am and I’m about to go to sleep, have to be up in like 4 hours :-/ but I’ll play the swap game again with my ICs and then shoot over the voltages for them, you want voltage on pins 1-8 for all 4 IC correct ? I believe I mentioned what they were when I checked them before, but this time I’ll write down all the voltages and give you the specifics in case it can point me in a direction. I really appreciate it, I’m sure this is getting just as frustrating for others as it is for me at this point. :-/

 

[ShatteredOne13]

Have you tried lifting the Op Amps & swapping them around to make sure their seated properly.
If no change, Can you give the Voltages of all the Op Amps pins, 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 .

Ok, so I went through and double checked all my resistor values since I talked to you this morning, and everything is good. Here is a photo of all the voltage values on the IC chips, hopefully you can read it all, for the most part the values seem within tolerance, but you would know better then me. The only on that seemed a little off was IC 3; the value of pin 3 is lower then all the others, and value of pin 6 is higher then the others. I mean it’s not dramatic change, but considering how consistent all the others have been, it stood out. I also recall someone saying that one of the IC has a different purpose then the other 3. Which is why it didn’t get any signal when hitting it with the audio probe, although I’m not sure if it was IC 3. In the meantime, I’m going to setup my looper right now and start probing again, and mixing around the IC chips to see if there’s any change this time, will keep you posted on the progress. If the voltages tell you anything, just let me know and I will get it worked out. I literally have nothing else going on today, and I’m damn determined to get this pedal working so I can start on my next series !! Haha !! I have a Face Melter (the original name is so much better ) / butthole burner all ready to go !! I even have a nice pink enclosure and everything to make it even better hahaha !! Not to mention the 8 or so other PCBs I picked up. So fingers crossed we find a way to work this out today !!!

 

[music6000]

Ok, so I went through and double checked all my resistor values since I talked to you this morning, and everything is good. Here is a photo of all the voltage values on the IC chips, hopefully you can read it all, for the most part the values seem within tolerance, but you would know better then me. The only on that seemed a little off was IC 3; the value of pin 3 is lower then all the others, and value of pin 6 is higher then the others. I mean it’s not dramatic change, but considering how consistent all the others have been, it stood out. I also recall someone saying that one of the IC has a different purpose then the other 3. Which is why it didn’t get any signal when hitting it with the audio probe, although I’m not sure if it was IC 3. In the meantime, I’m going to setup my looper right now and start probing again, and mixing around the IC chips to see if there’s any change this time, will keep you posted on the progress. If the voltages tell you anything, just let me know and I will get it worked out. I literally have nothing else going on today, and I’m damn determined to get this pedal working so I can start on my next series !! Haha !! I have a Face Melter (the original name is so much better ) / butthole burner all ready to go !! I even have a nice pink enclosure and everything to make it even better hahaha !! Not to mention the 8 or so other PCBs I picked up. So fingers crossed we find a way to work this out today !!!

Is this the way you measured going by the voltages :
1....5
2....6
3....7
4....8

It should be:
1....8
2....7
3....6
4....5

 

[ShatteredOne13]

Is this the way you measured going by the voltages :
1....5
2....6
2....7
4....8

It should be:
1....8
2....7
3....6
4....5

Oooppppsss , well at least you understood it I guess.. gotta remember for next time, I literally just learned how to identify those pins the other night when you asked me to check certain pins, I just got mixed up So I’m guessing beyond that, voltages were fine ??
I went back through like you suggested and swapped around the ic chips 3 different ways, and still no change, I went over my solder joints and anything that looked even remotely like it had a ball on the end of it, I reflowed and made everything nice and sunk it with clean little cones up the tips of the component legs coming out the bottom, and it’s now running through my looper again so I can use my audio probe one more time and see if I can find something that stands out because once again, there’s no change in it after everything... this is like Uber confusing, beyond using the audio probe I don’t know what else I can do.. I checked all my capacitors as well, made sure they were all outputting and nothing was no reading on the volt meter.. I didn’t go through and check all the values with the volt meter so I guess I can do that, though I was just as meticulous with putting those in as I was the resistors, but, I’m still human, and could have f$@ked up.. IC chips are reading good, all my components are reading good, issue remains when switch is flipped either way so it’s not that, the pots all work the way they should so it’s not that, I’m just dumbfounded.. I mean the only other thing I haven’t really checked is the foot switch since I can’t get to it with the breakout board installed, and I guess solder could be touching under that, but you’d think it would cause a different issue, not just low sound output, but I might as well check it as well.. and run through with the continuity meter again just to cover all bases twice while I’m at it.

 

[music6000]

Oooppppsss , well at least you understood it I guess.. gotta remember for next time, I literally just learned how to identify those pins the other night when you asked me to check certain pins, I just got mixed up So I’m guessing beyond that, voltages were fine ??
I went back through like you suggested and swapped around the ic chips 3 different ways, and still no change, I went over my solder joints and anything that looked even remotely like it had a ball on the end of it, I reflowed and made everything nice and sunk it with clean little cones up the tips of the component legs coming out the bottom, and it’s now running through my looper again so I can use my audio probe one more time and see if I can find something that stands out because once again, there’s no change in it after everything... this is like Uber confusing, beyond using the audio probe I don’t know what else I can do.. I checked all my capacitors as well, made sure they were all outputting and nothing was no reading on the volt meter.. I didn’t go through and check all the values with the volt meter so I guess I can do that, though I was just as meticulous with putting those in as I was the resistors, but, I’m still human, and could have f$@ked up.. IC chips are reading good, all my components are reading good, issue remains when switch is flipped either way so it’s not that, the pots all work the way they should so it’s not that, I’m just dumbfounded.. I mean the only other thing I haven’t really checked is the foot switch since I can’t get to it with the breakout board installed, and I guess solder could be touching under that, but you’d think it would cause a different issue, not just low sound output, but I might as well check it as well.. and run through with the continuity meter again just to cover all bases twice while I’m at it.

Can you confirm by measuring Volume pot Pad s@ 12.00 O'Clock, 1/2 Way mark. PIns marked as 3 2 1
You should be measuring 50K on Pads 1 & 3, 42K aprox 2. & 3, aprox. 8K.

 

[ShatteredOne13]

Can you confirm by measuring Volume pot Pad s@ 12.00 O'Clock, 1/2 Way mark. PIns marked as 3 2 1
You should be measuring 50K on Pads 1 & 3, 42K aprox 2. & 3, aprox. 8K.

Ok I’m not entirely sure how you meant to do this so I did, ground (enclosure) + 1 = no reading, ground + 2 = 8.7 , ground +3 = 49.3 , pins 3+2 = 40 , pins 1+3 = 48 , pins 1+2 = 9.1
Hopefully that covers all variation of ways to read it.. since it’s assembled in the enclosure right now, I measured from the face of the board (the solder joints of the pots) which is how I’m guessing you meant the pin layout goes because when I googled it, it was the opposite when looking at them from the top. I am curious why I didn’t get a reading off of pin 1 when also connecting to ground though, that would be something you would know better then me though. I’ve had resistors do that, and I just reflow them and can get a reading right after, I’m just going to do that just in case. Hopefully those numbers will tell you something.

 

[Chuck D. Bones]

Accounting for the pin mis-numbering, all of the IC voltages are good.

 

[Chuck D. Bones]

Do LEDs D6 & D7 glow at all when the GAIN is cranked and you play hard? Try all three toggle switch positions.

 

[ShatteredOne13]

Do LEDs D6 & D7 glow at all when the GAIN is cranked and you play hard? Try all three toggle switch positions.

yea they work just fine, they glow and pulse depending one how much sound goes through them, and they work in unison.. I just realized I forgot to post the pics of the underside so here they are. I tried 3 different angles so hopefully the reflections aren’t too bad.. I’ve already gone through and checked them closely to make sure there’s solid connections everywhere, but maybe I’m missing something, who knows. It’s so weird how this is happening, especially with the sound being perfectly fine, no issues with the distortion, just having that weird drop in level.. I’ve thought about taking a video, but I don’t know how much help that will be, with the gain and volume both maxed out and the pedal engaged, the sound is just quieter then when I go to bypass.. I know there probably isn’t, but is it possible to someone bypass each component one by one to see which one is causing the volume drop ?? Like if I just took a small piece of wire and connected the solder joints on the underside would it make it skip over that component, or would cause a different issue ?

 

[Chuck D. Bones]

The fact that the LEDs light up tells me that the signal is good at least that far into the circuit.
How about we go at it with the audio probe again?
Set GAIN high enough that you get a strong glow on the LEDs.
Turn TREBLE, MID & BASS all the way up. Turn VOLUME all the way down.
Listen one one side of R23 and then the other. The louder side is right at the LEDs.
Put the audio probe on IC3-7. The volume should be louder than at the LEDs. If it's not, then we know the problem is between the LEDs and IC3-7.
Do that, report the results and we'll go from there.