was this the Topic: Help needed for "w" taper pot ? I could see that being it but the pot i used was used for a tone pot in a BOSS SD-1. i also used a known working pot from my first build i robbed from a broke TS-9 and it also was used as a tone pot. i did notice today with my first build  that the tone control on it doesn't seem to alter the sound until half way (12 o'clock). now past that point it is a noticeable change but it doesn't have the volume loss that my second one does when the tone control is turned down.

was this the Topic: Help needed for "w" taper pot ? i could see that being it but the pot i used was used for a tone pot in a BOSS SD-1. i also used a known working pot from my first build i robbed from a broke TS-9 and it also was used as a tone pot. i did notice today with my first build  that the tone control on it doesn't seem to alter the sound until half way (12 o'clock). now past that point it is a noticeable change but it doesn't have the volume loss that my second one does when the tone control is turned down.

if the value is 20k, then the taper of the pot makes no difference in relation to the problem you are experiencing. the taper is merely the "rate" at which the pot turns from 0ohms to 20kohms. in fact, the "W" taper pot is the closest taper you can get to achieve the smoothest transition from lows to highs on a TS-9 style tone control.

i odnt know if anyone mentioned it, but check the polarity of that Tantalum cap in the tone section. i do believe those are polarized.

that was what i was thinking , I'm heading out to radioshack now to grab 2 new .22 tant. the ones I'm using came off the TS-9 maxon board. I'm thinking that maybe I fried one while i was removing it or its not the right voltage or something. Could the Tantalum cap in the tone section be bad or backwards in polarity and it still let the effect work and only affect the tone control? Also i used a chip socket on this one my first one i mounted the chip directly to the board. could the socket be the problem?

well i just finished switching the .22uf tant.  out with new .22uf  non-polarized polys. and still the same thing. could the board be bad or maybe the chip socket? what else could it be?

its pretty rare that a socket is the problem, unless its an old socket and the tongs have lost their "grip" to the IC pins. but thats very rare in my experience.

but damn. there's not much left to check. you mentioned you swapped out the tant. cap... check the value of the resistor going from the tant cap to ground. if memory serves it should be like 220 ohms.

in the most basic sense, tone controls are in themselves "volume" controls, in the sense that they raise and lower the volume of frequencies above a certain point, and you set that point, or "corner", with the location of the tone pot wiper. as you turn the tone pot to the "lows" side the corner frequency gets lower, thus "turning down" all the freqs above that corner. and when you turn the tone knob to "highs" the corner frequency increases, thus only reducing the volume of freqs above that new higher freq corner. soooooooo, if youre tone pot is acting like a volume control across ALL FREQUENCIES, then there is a likely failure in the circuitry that creates the "corner frequency". in the TS9 tone circuit, the 0.22uF tant cap and the 220 ohm resistor are what set this corner freq, which is why i keep thikning it's in there somewhere.....

figured it out!!! it was a bad 1k resistor in the path of lug one of the tone pot. man this second one just about kicked my ass. my first one,i debugged in about five days. thanks for all the help guys. all ya'all rock!
i think I'm going to do a booster for my third one, maybe that cream pie Ive been reading about. sooner or later i want to build that professor tweed off of runoff groove, the sound clip i heard of it was unreal its SO round sounding and full. has anybody out there built this pedal yet?

congratulations!
my modded SD1 has the same situation like your ts808.
when tone pot under 12oclock it reduces volume alot even the level is all the way up
however i always set it at mid so never be a problem.