Kliche not working properly

[finegritmusic]

Ok I know it's pretty rough work but I'm hoping I can salvage this. This was the first pedal I tried to build and didn't work. I've built many others since then that have worked and thankfully I've gotten much better at building. However I know I messed things up on this and wonder if someone with more technical knowledge can help bring this thing to life.

Power seems fine and LED lights when on

Pedal passes signal when off, however Gain knob seems to slightly effect it at different positions?

When turned on, Volume seems to work fine. Gain gives no output in middle positions, very distorted in low and high regions. Tone knob has to be tapered all the way down, when turned up it self oscillates and squeels.

My thought is that I screwed up the board on the input and output sections by scratching it up and this is the cause. Does this seem like a possible culprit for this? I have enclosed pictures to show what I mean.

If this is the case, is there somewhere else I could solder these connections. Or could this be something else entirely?

A million thanks to anyone that can help, this thing has sat in the bin for too long!

 

[carlinb17]

Are these jumped?

 

[DailyDovetails]

Are these jumped?

Looks like it good eye.

My thoughts in addition to that would be to clean the flux from the board with alcohol, check your component values, reflow the joints, check that you have 18v on pin 8 of IC2 and -9 on pin 4. From there with it cleaned up I wonder if some of the scratches around the input and outputs might be connecting the traces between the input, output and ground. I would carefully with maybe tweezers or a knife clean up between the 2.

 

[Coda]

Quadruple check the dual-gang pot. Klons are prone to ground outs…

 

[Chuck D. Bones]

I'd remove the board, clean and inspect both sides for solder splashes, cold solder joints, damaged traces, debris, incorrect components, etc. Fix anything that isn't perfect. When you reassemble, replace all of the sketchy wiring. Stranded wire should be twisted & pre-tinned so there are no stray strands that might short to something nearby.

If that doesn't correct the problem(s), then we can make some measurements to see if the charge pump is working.

 

[finegritmusic]

Are these jumped?

Yes they were! Great eye and big thanks!

 

[finegritmusic]

Thanks everybody for the help! Turns out the two resistors Carlin pointed out were jumped by a stray piece of solder! I cleaned things up and it seems to be working now, however it seems like it never really gets to point of breakup. Very very mild overdrive with gain all the way up. I'm on a strat, it this normal for this circuit? Thanks again!

 

[finegritmusic]

I had bought the diodes on Amazon, is this the likely issue?

 

[carlinb17]

I had bought the diodes on Amazon, is this the likely issue?

Personally I wouldn't buy "germanium diodes" on amazon, did you measure them prior to installing them? A good none germanium option is BAT-41's

 

[finegritmusic]

Personally I wouldn't buy "germanium diodes" on amazon, did you measure them prior to installing them? A good none germanium option is BAT-41's

Yeah, one of many rookie moves I made on this one. Never measured or knew how when I started on this. Just measured them and they are at around 800-850 on my multimeter, so i suppose that's not what I wanted to see huh?
Is this the likely cause of my very minimal amount of breakup/distortion?
I only get baby hairs when this thing is cranked...

 

[synthesiserror]

They should test in the neighborhood of 350mV.

 

[finegritmusic]

They should test in the neighborhood of 350mV.

Yeah, Im gonna order the bat41's and hopefully that improves things

 

[chris.knudson]

Personally I wouldn't buy "germanium diodes" on amazon

I have to agree. I used to buy everything from Amazon, and I've been burned one too may times. Anymore, I try to buy germaniums from reputible sellers. You aren't going to find germaniums from big resellers -- they just don't exist anymore. So, if you're buying germaniums on the internet, you need to make sure that you are buying them from someplace that has a reputation for delivering the real thing. The last batch of real germaniums that I bought were from Stomp Box Parts, but I've also bought them from Small Bear and other antique electronics storefronts. You just have to be careful. There is a lot of good information on this forum to steer you in the right direction.

 

[finegritmusic]

I have to agree. I used to buy everything from Amazon, and I've been burned one too may times. Anymore, I try to buy germaniums from reputible sellers. You aren't going to find germaniums from big resellers -- they just don't exist anymore. So, if you're buying germaniums on the internet, you need to make sure that you are buying them from someplace that has a reputation for delivering the real thing. The last batch of real germaniums that I bought were from Stomp Box Parts, but I've also bought them from Small Bear and other antique electronics storefronts. You just have to be careful. There is a lot of good information on this forum to steer you in the right direction.

Thanks, yeah I read all the reviews and they seemed legit but guess you live and learn.
Yes, this forum has been a godsend to me. I'm very thankful for everybody that has helped on this thread, and through the whole site. I typically read other people's troubleshooting posts and it's been helping me learn. I've still got a whole lot to learn but slowly things are making more and more sense.

 

[finegritmusic]

Thanks, yeah I read all the reviews and they seemed legit but guess you live and learn.
Yes, this forum has been a godsend to me. I'm very thankful for everybody that has helped on this thread, and through the whole site. I typically read other people's troubleshooting posts and it's been helping me learn. I've still got a whole lot to learn but slowly things are making more and more sense.

Have to add that this was about 4 years ago I ordered them, things seem to have gotten even worse since then

 

[swelchy]

and for anyone landing here searching for kliche and dual gang pots grounding out.. here is an insulator I drew up for 3d printing..

Dual Gang Potentiometer Dust Cover by swelchy

Potentiometer dust cover for dual gang pots

www.thingiverse.com

 

[chris.knudson]

Have to add that this was about 4 years ago I ordered them, things seem to have gotten even worse since then

I agree. It has definitely gotten worse

 

[music6000]

Yeah, Im gonna order the bat41's and hopefully that improves things

You can remove those 2 Clipping Diodes completely & the pedal will still work.
You should see your volume increase significantly if the Diodes were working before removal!

I make it standard practice to bend all my diodes & resistors first before testing them now!
I have had a few glass diodes fracture that physically looked OK that failed earlier on in my Builds!

 

[finegritmusic]

You can remove those 2 Clipping Diodes completely & the pedal will still work.
You should see your volume increase significantly if the Diodes were working before removal!

I make it standard practice to bend all my diodes & resistors first before testing them now!
I have had a few glass diodes fracture that physically looked OK that failed earlier on in my Builds!

So is this likely NOT my problem of getting almost no overdrive/distortion at full gain?

 

[music6000]

So is this likely NOT my problem of getting almost no overdrive/distortion at full gain?

If you don't get an Increase in Volume way above Unity with the diodes removed, The clipping diodes are not you issue!