SOLVED Help - EHX Small Clone Toasty after DC jack swap

[zachlovescoffee]

Hello! I have an EHX Small Clone that I am switching out the old positive tip 2.1mm jack for a negative tip Boss style PSA jack. I did the switch and the pedal will power up but I'm getting no signal.

The pedal works in bypass mode with or without power plugged in. But, when I engage the effect, on power plugged in or not, I get nothing. Using my audio probe I am getting signal but it's hard to tell if the effect is engaged.

Could someone take a look at my wiring to see if maybe I have dorked something up? I wasn't sure the 3PDT switch was wired correctly so I re-wired it. I've included pictures showing the original +ve tip wiring, the original 3PDt switch wiring and my finished product. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

[Big Monk]

You swapped a positive tip jack for a negative tip jack?

Maybe that’s the issue.

 

[zachlovescoffee]

Yes but I switched the wiring too. So it should work, no?

 

[Big Monk]

Yes but I switched the wiring too. So it should work, no?

Right. That’s all I got. I mixed up center positive with center negative. Carry on, someone should be along to help you shortly…

 

[zachlovescoffee]

There’s only 2.7v on pin 8 of the JRC4558. Maybe it’s bad?

 

[Diynot]

The blue and red wire that were attached to the inner ground (if I remember those blasted 3.5mm jacks right) lug of the old power jack, what happened to the red wire and also, why is the blue wire now attached to the output jack tip which should be the signal out?
Edit: sorry, I guess that’s just the camera angle, blue wire is connecting to the output jack, but still, where did the red wire go?
Edit again: I’m being an idiot, that’s the battery clip.

 

[zachlovescoffee]

The blue and red wire that were attached to the inner ground (if I remember those blasted 3.5mm jacks right) lug of the old power jack, what happened to the red wire and also, why is the blue wire now attached to the output jack tip which should be the signal out?
Edit: sorry, I guess that’s just the camera angle, blue wire is connecting to the output jack, but still, where did the red wire go?

That red wire was for the 9v battery. I removed that.

I think I found one issue. Tracing the output of the 4558 I find a small cut in the Trace between R21 and R1. No continuity. But if I jumped them together now I get bypass signal and signal with power. However, no chorus effect.

Oddly enough, using my audio probe and feeding signal directly to the input jack I get output but no chorus. When I plug my guitar in with pedal on I get no output in power mode but do get output in bypass mode.

I’m flummoxed.

 

[Diynot]

Did you try the pedal after replacing the power jack, but before redoing the switch? If so did you get effect then?

 

[zachlovescoffee]

Problem solved. Though at this point I have no idea exactly what solved it! A number of things came up as was routing through this thing. Truth be told, I had never turned this pedal on after I bought it. So I don't even know if it worked in the first place.

1) One of the legs of the C1M pot was broken and when trying to fix it, I broke the other two. So I had to solder some bus wire onto the legs to repair that.
2) The cut trace between R21 and R1, which I *did not* do. That was fixed by jumping the two together.
3) The freaking deep switch, both of the wires broke at the board and had to be replaced.
4) The 220uf cap on the back of the board, one of the legs on it was broken off
5) I replaced the 10uf 25v cap under the MN3007
6) At one point I had both the R4558 and the clock chip in backwards, at different times.

Whoever owned this pedal before me was not kind to it -- I finally got it all back together and it sounds fantastic. I still prefer the Univibe. It just sounds more lush. I'm going to sell this EHX thing. My next chorus build is a VFE Choral Reef.