Nick's Tone Bender is broken -- please help!

[2guests]

What happens when you use two different cables?

[Nick]

I measured the caps using my LCR meter and they're all still reasonably close to the listed value. The Hunts caps are unsurprisingly pretty drifted, but they're drifted up rather than down, and still aren't wildly out.
Some of the solder joints do look duller than others, to my untrained eye. Is there a way of testing to see whether they're going cold or not? Pedal still seems to be behaving itself today, but I bet that as soon as I screw it all back together, it'll fuck up again...

Sounds like it's needs some Aberdeen air.

Once you learn how to fix pedals, then you'll be inundated with my broken shit (just ask Laundromat, Stu or Dave)

[resynthesis]

Long shot but...

There's no mechanical pressure on the caps is there? It can change capacitance.

[Nick]

Long shot but...

There's no mechanical pressure on the caps is there? It can change capacitance.

That's a good idea! I think there's enough clearance for the board that the wiring doesn't get in the way, particularly because at some point the jack sockets were rotated upside down, so that the wiring is even further away from the board. I just tested the pedal while applying some gentle pressure to the caps, to simulate wiring straining it, but I didn't detect any change in the sound. When the pedal was in its 'shit-sounding' mode, it was a very consistently-shit sounding sound, i.e. there weren't varying degrees of shittiness, if that makes sense.



You got me thinking though -- when the pedal is fastened together, the wiring from the jack sockets would have been in contact with the battery itself, and simply lifting the case slightly would have caused that 'harness' to shift. I just tried to put the battery in contact with the wire in various ways, and didn't hear any changes, but could it be conceivable that the insulated wire from the output socket (which also switches the battery) coming into contact with the battery terminals, could cause this kind of instability?

[HorseyBoy]

Admit it - the detective work is half the fun:-)

[Nick]

Admit it - the detective work is half the fun:-)

While the detective work sure is great fun, the actual poking around inside is still way too scary...

That said, I am getting slightly more confident as the years go on, although the track side of the PCB in my Shaftesbury Duo Fuzz begs to differ

[peps1]

I measured the caps using my LCR meter and they're all still reasonably close to the listed value. The Hunts caps are unsurprisingly pretty drifted, but they're drifted up rather than down, and still aren't wildly out.

I'm going to assume you took those measurements in circuits rather than removing the caps, so parallel capacitance and resistances will throw off those values, then you have the fun of the LCR or even a ESR AC signal being enough to trigger semiconductors and throw the measurement off.

I don't even trust my PEAK ESR meter in circuit, though it tends to be right regards the ESR if not the capacitance.

Buuuuut.....I don't think that is the issue. If it's not a cold solder that usually presents itself with a board wobble and light wire shake, then my first inclination would be something is shorting internally. First thing I would be to grab some electrical tape and cover the metal on the jacks and the battery clip and see if the pedal starts behaving.

[Doc Holliday]

I measured the caps using my LCR meter and they're all still reasonably close to the listed value. The Hunts caps are unsurprisingly pretty drifted, but they're drifted up rather than down, and still aren't wildly out.

I'm going to assume you took those measurements in circuits rather than removing the caps, so parallel capacitance and resistances will throw off those values, then you have the fun of the LCR or even a ESR AC signal being enough to trigger semiconductors and throw the measurement off.

I don't even trust my PEAK ESR meter in circuit, though it tends to be right regards the ESR if not the capacitance.

Buuuuut.....I don't think that is the issue. If it's not a cold solder that usually presents itself with a board wobble and light wire shake, then my first inclination would be something is shorting internally. First thing I would be to grab some electrical tape and cover the metal on the jacks and the battery clip and see if the pedal starts behaving.

Good call

[simonm]

the ground connection on the switch with all those loose strands looks dodgy to me - 'course it could be the connection inside the switch also - no experience with Arrow wafers but old Carling switches can cause errattic problems in Fuzztones...

[2guests]

Try turning the battery so it lays on the flat side instead of the tall side.