Let me preface this with I'm new to pedal building. I have a problem I am trying to build the Pharmacist Overdrive but after I soldered everything, I can only get sound in bypass mode. Its a faint background noise when the pedal is on and I can get a buzz if I touch the back of one of the resistors. Any help in troubleshooting is greatly appreciated.
Need help with first build
- Thread starter DocWhoFan
- Start date
Dan0h
Well-known member
My very first build did the same thing. Turned out to be two things. 1st I had a solder bridge between two points and 2nd I was plugging my guitar into the output jack and the amp into the input jack. I wasn’t use to building upside down. But like Mr. Pedal PcB said, post some photos. Enjoy the journey.
BuddytheReow
Breadboard Baker
You’ll need to do a couple of things here.
Trim the leads that are sticking out
Reflow all suspect solder joints. A lot of those joints look cold or not enough solder.
Confirm all component values are correct
Clean your board with some isopropyl alcohol and a toothbrush. Don’t get any inside your pots.
Here’s a walkthrough on how to troubleshoot in general
forum.pedalpcb.com
Trim the leads that are sticking out
Reflow all suspect solder joints. A lot of those joints look cold or not enough solder.
Confirm all component values are correct
Clean your board with some isopropyl alcohol and a toothbrush. Don’t get any inside your pots.
Here’s a walkthrough on how to troubleshoot in general
TUTORIAL - Troubleshooting 101
There comes a time for every builder to spend multiple hours soldering, wiring, and breadboarding a certain circuit just to have it work incorrectly, if at all. This could happen on your first build or any build after that. This write up is to help you in your quest to figure out why it isn't...
forum.pedalpcb.com
Feral Feline
Well-known member
I've had pads lift off, but salvaged the board by soldering to where the next component in the path of the trace goes.
Good to learn reading schematics for this reason.
Try socketing your transistors.
There are pros and cons to socketing transistors and some people hate sockets, but for me personally the pros out-weigh the cons and I socket most all my transistors. That way, I can try other transistors and I've never fried a transistor from applying too much heat — and if you put one in backwards you can flip it around easily.
Anyway... keep the board and parts, you can come back to it later and try to fix it when you're ready.
Chuck D. Bones
Circuit Wizard
You might want to start with something simple until your solder skills improve. It takes a lot of abuse to lift the pads on these boards. I recommend you check out some youtube videos on how to solder & desolder parts. What kind of soldering iron are you using?
