Most frustrating/hated build...

[Neil mcNasty]

I really appreciate the favorite build reports lately, but in my opinion it is also important to discuss the most challenging and frustrating builds, so that we can warn/prepare some of our friends about those layouts that are a challenge to get up and running in a proper way.
As a potential bonus might be that; someone who has struggled with the same build, and found a fix can chip in with some suggestions... Who knows...

It should be needless to say that most of the Death by Audio builds is almost a guaranteed failure...
Don't even start unless you enjoy a challenge....

On the top of my list is probably my favorite sound and most hated build:
Runoffgroove's Tri-Vibe
I can not put into words how much I hate it (meaning: building it).
It absolutely drives me insane!
What a piece of s**t to get up and running without any issues! But such a sweet sound if you get it working.
The issues are: LFO Ticking, Distorted signal, no modulation... The list goes on and it's different every time I try to build it.
From now on I'm done with the vero-layout and will try etching PCB's for it instead. Hopefully that will be more successful.

Next on my list is what I regard as the biggest disappointment, (and as with the Tube Screamer) is what I regard as the worlds most overrated pedal:
The Klon.
It is a very nice booster when you keep it clean, but nothing out of the ordinary. As an overdrive: Horrible!
I know many will protest, so bring it on, throw your punches, but it won't change my mind! It's all hype!!!
I've tried the original, some boutique clones + I built 4 of them (all scraped)
It's a piece of s**t compared to it's status, but nobody dares to say so!!!
(don't get agitated! It's only an opinion, and I often use very strong words in cases like these!)

The MagnaVibe is also one of my favorite pedals, but has been a challenge to get going. Only 3 out of 7 builds are working.
The same goes for the Kay-T1 Tremolo... Love the sound (with Depth & Volume Boost mod), but I often struggle to get it running, and can not figure out why...

So...
What is your most hated/frustrating build?

[negativefx]

The current one.  :)

[Frank_NH]

Hmmm...there are several.  But the one I never could get working right is the ROG Thor (vero).  I worked very hard on it and could NEVER get it to stop humming.  Finally purchased a PCB and got it to work. (Sounded pretty good).  Then the Thunderbird came out...

Some others that never worked out (some were subsequently harvested for their components before chucking the vero):

* Hipkitty Oxblood Distortion - sounded awful.  Nothing like the demos.
* MI Audio Blues Pro - Farty and buzzy.  Wasn't worth modding...
* Dinosaural Tube Bender - An experimental build.  Never sounded as I hoped.  Haven't harvested it yet.
* OCD - Finally got it to work but it was sorta "meh" sounding, especially compared to the Zendrive.
* Catalinbread RAH - Well, I think this is working OK but it didn't live up to the hype for me.
* Wampler Formula 5 - OK, this one is working fine but the sound was too bassy and farty for me.  Do old Fender amps really sound like this?

I should note that it is very possible that there are/were some build issues with the foregoing effects, so it may be that your version turned out great and mine didn't.  As they say, YMMV.  

[Travis]

Almost every problem that I've faced has come down to my own errors, so it's hard for me to pin it down on any specific circuits.

The few things that are just weird and problematic for me..;

MKI Bender. What a bitch. It's most painful when you get ready for that super fancy "mojo" build and then can't get it to sound good all. Huge waste of money on parts. People say you should have a big collection of germs to get it right. That didn't help me at all because nothing in my collection was leaky enough while still being in the right hfe ballpark. I finally built the FZ-673 which I got to sound really nice but even that is a little temperamental when it comes to the weather.

I've had some bizarre problems with a Super Hard On build that I couldn't figure out. When I lowered my guitars volume knob it turned into a crazy envelope controlled stutter kind of effect. After pulling my hair out for several days I did some research and found that some other people had experienced this. For some reason it only did it with my Telecaster (which is a stock Am Std with no issues) and the pedal had no issues with the person I gave it to. It was mysterious..

Mutron Phasor. Just such a beast of a layout it can be difficult to troubleshoot problems. Also fucking LFO tick

OCD. Don't remember which version I built, but I did it verbatim to the schem on a madbean board and it sounded like ass. Such an underwhelming pedal. I wonder if the schem has an error or if the original really sucks that bad


As a side note.. I think my Klon build sounds great, and I thought the same about the original I've tried. I'm sure it comes down to differences in our gear and personal taste. For me it has great clarity and a smooth glassy sound with no fuzz or noise. The highest gain settings are bad. I'm going to build the soul sonic stage overdrive from the contributions section to compare

[motterpaul]

I'm no expert, but I have had my share of builds that just wouldn't work - Thor was one of them - and one day I did something and it just came to life.

For some reason I have built three different FET testers and none of them seem to give me consistent results. I am pretty sure it is me, though. Sometimes an overly simple circuit can be the one I mess up - because I underestimate it.

What I hate is when I get so close - like I am now with the Diesel Diefet - where it works but something is still wrong. Thor was like that for me for a long time -

Others I think I got right, but was not impressed; the CaveMan ___ (something, turned out to be exactly like an OCD), and the JCM800 emulator, Timmy - all those I got working, but they just don't sound great for some reason - to different degrees. And some have amazed me for their great sound. (Wampler plexi with trimmers, AMT B1)

Totally agree on the Klon(e), I have a SilverCentaur PCB kit - works fine, sound meh.... But I also agree it depends on what you are looking for - some people like Fender amps, some like Marshalls.

[kirshman]

Rog umble has kicked my nuts on 2 seperate builds and I still can't get it to work right.  Only board I can't find the answer to.  The frantone vibutron was also a huge pain to get working.  i had user error all over the place, but then dialing in that last trimpot to get it to sound sweet, oh what a feeling.  I doubt this pedal will come off my board!

[IvIark]

Yeah Mk1 Bender for me too.  I hate any build that is sooooo simple, you can put together perfectly and it still sounds like shit.  I don't think I'm patient enough for the transistor auditions it needs.  Other builds that need to be well biased can be a pain but at least you can put trimpots in which will simplify it if necessary.

[boratto]

Bogner Uberschall and Slo 100
Most of time i´ve built, these two pedals has  lower gain than you can expect (correct bias)... i don´t now if it´s because the variable j201. But i am quiting of building these.

[jsetov]

By far, the MUTRON II has been the most frustrating build for me. I definitely wasted money getting vactrols. When I decided to ditch that layout and go for the one with led's ano photo resistors, I got everything to work except that there was an annoying ticking noise that I couldn't get rid of. I still haven't found the solution to that ticking either. For now the mutron is sitting on my desk until my frustration with it has finally died down enough to try and get it working correctly.

Other than that, the shin-ei companion fuzz has been a hard one to tame. Not that the build had any problems, but that it has been pretty hard to get it to a point that I can enjoy using it. I feel like it is so close to being awesome, but not quite there.

[Silver Blues]

For me by far has to be the Engineer's Thumb compressor. I tried to build one using Johnk's modified layout, and no matter what I did to it, it wouldn't give me any compression and often no sound at all. Best I got out of it was a nasty as all hell distortion only at a certai point on the threshold control (it would give me no sound, then bad distortion, then no sound again as you turned it up). Attack and release controls were essentially useless, ratio did something stupid I can't even remember and the switch's action came through the amp. I gave up on it and built a Really Cheap Bass Comp instead, best decision I could have made. Went from wanting a tweakable six-control monstrosity of a compressor to a bare-bones, two-knob optical job and couldn't be happier. It's I think the most useful thing I've yet built.

[rocket88]

So far my only failure, the catalinbread loaghtan. I've built it from 2 different verified layouts and nothing. Not a god damn thing. Troubleshot the hell out of them, and never got even a peep out of either of them. Both boards are still sitting in a container waiting to be gone over again, but I don't want to go down that hole again. But I swear that I'll get it working eventually. I have to for my own ego at this point.

I've been pretty lucky that I since I began building, there's only a few pedals that have given me issues, all of which have been easily fixed, and mostly due to my own inexperience at the time.

As far one that just gave me issues, but ends up working. Similar to what has been mentioned above Ge tonebenders are just a bitch. In each one over built I spend so much time going through different transistors, just to get ones that sound right and good to me. Also, the first Si fuzzface I built. Looked so simple, and is, but what did I do? Cut the boards backwards, solder the transistors in backwards 3 times, let me say that again, soldered the transistors in backwards three fucking times!!! I rebuilt it so many times thinking seething was seriously messed up, only to realize all I needed to do was removed and desolder the transistors.

[Freppo]

+1 on the ROG Umble. Never got it working properly.

The old layout of the Wampler Plexidrive without the trimmers was a frustrating build aswell.. Had to go through about 50 J201's to find ones in the ballpark. Still, it was worth it because it's one of my favourites. But if I ever build it again I'll use the layout with trimmers. :P

[GuitarGas]

Looks like an interesting topic...
I am a total newb to the DIY pedal scene and have only a handful of builds under my belt, including the Zen, OD11, TS808, Eternity Burst, Fat Boost, Satisfaction Fuzz, Kalamazoo and Woodrow, all of which have worked straight of the bat, aside from stupid newb mistakes like having the switch around the wrong way on my first build.
The only build I have not been able to get working so far is the Lovepedal Super6. I have rebuilt this thing three times, every time using new components, tried rewiring the pots numerous times, taken the switch out of the circuit, put it back in, etc....etc and all I get is a horrible blahhhhhhh....
I have a feeling it has something to do with how I have it grounded but for the life of me can't figure it out...

[motterpaul]

For me it was the Shin Dumbloid - not a complicated build, but it just sounded awful to the point where I thought I had something wrong but I could never see it. That was when I started wondering about some of the schematics out there.

I was really surprised the Timmy sounded so bad to me. I use a (real) Tim pedal on my board.

[skeletonghost]

I've had trouble getting the Fuzzhugger Phantom Octave, and Fnord working. I'm not sure if it's a particular design flaw, or some incompatibility with my rig but I have never been able to get something useable from these two builds.

By FAR the most frustrating is the Analog Bitcrusher. The high pitched whine really kills what is a pretty cool effect. So irritating without that one little flaw it would be great. There has been some discussion about what causes it but as far as I can tell no one has solved it yet.  

[Freppo]

skeletonghost wrote

By FAR the most frustrating is the Analog Bitcrusher. The high pitched whine really kills what is a pretty cool effect. So irritating without that one little flaw it would be great. There has been some discussion about what causes it but as far as I can tell no one has solved it yet.

Funny you mention the Analog Bitcrusher. I just did my own take on it.
It has a gate for the oscillator, so no more annoying high pitched whine. :)
More info, schematic, vero and pcb layouts can be found in my blog:
www.parasitstudio.se

I posted about it in the contributions section here aswell.

cheers / Fredrik

[Neil mcNasty]

He, he...
I knew this would be great reading! Great entertainment!
Not only do I love it when people blast off their frustration, but it also really helps when I feel completly useless and incompetent, not being able to figure out what went wrong.
It is such a great comfort knowing I'm not the only one going out of my mind when looking for my mistake.

Cool that you figured out the Bit Crusher Fredrik!
It has to be one of my biggest dissapointments when starting building. Forgot to mention that one...

Regard my comment about the Klon: when I brought it to a friend that plays his Strat trough a Marshall Super Bass amp, it sounded amazing on the cleaner settings, so I'm willing to admit that it is a great pedal for some setups. It's the hype and the status that really annoy me. Too many pompous asses get one just for the status, or because certain people brag about it, and they payed so much for it, that they will never admit that it is quite overrated when used as an overdrive, and that many pedals does that job much better. But then again it all comes down to taste and setup.

Thanks for sharing your frustations (and keep them coming)! I feel much better now!

[Frank_NH]

Re: Klon

I built a Klon and I agree with Neil - it's magic (for me) is not it's overdrive but its ability to create a wonderful boost/preamp.  It's the first pedal in my chain now, and I keep the gain at 9 o'clock, volume at 12, and tone at 3.

[skeletonghost]

Amazing! Excellent work Fredrik! This is next on my build list :)

[motterpaul]

Well, I just rebuilt the Diesel Diefet from scratch, and it was worth it. I nailed it the second time and it sounds good.

But with 7 pots ( volume, gain, presence, bass, mid, treble and depth) and 5 trimpots for fets... all interactive with one another. The more you play with this the more you get it tuned in. But it was very hard to troubleshoot something that big.

It is a BIG build, 31x20 (bigger that a small vero board).