Questions about builds

[Marbles]

Hello builders with intimidating knowledge ;) ,

My name is Marc and I'm pretty new to this. I built some stuff from kits before and since i was collecting too many pedals, I wanted to learn/know more about them. So I stumbled onto this awesome site and learned a lot more already after building some stuff. My last builds I ran into some problems unfortunately. Introducing"The Audio-probe". Which helped a lot better to understand some things and find mistakes. However..:

The problematic builds (Fnord, Super Duper and maybe the Throbak Overdrive Boost) I couldn't figure out what I was doing wrong. On the Fnord I changed the mp13 for a 2n5018, but still too much gating. Playing feels like sucking an orange through a straw. On the super duper, it's just volume loss.


Anyway.. What I'm trying to ask/say (apart from introducing myself): Where should I ask these questions? I can understand that my question about how stuff is wired (example Sound Saw) i can ask on the page from the project itself when it's still kinda new. But troubles I run into for older projects? I can imagine people aren't reading up on effects that were posted years ago.

I will try to keep them at a minimum, I have to learn stuff, but should I post them there, or open a new topic?

Greetz,

Marc

[Lazy Swamis]

If you post on the main site, on the page that the effect in question is on, lvlark and probably Miro to will be notified.

Usually though, someone will see it in the "recent comments" section to the right and comment. (you won't see this if you only use the mobile version of the site)  

Also this forum is usually pretty good about answering your questions.

Trouble shooting gets easier the more of these you do. Just make lots of mistakes and you'll quickly learn how to spot them.

[Marbles]

Making lots of mistakes, eh? I think that won't be a problem :D

[IvIark]

The problem with have with a lot of requests is that we simply can't answer the question sometimes.  A lot of the time you simply have to spend time trying things yourself because what worked for one person won't necessarily work for you.  For instance with that the Fnord which Javi had problems with at first.  Swapping to a 2N5088 worked for him to get rid of the gating but not for you.  But then you're both using different guitars and different amps with a different effects chain, so you may need something a bit more (or less) in the gain department.  We do have some circuits which are temperamental, just check the Little Angel threads   With something like the Super Duper it's a fairly simple circuit which plenty of people have built and so we know 100% that it works.  99% of the time when the level isn't up where it should be there is a build problem, and the majority of times it's simply a bad connection somewhere, and when that is the case there is only one person in a position to find and correct it.

First port of call with a problem build should be checking the Fault Finding page which has some basic hints you can try, and if nothing works come back to us with the voltages requested at the end of that page.  I reckon 50% of mine and Miro posts are saying "post your voltages which will give us a good clue".  I've even got it and the other common ones saved in a text file on my desktop so I can just copy and paste

So we will always try to help but sometimes the builder simply has to do a bit of leg work first or we aren't in a position to be able to.

[Marbles]

Thanks for the replies! Don't get me wrong, In no way I meant to nag about not getting answers fast enough! I love all the info you guys provide here and am very grateful for the time and effort you put into this. So in no way meant to be criticizing!
It's just that being a newbie on a site who will probably ask a lot, I don't want to step on any person's toes ;) So I thought I'd ask.

I will go check my voltages and look into the troubleshooting page more. And find out what voltage I should have. Thanks a lot for replies!

[IvIark]

Yeah just post on the main threads, myself and Miro always see them and the others are pretty good at spotting them in the recent posts.  But if I recommend doing something when I'm drunk, just wait till the morning just in case I need to correct myself

[Marbles]

Haha, I will keep that in mind