Has anyone built the "Solo Pro"???? hmmmmmm

[mikemaddux]

http://www.diyguitarist.com/PDF_Files/SoloPro.pdf

I tried my hand at this...  Wondering if someone could help me with the bugs...

should both pots be grouded together, if so should they ground to the back of a pot, or just connected together and wrapped in tape?

I wired it with the grounds together from the pots, but no signal change when the button is pressed...

I wired it with the grounds from the pots connected to the grounds from the jacks, and I get no sound when the button is pressed

I tried connecting my grounds from my pots together and then connected it to the back of a jack and I got a really really low signal, then I hit the toggle and get a normal clean signal...

Is this layout even right?

[cheeb]

It works. I've built a couple of these from that layout. The pot on the bottom is shown wired backwards on the layout though.

Are you using a dpdt or a 3pdt with LED?

[mikemaddux]

DPDT

[cheeb]

Flip-flop the outer wires on the pot on the bottom of the layout and see if that cures it. First one I did, I wired the ground from one pot to the input jack the the ground from the other pot to the output jack. It all grounds together through the chassis anyway if it's in an aluminum enclosure.

[mikemaddux]

Ill try it tonight, thanks Cheeb.

If anyone has completed this pedal (with dpdt and no LED), would you mind posting a pic of the inside of the box?

Ill let you know how it turns out

[sasuke_kun12]

I built it. 3PDT and no LED. Was a bit lazy there with no LED. With the solo pro, you need the LED to tell you which channel you're on. When I used it, sometimes I had no idea which channel I was on and it was pretty frustrating and funny at the time. (imagine you've just set up and your just about to play and when you do, you're the channel on the loudest and make about 50 people jump with fright)

[mikemaddux]

OK, I still cant get this one, I tried reversing the wires on the "bottom" pot (which are obviously backwards).

I tried to ground the lugs from the pots to the jacks but that didnt work for me either.

since this is a passive effect, I really cant understand why this isnt working....

Can someone tell me exactly how to hook up the ground wires from the pots and jacks? And is anything grounded to the back of the pots?

Thanks,
Mike

[cheeb]

Can you post a picture of what you've got? That would help a lot.
You just need a wire going from the lug on the pot to be grounded to the ring of one of the jacks in order to ground it. Have you verified that you're connecting to the correct part of the jack?

[mikemaddux]

Heres what Ive got













Ive got all the ground wires disconnected.
You can see where my jacks are - hot to middle lugs of DPDT switch - ground in the air right now
the pots look correct to me - the ground wires are in the air, they are not connected to anything right now

(the angle makes the ground wires look like they are connected to the backs of the pots, but they arent)

[ianmgull]

Looks like you're just about there. You really don't have to ground to the back of the pot. Just make sure all of your grounds touch one another. You've got two grounds from the pots, and two grounds from your jacks, as long as they all connect you shouldn't have a problem.

Also, it's kind of hard to tell from the pics, but it looks like on the left pot you've got the cap in series with the pot where on the schem it's supposed to be in parallel with lugs 3 and 2. I may be wrong on this one but that's what I gathered from the pics. good luck!

Ian

[Paul Marossy]

It works. I've built a couple of these from that layout. The pot on the bottom is shown wired backwards on the layout though.

Are you using a dpdt or a 3pdt with LED?

Oops... I drew that layout with AutoCAD, mirrored one half of the circuit when I was done drawing it. Forgot to fix that...

I built it. 3PDT and no LED. Was a bit lazy there with no LED. With the solo pro, you need the LED to tell you which channel you're on. When I used it, sometimes I had no idea which channel I was on and it was pretty frustrating and funny at the time. (imagine you've just set up and your just about to play and when you do, you're the channel on the loudest and make about 50 people jump with fright)

And that's why I included an LED. 

Anyhow, glad you guys got some use out of that gizmo. 

[Ben N]

Sorry I'm late to the party, but I'm a bit mystified: why use two pots--why not just have one side be a straight bypass?

[Paul Marossy]

Sorry I'm late to the party, but I'm a bit mystified: why use two pots--why not just have one side be a straight bypass?

Good point, that could be done as well. I guess I did that because I use a volume control box at the end of my signal chain to set the final volume to the amp and it was in line with my personal preferences...

[mikemaddux]

Also, it's kind of hard to tell from the pics, but it looks like on the left pot you've got the cap in series with the pot where on the schem it's supposed to be in parallel with lugs 3 and 2. I may be wrong on this one but that's what I gathered from the pics. good luck!

Ian

OMG - I think you are right....ill try it out and post the results, thanks Ian!

Anyhow, glad you guys got some use out of that gizmo. 

Thanks Paul!  Great Idea!

[mikemaddux]

Ian, you were right, the cap was in series.  Bad wire color coding job...

Sometime it takes a second set of eyes, ya know?

Thanks again everyone, on to another project!!!!