Build Your Own Clone Message Board

A few months ago a built a LS, and couldn't get anything useful out of it. It dropped a lot of notes when I played fast, and the trailing end of the note always ended with "chatter". Last night I pulled it out of the junk box and changed from the K30 transitor to the 5457, and it now seems a lot better behaved, the "chatter" is just about gone and I can get useful subtle volume swell settings. It did need careful adjustment of the trimpot, though their is now a fair volume loss at maximum sustain; it seems to work better with an output booster in front, or, I suppose, hot pickups.

Is there any mod that will swtich off or reduce the noise gate at the maximum sustain setting? Mine still has a very substantial gate effect at minimum (anticlockwise) attack and maximum (clockwise) sustain.

Thanks.

That does not sound like your LS is behaving correctly. Could you post some pictures of the front and back of the board as well as all the outboard connections (jacks, pots, etc.)? Please make them close up and sharp or they may not help to spot an error...

Mike

*EDIT* There is another misunderstanding in your email: the pots are SENSITIVITY and ATTACK. The SENS knob is used to tune how the pedal reacts to your signal and will be different for each guitar/pickup type. The ATTACK knob controls how long the swell up will be. The SENS knob also has an effect on how much sustain you will get (which may have caused the confusion). I would try the SENS knob at 9 o'clock and work from there to readjust the trim pot (with ATTACK fully clockwise). BTW, I much prefer the 5457 over the JFET.

It's usually a little fiddly to get the SENS knob correct for your setup, but once it's set it should work nicely: http://www.pantanosoftware.com/Music/SprocketDemo1.mp3 The first part is with a cap that slows the swell, the second is with the stock cap. I prefer stock, as the pedal is more responsive to my style that way.

Thanks Mike. I've taken some pics, so how do I post them? I can always put them on my Flickr page with a link.

The LS is behaving well now, like an autowah with volume instead of frequency band pass. I've no idea what was wrong before, maybe a short circuit or bad solder joint, and I'm tempted to try the K30 again. The hookup wire that came with this kit was very brittle and I have had more or less continuous problems with breakages when I move the pcb - that could also have had something to do with it I guess.

The transistor mounting looks a little odd in the pics, I messed with it so much, I eventually connected it to the pcb via some snap-off sockets (don't know their correct name) and short lengths of wire, then wrapped it in insulating tape. The other thing you will see is that I didn't use the extra eyelet for the K30 - I missed that instruction until after I had installed it with crossed wires.

I figured out how the knobs work more or less, and sensitivity is behaving like a noise gate on mine. When you have it at, say, 9 o'clock, there is no signal (eg noise or note) passing at all until you apply a comparatively big signal. In fact, there is nothing passing at all on mine when the knob is fully anticlockwise, silence, even from a strongly boosted signal, until it gets to about 8 o'clock. As you turn it clockwise the amount of signal required to open the noise gate decreases. Two things I wondered about though, 1) the gate cut-off is very sudden as the signal decays and might chatter or tremelo, and 2) even with the sensitivity fully clockwise the gate is still operating. - There is no noise and, depending on the strength of the signal, there might still be a perceptable sharp cutoff in the decaying not.

Cheers.