Sovtek Small Stone issue - Pot crackles, not phasing, and more...

Started by ghostsauce, May 22, 2013, 11:34:45 AM

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ghostsauce

It's the black russian - http://www.beavisaudio.com/gg/images/EHX_SmallStoneRussian_1.jpg

Ok so it had been working for me for a good long while and then all of a sudden the issue started. Bypassed it works fine (:D), but when you engage it the volume just drops a little (normal). No phasing though.. and then when you turn the pot, for the first half of the pot's travel it is just a dry guitar tone, and as you crank the knob up beyond the 1/2-way point the volume drops out completely and you get cracking while turning. Somewhere before the volume's completely gone you can hear the phasing effect which sounds distorted but otherwise normal, and it can be controlled a little with the knob.  Please help.. Soviet Russia was a terrible place to grow up and I'd just like to see that it lives out its' days in peace.

Things I've done to try and fix it that were no help whatsoever:
- Clean pot and switch
- Replace pot
- Replace the Electrolytic caps (33uf, 33uf, 10uf, 100uf)
- Test continuity for all the wires. What a pain, am now cross-eyed, but they're fine.
- Reflow any solder joints that look remotely suspicious

ghostsauce

I should mention that I don't love it enough to buy new ICs for it without knowing one or all are bad beforehand. Would love to test em' though if I knew how.. They're CA3094's and pretty expensive imho.

ghostsauce


Scruffie


ghostsauce

Awesome, ok. I'll set aside some time tomorrow to do this.