Tycobrahe Octavia....low volume output /gated fuzz.

[Leam2005]

I've just finished building the Tycobrahe Octavia using the layout from this site and for some reason the output of the pedal is very low (unity at max) and the fuzz seems to be gated.

I built it with the octave on / off switch but wired it as footswitch with an LED which works great.

My initial thought is that I have possibly used the wrong transformer (I used an LT44 as recommended on the layout), now I don't know enough about audio transformers to know whether this would affect the output of the pedal, but looking at the schematic it is right before the volume pot in the circuit.

Has anyone else had this issue? Or does anyone know why this is happening, any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,

Leam

[Zanius]

It is very helpfull for anyone willing to help if you post a link to the layout here.
http://tagboardeffects.blogspot.gr/2013/04/tycobrahe-octavia.html

Also some pics of your build would be nice because there are many things that can go wrong and you can't just expect people to start giving random advice.  I will give a random advice though!

I had the same problem (low output and gated overdrive in my case) and it was just a flipped 2N5088.

[Leam2005]

Apologies, first post mistakes! ha.

Here are some pictures, I don't have a picture of the underside of the board, but I'll get one tonight.

I know the circuit board picture doesn't have the 1n cap in but it's the only close up I've got, the other picture shows the cap soldered to the board.

I have flipped Q1 180 degrees to the original layout and seem to get a better sound.

Also, even the transformer looks slanted slightly the legs are in the correct holes.

[Silver Blues]

Leam2005 wrote

I have flipped Q1 180 degrees to the original layout and seem to get a better sound.

Don't pay too much attention to the physical component symbol in the layout; rather, pay careful attention to the pinout marked on the board. Many of these layouts are drawn up with original components in mind and the common substitutes have different pinouts, or in certain cases the same device from different manufacturers will have different pinouts. It could be that the physical representation matches the pinout for your device, or sometimes not.

[Leam2005]

I'll try the transistors the other way around to see if that makes any difference.

I have checked the datasheets for the transistors and the pinouts are matched.

It's driving me insane, the only thing I can think of is that the impedance ration of the transformer I used isn't correct. What this affect the volume?