Hand built pedal problem: disconnected wire

lukedlb

A local built a pedal for a friend using nos components p2p. He built me a small version. It’s a mess inside with all the bits on top of each other and wires everywhere. It’s his take on a jtm45 pedal and it sounds great. Noisy but sounds great. 
However, the soldering isn’t great so a cable has lost its home and there is no way of identifying where it goes. There’s a chance it might have gone to a pot though. 
Is there any risk of damage to the pedal if I just try tapping the disconnected wire tip against different points? It runs on 9v. 

stickyfiddle

Any pictures? 

I don't think that's likely to fry anything, but if we know what the other end is connected to it would be much easier to work out where it should go. 

I'd also be surprised if there isn't an obvious terminal somewhere with a blob of solder but no wire attached.

steer

Does the pedal still work?

Sassafras

Ask the chap who built it?

lukedlb

Sassafras said:

Ask the chap who built it?

The chap who took almost a year to fix all my repairs and build a pedal, only to find half of it wasn’t done...
lets just say that bridge has burnt a long time ago. 
I’m going to a new tech this weekend, who builds amps and has a proper shop. I just thought to give it a try before taking it to him, especially if it’s a simple fix. 

stickyfiddle

lukedlb said:

Sassafras said:

Ask the chap who built it?

The chap who took almost a year to fix all my repairs and build a pedal, only to find half of it wasn’t done...
lets just say that bridge has burnt a long time ago. 
I’m going to a new tech this weekend, who builds amps and has a proper shop. I just thought to give it a try before taking it to him, especially if it’s a simple fix. 

If it’s genuinely one wire loose it’s defiantly a simple fix. Pics please!

lukedlb

stickyfiddle said:

lukedlb said:

Sassafras said:

Ask the chap who built it?

The chap who took almost a year to fix all my repairs and build a pedal, only to find half of it wasn’t done...
lets just say that bridge has burnt a long time ago. 
I’m going to a new tech this weekend, who builds amps and has a proper shop. I just thought to give it a try before taking it to him, especially if it’s a simple fix. 

If it’s genuinely one wire loose it’s defiantly a simple fix. Pics please!

Get ready for a shock:

lukedlb

https://imgur.com/gallery/nJqpHwn

lukedlb

The pot on the left has a small wire going nowhere. Could it be that? The tech taped together a lot of the wires, as you can see. 

stickyfiddle

lukedlb said:

The pot on the left has a small wire going nowhere. Could it be that? The tech taped together a lot of the wires, as you can see. 

Yikes, quite the rat's nest! 

It's quite possibly that wire, thought I'm not sure how that would happen with the insulation staying attached to the pot but the wire from the board being detached. 

But it would be the first thing I'd check - just connecting the loose wire directly to the applicable pot terminal should tell you if it's the culprit

Adam_MD

Wow the parts are decent but the build quality is abysmal. 

ThePrettyDamned

That's not even p2p is it? Pretty awful build... Long live the superior pcb. 

Can you get pics further in?

Edit: just saw the rest! I think it's that wire, although god knows how! 

lukedlb

ThePrettyDamned said:

That's not even p2p is it? Pretty awful build... Long live the superior pcb. 

Can you get pics further in?

Edit: just saw the rest! I think it's that wire, although god knows how! 

The first one he built for a mate, which took months and months, was built on a turret board p2p in an old cigar box with a big old red lamp and all parts from old Marshalls. A big noisy gain knob as you turn it. But an incredible full throaty body. 
I heard a smaller one was being built for a local pro so I quickly requested the next one. We both expected a similar build except in a smaller enclosure, not a breadboard, and certainly not that mess of wires hastily taped together. 
Anyway, it sounded comparable to the original. I would’ve preferred an even smaller enclosure judging by the waste of space. 
I leant the pedal to a mate and asked him to see if there’s any chance of eliminating the lengths of wire. Tbh I’m not even sure if he took a look inside as the kid is even busier than I. However, he might have accidentally disconnected a wire while looking around. Or not. Rather than embarrass him or myself, I chose not to mention it once I got it back. 
So, there’s no chance of going back to the original builder and amate might have accidentally disconnected it. Hell, I might have done it myself before giving it to him and he was too embarrassed to mention it. Anyway, I just wanted to explain why and how this disconnect occurred. 
I’ll try reconnecting it tomorrow. 

lukedlb

Adam_MD said:

Wow the parts are decent but the build quality is abysmal. 

Those Ducati parts are local, I expect. They’re pretty nice, eh?

ICBM

Try connecting it to the end of the large yellow cap nearest the corner of the board.

Why? Because there is nothing else that end of the cap is connected to.

What an absolute mess. Almost everything that's possible to be wrong with a pedal is wrong with it, apart from being gooped or wrapped in sticky electrical tape, which at least is a blessing...

danishbacon

It's esoteric for sure

lukedlb

Breadboard in daylight:
https://imgur.com/gallery/HthsoQM

lukedlb

The pedal turns on. Bypass is good. Volume good. Tone good. Meaning the his can be amplified and eq’d. 
The problem is the gain pot with no effect on the signal. 
The yellow cap follows the blue cap but goes nowhere. Part of the eq? Touching the gain wire to it does nothing. Same when touching the volume pot terminal. 

lukedlb

I found a contact! The very bottom left corner with the black transistors. Need some tape to test. Soldering iron at the ready. Proceed?

lukedlb

Soldered it on. Works but the hiss remains. 

ICBM

lukedlb said:

The yellow cap follows the blue cap but goes nowhere. Part of the eq?

Decoy component?

That's a new one even by the standards of abysmal pedal builds...!