Most infuriating testing moment?
- Thread starter Zissou
- Start date
Bricksnbeatles
Member known well
Anytime I’m doing a PCB layout for those jacks that doesn’t incorporate the switching function, I tie the switch pin to the plug pin to ensure I didn’t mess up
Bricksnbeatles
Member known well
Testing continuity in a circuit and not getting a beep anywhere, and then realizing the 9v battery you’re using to text the circuit is the one you took out of the multimeter. In my defense, it was 3am
Bricksnbeatles
Member known well
On both my Oops! Wrong 808 build and one of my Korkie builds I accidentally wired the jacks in reverse because I’m used to the pinout of switchcraft jacks.
On my 12 string rewire i spent ages trying to figure out why the switch was popping so loud before I realized that I just had the piezo gain all the way up, and it was just the mechanics of the switch being picked up by the piezo, and not noisy switch contacts. Once I turned the piezo preamp gain down things were great lol
On my 12 string rewire i spent ages trying to figure out why the switch was popping so loud before I realized that I just had the piezo gain all the way up, and it was just the mechanics of the switch being picked up by the piezo, and not noisy switch contacts. Once I turned the piezo preamp gain down things were great lol
Mentaltossflycoon
Well-known member
After having never wired a dc jack incorrectly, I did it to 2 of the 5 pedals in my last batch. Those poor diodes.
mybud
Well-known member
I did this a couple of times when I started building. What struck me was a complete failure of using my clearly minimal common sense
to follow the logical steps to solve the problem. In other words, circuit works fine until jacks are installed. Problem must then surely be the jacks? I blithely ignored such common sense logic and assumed part failure from over-soldering, intergalactic or cosmic conspiracies to frustrate me and so on. The aha moment of finally grasping the problem was tempered by my embarrassment at my own stupidity for sure.Exactly. Can't see the forest because of all the trees in the way.I did this a couple of times when I started building. What struck me was a complete failure of using my clearly minimal common sense
finebyfine
Well-known member
I'll let you know what my most infuriating testing moment is when it's finally god damn fixed lol
I've built a few amps this year, and because of the voltages involved I am rather anal about checking things are connected correctly before I power up. So far this year no problems, until yesterday. It's a good feeling to turn on an amp with nothing going BANG! I have built an amp for a fella and whenever I do this I am really nervous that the player will like it. He came around, we played the amp in my workshop, it sounded killer. We used a couple of my guitars and he played his Tele through it - thumbs up all round!
Then he drove home with it - 200km away. I got a call last night that he's playing his Les Paul and Strat through it and it sounds "like it's overloading and it's microphonic". I suspect a cold solder on a speaker connection, or maybe at an input jack. Why does this ONLY EVER HAPPEN when the amp is 200km away? I have been lucky because I must have sold around 20 amps over the past 20 years and never had a problem unless the guy is 200km+ away. The only previous problem I had was when a guy 400km away got his son to collect the amp for him and he chucked it in the back of his ute. The problem that time was a broken pin on a tube socket. These things never happen when the new owner lives just down the street!
Then he drove home with it - 200km away. I got a call last night that he's playing his Les Paul and Strat through it and it sounds "like it's overloading and it's microphonic". I suspect a cold solder on a speaker connection, or maybe at an input jack. Why does this ONLY EVER HAPPEN when the amp is 200km away? I have been lucky because I must have sold around 20 amps over the past 20 years and never had a problem unless the guy is 200km+ away. The only previous problem I had was when a guy 400km away got his son to collect the amp for him and he chucked it in the back of his ute. The problem that time was a broken pin on a tube socket. These things never happen when the new owner lives just down the street!
PapaBear
Well-known member
I think that's a "Murphy's Law" kind of thing, it never fails in the HVAC business, do an install or service out of our normal service area and it'll beat you to death with callbacks and the further out it is the worse the beating
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Well I just heard back from the fella 200km away. Now he's saying he doesn't think there's anything wrong with the amp (phew!!) - he just put high output pickups in his guitar! But I'll keep in touch because my amps are my babies and I tune them to the player. If I need to reduce the size of a cap here and there that's what I'll do to stop his guitars from pummelling the low end.