Build Your Own Clone Message Board

Hey Guys,
I have built my first clone, it's the mighty mouse and after just one session of soldering and building this pedal works perfectly! I couldn't believe my ears when I plugged it in.
Could I get some help with a couple issues?

1. When I turn up the tone, volume, dist pots I get a hum that gets louder, it is similar to other pedals I have but noticeably louder than other pedals I have. It settles right down to almost nothing when pots all set at 12 o'clock. But at a good volume that competes with the clean sound of amp it is too noisy, any thing I can do to quieten it down?

2. The general tone is a little dull until tone knob turned right up. The tone/filter only really comes to life at the 3 o'clock and further setting. I'd like to get more treble out of the tone knob earlier as it gets a little fizzy when turned all the way up. Can I replace tone pot with a different rating? Any suggestions?

3. The volume knob needs to be at 4 o'clock or more to compete with the clean signal of the amp. Is there a pot change I can do to get some more headroom?

Thanks in advance for your help

Your point #3 indicates that there is a problem in the build somewhere, and that may be causing the excessive hum as well. Unity gain on the pedal should be achieved before 12 noon (50%) on the volume control. Might be something as simple as a resistor misplacement. Would suggest that you post photos as described here: viewtopic.php?f=50&t=6405

Re: #2, try switching the wires between the first and third lugs on the tone pot. This will cause the pot to work like the vintage Rat Filter control, which takes treble off in the clockwise direction. It will also make the pot sweep more useable, because it's a log taper pot.

Thanks for the quick reply, what wires do i need to change on the tone pot to do as yoou have suggested? also would a different ohm pot sound different? I'm new to this stuff, but very interested.

here are photos, i should have started with that!

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/8419592/IMG_2303.jpg
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/8419592/IMG_2315.JPG
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/8419592/IMG_2323.jpg
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/8419592/IMG_2320.jpg

please let me know if you need more pics

Just checking - does this hum go away when you turn your guitar volume knob down? If so the hum is being picked up by the guitar and amplified by the pedal, so the pedal is not at fault.

If you know this already I apologise for stating the obvious, but all distortion pedals boost the gain, some more than others. Any hum that is being picked up by the guitar will be boosted by a distortion pedal.

If the hum originates in the pedal it is probably a grounding problem. Does the case of the pedal have a good connection to the circuit ground? The input and output jacks aren't being insulated from the case by a paint layer on the inside of the case?

Just switch the wire connections between the two outside lugs on the tone pot. No need for a different resistance pot. The issue is the logarithmic taper of the A100K pot--works much better the other way in this particular application.

I don't see anything wrong with the build. Double check all your cap ratings, which I can't see and am unable to confirm. If they're all correct, try just going through all the solder joints on the PCB with a hot iron and re-flow each joint. This simple technique often fixes such problems and only takes a few minutes.

One idea on the hum--the output jack grounds back to the input jack through the metal enclosure. Consequently, the ground wire between the output jack sleeve and the PCB is redundant, and can even potentially cause noise by creating a ground loop. I recommend removing it.

Thanks guys. Your heaps helpful, I'll try these things out tonight.

With the reflow thing (I'm new to soldering) I just hold the iron on the joint and feed some more solder? Is is possible to burn out any resisters or caps etc. if I hold the iron on too long.

By the way, did you guys like my mighty mouse decal? And paint job? This project was super fun! Any recommendations on other good pedals to build? The od2 sounds fairly versatile.

hey pete, hope you get your issue worked out.

The OD2 is a killer pedal. probably the best screamer-style OD out there. and a fun build with lots of options! you can't go wrong.

Unless you find that a particular solder joint doesn't have enough solder to form a nice, conical joint, it's not usually necessary to apply more solder. Just "tin" your iron tip with a bit of fresh solder (this greatly improves heat transfer efficiency) and then touch it to the joint until the solder re-melts--generally takes only a second or two--and hold it there for maybe another couple of seconds. You won't damage anything as long as you keep the duration of contact in this range of just a few seconds. What this does is to improve the contact between the solder and the substrates in cases where the original joint integrity was low (a.k.a. a "cold" joint). As you gain more experience with soldering, these cold joints becomes less and less common, but for novices, poor joint quality is often the cause of issues such as the one you describe.

The OD2 is an outstanding pedal--great flexibility. The FET PreAmp is another personal favorite. And (practically) every guitar player needs a good fuzz pedal, of which BYOC offers several.

And I would recommend the 5-knob compressor, and also second the FET recommendation

The Envelope Filter gets my vote. Great range of sounds and it is very touch sensitive.