Anyone have a schematic for the Walco Signal Booster?

[italianguy63]

Thank you Harry--

It will be a little while until I can get back to this.  Busy week and lots of medical tests.  I will probably see if I can source new switches.  I have a surplus house that may have exact replacements.  I will probably just go ahead and replace the electo's out of GP.  It seems I still have a bad contact issue, because at times it would make a horrible racket  (crackle/machine gun popping)  and oscillate if moved a certain way.  But, it was hard to tell because I am trying not to remove it from the enclose while trying not to let it short out..  I will fire it up and check the voltages eventually.

MC

[italianguy63]

I picked up matching electro's and even found (2) NOS 2SC828's today.  A handful of 2P2T sliders I can sub in if I have to.  I think I can make them work....

So, maybe this weekend I will fool with this and try to refloat all the connections.  I think I have a bad solder joint based on the racket it makes when I move it.

[Harry]

Nice, it's as simple as it gets shouldn't be too hard a debug. I'd pull the entire circuit from the enclosure during testing to minimize the chance of something shorting out. Before you start pulling components check for solder bridges. Up close visual inspection at least or more thoroughly probe all the joints for continuity. Some of the solder globs in your picture look a bit sloppy (switch pins especially).

Btw, I threw a volume pot at the end of it so I could crank it without driving my amp and it definitely distorts on it's own. Mine gets pretty gritty. Led clippers smoothed the jagged ends nicely sort of like boost/overdrive/distortion at the twist of a dial, but I suppose take away from some of the down and dirty Walco charm.

[italianguy63]

OK -- There I fixed it!  (Perrow)

At least I think I did.  What a miserable little thing.

Ended up cleaning the switches, replacing the caps and tranny, and 90% of the wiring.  The wiring was just so brittle... it would break if you touched it.  Probably the initial problem actually.

It passes minimal signal either direction in "bypass."  in "On" it is pretty much ON.

Lots of boost, and the more you crank it the more distorted and uglier it gets.  It has tons of boost.  It tames down quickly if you trim down the guitar volume knob.

MC

[Harry]

Cool, glad you got yours working. Not a bad little circuit for what it is imo.

[italianguy63]

It is certainly "interesting."  Simple.  Useful too, if tuned in...  But, it is sure brute force method.