Low level, low drive, choppy tone...

[tonecut]

Man, I'm on a run of failures lately. Not sure what may be going on, maybe the 1uf caps I'm using (the huge ass ones) are bad to use?

I'm building a TS-808 (http://tagboardeffects.blogspot.com/2012/02/ibanez-ts808.html) and the level is pretty low, the drive is lower than it should be, and the tone seems to not sweep well (it stays the same and then suddenly changes by a large amount at once).

Any ideas?

Here are front and back pics...
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/53253742/IMG_0437.JPG
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/53253742/IMG_0434.JPG

Any help would be much appreciated. Not sure what my deal is lately with busted builds.

[toddvirgil]

Hey man, your dropbox links are dead...

[tonecut]

They're pulling up for other folks. You sure?

[induction]

They work for me.

Is there a solder bridge between columns 4 and 5 from the left, 2nd row from the bottom on your 2nd picture?

[tonecut]

Saw that myself, I'll check when I get home. Thanks for the additional pair of eyes.
Thoughts on the big ass 1uf caps? Should I replace those with some non-polarized tantalums?

[induction]

I don't see any reason to, unless they're physically too big for the box.

[adstrum]

I've been using multi-layer ceramics whenever a non-polarized 1uF cap is called for. Has made the boards a lot neater.

[GoranP]

@Tonecut: you might consider getting into the habit of knifing your gaps right after your board is completed. An ounce of prevention kinda thing.... I know I've had my share of solder bridges that could easily have been avoided.

[tonecut]

Well, turns out the best place to look is the pots that you put in the wrong order.

Thanks for the help folks. I did an A/B comparison with a TS-808 and it sounds exact! Only issue is the level knob doesn't match the real pedal, what's halfway on the real pedal is more like 1/2 to 3/4 on the build. Odd.

[tonecut]

Newb question:

Since the real TS-808 Level (from 0-100) is the same as my Level (from 50-100), could I just swap the pot with something different or put a resistor in front of it to get the same range?

UPDATE:

After reading a bit, it seems like the Level pot should be a 100K lin, not log (as the schematic says). No?

[induction]

I think you're right about that.  There are several versions of the original, but I've seen only linear pots for Level. Even so, the extreme (max or min) settings should be the same no matter which pot you use.

[tonecut]

Yep, the extremes are the same, which led me to the lin thinking. Thanks, I think I'll swap it out tonight.