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 !!

 

[ShatteredOne13]

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.

Okie dokie, I just got on, I’ve been busy today so I haven’t had a chance to mess with anything, but I’ll get everything setup right now and use my looper to run the audio probe and see what I can get figured out buddy. Thank you for your help with this, I’ll report the results when I am finished up with them !!

 

[Chuck D. Bones]

Here's my prediction. The signal will be good up to the MID pot and die at IC3.2 because C27 is the wrong value. All of the 100pF caps on your board are yellow dipped ceramic except C27. It's a WIMA film cap that we can't read from the pictures. Music6000 and I are betting that there's a 100nF there.

If you probe past R23, the signal drops 20dB or so in the BASS & TREBLE controls, that's normal. IC3.1 has 0dB gain, so the signal doesn't get boosted back up until IC3.2 (when it's working right).

 

[ShatteredOne13]

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.

Ok so I just probed 23 and it’s loud through the top pin, and louder through the bottom.. going to IC3 pin 7 I could barely hear anything as if it was running directly through the cables as usual.. so not sure if that helps, but it cancels out that possibility, on to the next idea ??

 

[ShatteredOne13]

Here's my prediction. The signal will be good up to the MID pot and die at IC3.2 because C27 is the wrong value. All of the 100pF caps on your board are yellow dipped ceramic except C27. It's a WIMA film cap that we can't read from the pictures. Music6000 and I are betting that there's a 100nF there.

If you probe past R23, the signal drops 20dB or so in the BASS & TREBLE controls, that's normal. IC3.1 has 0dB gain, so the signal doesn't get boosted back up until IC3.2 (when it's working right).

Son of a bitch !!! How the hell did I miss that !!! That’s probably exactly what it is !!! Well done !! I’m a ding dong, I can’t believe that.. how the hell did I mess that one up I’ll pull it and do a swap right now, dollars to donuts it’s the issue.. it’s most likely a 100nf Wow... I feel stupid now

 

[Chuck D. Bones]

After you fix it you can feel smart again, that's what I do.

 

[ShatteredOne13]

After you fix it you can feel smart again, that's what I do.

Bwahaha !! Well I appreciate it buddy, you and Music for the WIN !! Pedal is working beautifully... guess I should have known it was something like that since my first pedal worked right out the gate, and this one worked just fine with the exception of the signal drop.. I can believe I mixed an N and P And yes, it was a 100n, I even remember double checking the count of 100pf and only counted 4 somehow, so I missed it then as well ahh man, I’m just glad it works now, and this G3 sounds amazing as well. Now I can finally move on to building my next ones !!! Woot woot !! Super happy that’s finished You guys are amazing and thank you soooo much for your help with everything !!

 

[Chuck D. Bones]

Took a while, but we got there. Music6000 spotted it first.

 

[music6000]

Bwahaha !! Well I appreciate it buddy, you and Music for the WIN !! Pedal is working beautifully... guess I should have known it was something like that since my first pedal worked right out the gate, and this one worked just fine with the exception of the signal drop.. I can believe I mixed an N and P And yes, it was a 100n, I even remember double checking the count of 100pf and only counted 4 somehow, so I missed it then as well ahh man, I’m just glad it works now, and this G3 sounds amazing as well. Now I can finally move on to building my next ones !!! Woot woot !! Super happy that’s finished You guys are amazing and thank you soooo much for your help with everything !!

It was a Team effort, Chuck & I appreciate when a Member is in for the long haul to make it right!!!

Next Pedal!!!

 

[Barry]

Bwahaha !! Well I appreciate it buddy, you and Music for the WIN !! Pedal is working beautifully... guess I should have known it was something like that since my first pedal worked right out the gate, and this one worked just fine with the exception of the signal drop.. I can believe I mixed an N and P And yes, it was a 100n, I even remember double checking the count of 100pf and only counted 4 somehow, so I missed it then as well ahh man, I’m just glad it works now, and this G3 sounds amazing as well. Now I can finally move on to building my next ones !!! Woot woot !! Super happy that’s finished You guys are amazing and thank you soooo much for your help with everything !!

We've all done at least once

 

[fig]

Here's my prediction....

Love it Chuck. Your 'visual inspection' mantra is once again validated.