Buzzaround build....

[PorkyPrimeCut]

I got round to wiring this up. All that's left is for the transistor to be systematically plugged in & tested.
Also, you can see a little metal 50k trimpot I switched out for the 24k resistor. That should be great for tweaking the fuzz...



I don't even know if the wiring's working yet & am expecting something to be out of place or shorting.
What started as quite a neat & tidy job ended up getting pretty tricky, particularly underneath the PCB where the jumpers are.
Still, overall I'm really pleased with how it's going.

[PorkyPrimeCut]

I put the 2N404s in & switched it on, unplugged. No beans!...



Am I right in thinking (hoping & praying) that the jacks need to be in place to activate the pedal?

I hope so!

[mcknib]

In and out jacks?  if it's a battery you'd need a jack in the in socket to power it if you're just checking the LED goes on I'm not following what you mean

[digi2t]

Maybe it's my eyesight that's failing, but it looks like the jack wiring might be off where it comes to power switching. Here's a PNP diagram of the connections. As for your input/output shields, connect them to the ground tab (sleeve) of their respective jack.

[PorkyPrimeCut]

Would you mind double-checking this diagram?



Mistakes I could've made.....

1. I used 2 stereo jacks instead of a mono & stereo (don't ask, I was just impatient, waiting for the monos to arrive in the post).
2. I could well have wired the LED back to front. It's the one thing I completely forgot to check! Doh!!

I found the added addition of soldering the grey wire shielding a real bind in this build. Quite confusing.

Thanks guys.

[LightSoundGeometry]

loving the old school crystal diode I am;

[PorkyPrimeCut]

loving the old school crystal diode I am;

Me too

OK, I might've found what could be wrong. My original drawn up diagram, taken from this one, might've got the ring, tip & sleeve positions wrong (I'm using Switchcraft sockets, not the plastic encased ones.

I'm guessing it'd be ring, sleeve the tip, from top to bottom?

EDIT - Hang about. I think the diagrams' right! *scratches head*

[mcknib]

Stick a jack in them and follow them round to their solder lugs you'll see the ring smaller connector that touches the jack sleeve and tip longest connector to jack tip with your shielded cable you only need to ground one side for each one not both sides not that that would make it not work - tip to ring and visa versa obviously would with no signal input and output to and from the circuit

[digi2t]

[PorkyPrimeCut]

I've reached the point where I'm pretty sure I know the whole sleeve, ring, tip deal. It took me a while but the penny has finally dropped.

I had another poke around this morning & have found a loose contact. Fortunately it's in an easy to reach spot. Wish me luck!....

[PorkyPrimeCut]

I never did post the final, finished pics of this....



I had problems with the original shielded circuit. I even took it round to a friend who's way more knowledgable when it comes to electronics & he couldn't sniff out the problem either. So, in the end he re-drew the circuit, minus shielded wire...



I'd ditched the stupidly expensive but very unwhelming NKT213s by now anyway so it wasn't going to be a replica, as I'd originally intended. In the end it was a handpicked set of AC125s that were head over heels above any other combination I'd tried. Of course, they were the cheapest too.

Anyway, for those interested, here's the revised circuit...

[digi2t]

In the end it was a handpicked set of AC125s that were head over heels above any other combination I'd tried. Of course, they were the cheapest too.

Mr. Murphy strikes again! 

Looks AMAZING!! Love the dial faces. I'd fancy a video, if you could swing it.  Would love to hear that thing rip. 

[PorkyPrimeCut]

I've posted it off to a friend who's an absolute wizard on guitar (lead guitarist in Wolf People) and I'm hoping he'll at least send me some sound clips.

Question - I remember when I first played a friends Buzzaround clone, the left knob basically cut the signal completely when dialled down to zero. I've since read about this on other build threads.

With this build the middle knob seems to do the same. Is this normal?

[digi2t]

If you're talking about the Timbre knob, I found that increasing the 10K resistor below the pot to ground to 39K-43K seems to work better. On the last layout you posted, it would be the first 10K on the left.