Jordan Bosstone Build weird problem

Forum dedicated to helping people debug and troubleshoot non-functional pedals or builds. Please use an clear and informative title, indicating circuit and basic problem. Don't forget to mark the issue as fixed if this is the case.
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perro5151
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Posts: 10
Joined: 14 Apr 2011, 04:26

Post by perro5151 »

Hello everyone!

This is my first post on the forum, but definitely won't be my last! I started building my own effects about 6 months ago and have completed a number of projects (although I'm still a noob as I am learning something new every day).

Anyways, I built a Jordan Bosstone, great sound out of this pedal (especially when you get the right NPN transistor and experiment with the diodes). The pedal works great, but I discovered a weird anomaly the other day. When I unplug the effect entirely (power supply and both jacks) and plug it back in, the effect doesn't work right away when I plug it back in and turn it on. It's as if it takes a minute or so for the pedal to "warm up" after I turn it on and the power runs through the circuit for a little while. Any reason for this? Or is it just my being "wet behind the ears" that is causing me to miss something obvious/stupid?

Thanks in advance!

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speedriff
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Joined: 16 Jan 2011, 23:48

Post by speedriff »

Hi. Sounds like a capacitor issue to me. It may also be a problem with a transistor, but my money is on a capacitor. The schematic that I'm looking at is here just so that we are on the same page.

http://home.centurytel.net/flanneldrawe ... ematic.jpg

According to this schematic C2 and C3 are the likely culprits. C2 is really the one that I suspect however. First is to check to make sure that you are using correct values on your capacitors. Next take a volt meter and put it on the junction between C2, R4, and R3. Be sure that you disconnect the power supply and that you ground out this junction to discharge the capacitor. Now apply power and see what your voltmeter reads at this point. If you notice it slowly builds up voltage then this is your problem. The Q1 transistor will need a bias voltage at its base to turn on and if the capacitor slowly charges then this is why it takes a while for the pedal to turn on. To fix this problem lower the value of R4. You may even just remove C2 completely and see what happens. I'm not sure why it is even there. I don't think it has anything to do with tone shaping, but I may be wrong.

If you included a power supply filtering in your design then the problem may be there as well. Run the same kind of test on your filtering caps if you have them.

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