Voltage of Q3 for Tone Bender

[eskimoquinn]

I am building this tone bender circuit and for some reason, the voltage of the collector of Q3 is 4.5v. http://www.diyguitarpedals.com.au/shop/boms/Hydra_fuzz_schem.pdf This is the second one of this exact circuit I have built and the voltage on the other is 2v. The latter one sounds and works great. The other sounds spitty at any volume below max volume on my guitar. I have went over each component and both pedals have the exact same parts. I am wondering how to trouble shoot this. I built an audio trouble shooter and things sound great until Q3. I changed the diode, but I am still having the same problem. Any hints on this? I have also put a 50k trim pot on Q3, where there is normally a 18k resistor and I am still having the same problem. Is this definitely a problem of resistors? I have basically replaced all the components near Q3 and nothing seems to be fixing the problem.

Also I tried the transistors from the working pedal and the exact same thing happens even with known good transistors. Any ideas appreciated.

http://www.diyguitarpedals.com.au/shop/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=1&products_id=233
http://www.diyguitarpedals.com.au/shop/boms/Hydrafuzz.pdf

[PRR]

If the transistor is dead (or not really connected!), the collector will sit 4.5V because of the R7 R9 divider.