Nasty Tube Screamer Distortion

[ethniccheese]

I successfully built a Tube Screamer a few months ago, however recently it started randomly making a hideous distorted sound.  It was about 10 times louder than the (very nice) distortion expected from the box.  It started making the sound when I would play pretty hard, however the distortion started occurring at increasingly random times.  I play the bass through the unit and my bass runs hotter than most (It's passive too).  I'm wondering if it could be a bad input cap???  Or maybe a bad transistor or even the IC?

Any suggestions???

[Mark Hammer]

Start by cleaning the pots, and we'll take it from there.