Tear Jerker Wah Acting as volume pedal

[Colinblakely]

Hi All,
I’m hoping there might be someone who can provide some suggestions for me. I recently finished a Tear Jerker build, and rather than sweeping it is just losing volume. In the toe position it acts as it should- lots of treble, and the dip switches incrementally darken the tone. When I go to heel position, I loose signal all together. From my admittedly very basic knowledge of schematics, C4 or C14 seemed like possible issues, so I replaced them both to no effect. Can someone who understands the signal path better than I help me narrow down where I should look for issues? Two photos of the build in case they help:



On a separate note, I am really enjoying using the PedalPCB boards. I’ve done builds from 5 or 6 other board manufacturers, and these are far and away the best designed of any I have used. Here is a recent Kliche Overdrive build:


Thanks in advance for any assistance!
-Colin

 

[Robert]

Which color wire is connected to the "SL" terminal of the treadle pot? It's hard to tell from the photo, but the green wire should be connected to the "SL" terminal.

Also, make sure no stray wire strands are shorting between wires where the pot connects to the PCB.

 

[Colinblakely]

Thanks for the response. So the pot wiring was definitely wrong which would explain the problem. I swapped out red and green, but now moving the pot has no effect at all on the sound. I’ve tried two different inductors. Any ideas would be appreciated! Here is a close up of the current pot wiring:

thanks!
Colin

 

[Chuck D. Bones]

Stop replacing parts until you know where the problem lies.
Turn on DIP sw #6 and only that one while troubleshooting. Set all of the trimpots to noon. That will provide more-or-less the same sweep as a stock Cry Baby.
Have you performed a detailed visual inspection of the board? All of the solder joints good? Correct component values? No shorts?

 

[Colinblakely]

Thanks for the assistance. I've looked closely at the board and at least to my eyes all joints look good with no shorts. I've also tested the pot to make sure it is behaving as expected.
-Colin

 

[Chuck D. Bones]

In the vast majority of cases, the root cause is workmanship. Not trying to insult you or anything, it's just reality. Keep looking, you'll find it.

Every place where you have stranded wire soldered to the board, pot or switches, look for loose strands that might be shorting to something.