Cold Medicine - a cautionary tale...

[tracer03]

So, I've home with a bug of some kind, and after a day of absolute sloth, I decided that I would do a bit of building while I convalesce. I've been taking 1 Advil Cold and Sinus pill to help with the aches and the runny nose - the kind they keep behind the counter cause it's got 'The Good Medicine' in it - but today it just wasn't doing the trick, so I popped two.

After breakfast, I started to feel a bit better, so I fired up the iron to box up the EQD Bellows I finished last week.

(aside) When I was marking and drilling the enclosure, I was also under the influence of cold medicine, so despite my best efforts at measuring, confirming, and measuring again before drilling, I ended up with the LED hole a bit askew...



No matter, thought I: it's going to be for me so my OCD shouldn't suffer TOO badly. (end aside)

So, my iron gets hot, and I wire the switch for bypass, get the power wired, LED and pots installed and connections shrink wrapped, install the jacks, and then wire the board in. Pretty impressed with myself: probably the smoothest 1590B build boxing that I've ever done. Pull out the practice amp, plug in the wall wart, and fire it up.

Immense hiss and static scream out of my amp. I quickly click the effect off, and I get no dry signal. Which confuses me to no end: I hooked it up to my test rig and everything worked great: no noise or hiss, sounded just like the demo. After a couple of minutes of disbelief, I unplug everything and look inside.
Power's wired correctly.
Switch is wired correctly for bypass.
All the joints are solid, nothing seems to be loose.
The jacks are wired correctly - ground to the tips and signal to the ring WAITAMINUTE...

....derp.

So, a couple of quick solder swaps, and everything else should be right. Right?

Plug it in, turn on amp, press that magic button AND....the LED lights, then goes out. I still have dry signal, and I turn up the effect....yep, it's working.

Unplug, look in enclosure...yep, forgot the CLR.

Pull the LED, replace it, add CLR, resolder, re-heat shrink, reassemble, turn on amp...this time, no wet signal.

It took me a minute, but then I realized I hadn't plugged the wall wart back into the effect...

So, kids, let that be a lesson to ya: cold medicine and effect building don't mix.

[Frank_NH]

Ha!  Hope you feel better soon, but I can relate to those effects that seem to fight you every step of the way and do everything in their power not to work properly... grrrr

[BetterOffShred]

Dude.. cold medicine makes you stupid.  I'm convinced of it. I was always affraid when I had to take tests in college when I was on it. I'm sure the actual sick part doesn't help, but something in the cold medicine or some combination.. makes me stupid as hell for a few hours.   It's a Thing!


Sorry man, at least you'll have a good story hehe