kinski wrote:

I would double check your wiring to all components from the PCB. Make sure the wires are going to the correct pot lugs. And maybe reflow all solder pads. If the reverb was working at some point but cutting in and out, that could very well be a bad solder joint.

By reflow do you mean remove the solder and the solder again?

kinski wrote:

No, I mean reheat the pads to melt the solder already in there. Assuming you have enough solder on the pads, reheating the solder would likely fix any bad solder joints.

Aha. I've done that already for the pots. I suspect the issue is in the RCA jacks so I'll reflow those pads on the PCB next. Thanks!

kinski wrote:

Another thought. Are you using stranded or solid core wire? If solid core, it’s possible the wire broke somewhere. You could check continuity from one end of the wire to the other.

I'm using the stranded wire that came with the kit. It's kind of thin and flimsy but continuity checks out. No kinks and no burned insulation.

bjoish wrote:

Hi Andare,
So you get a big splash when shaking the pan, right?
Then the problem should be the driver circuit or the wiring for Dwell and white RCA.
Please keep in mind the MOSFETs must not get in contact with ground.

If you still have problems, you can contact me directly from the SurfyIndustries website (service)!

Yes I get the splash. It's louder than the reverb but not huge.
The MOSFETs still have the blue tape on and nothing else is touching them.
I can't see anything shorting to ground, all my connections are clean and I have continuity between the PCB and components from all pads.

It works!

I had a bad solder joint at lug 3 of the Tone pot. There was no continuity with the board.

Now I get full blown, glorious drip. The circuit is very noisy with everything at 10, like when you turn on distortion, it's "gain" noise but I guess it's because it's not built into a metal box. The hum I had before, however, is gone.

Sorry for taking up so much of your time and thanks a lot for all the help.

I'm still waiting for my toolbox to arrive, I have supplies coming and I have to buy a drill.
I will check in once my build is complete. SO excited!

Last edited: Mar 16, 2021 17:04:10

kinski wrote:

Glad it’s working! If you still have noise when boxed, check your wiring layout. Keep wires to everything as short as possible. Especially the wires to and from the input/output jacks, and to and from the reverb pan. Better yet, for those wires, I’d use shielded cable and ground one end of the shielding. I did this and my build is incredibly quiet, even with everything turned all the way up.

The wires to the in and out jacks are 2" long and twisted and yes, for the RCA jacks I've ordered shielded cable. Thanks

andare wrote:

BTW what do you mean by grounding one end of the shielding? I connect the inside wire to the positive pin on the RCA jack and the bare wire to the ground tab. Is there another step?

No other step, that's the correct way.

What he meant by connecting only one end of a shielded cable is:

Outside an amp or pedal the wires carrying a high impedance audio signal are shielded. Your guitar cable for example or the cable coming from the reverb pan. This is to protect the signal from outside interference.

Inside an amp or pedal the wires carrying the signal are not shielded. They're simple one-conductor wires. The grounded metal enclosure (amp chassis, pedal box) will act as the shield.

Sometimes that is not effective enough and the simple, one-conductor wires inside the amp or pedal are replaced with shielded wire (coax cable).
To prevent ground loops only one end of the shield is conected to ground. The other end is cut back and insulated with some heatshrink.

Here's an example of how it's done:
(Below is two ends of the same cable that would be used inside an amp or stompbox. The 'pigtail' is connected to ground)
https://el34world.com/Hoffman/images/Img_9146.jpg
https://el34world.com/Hoffman/images/Img_9147.jpg

The hiss you hear is not going to be solved by this. The hiss most probably does not come from outside interference. Just too much gain.

Good to see you found the bad connection and that you got it working.

Last edited: Mar 17, 2021 06:48:14

andare wrote:

Wow, thanks for the exhaustive explanation.
So I have 4 ground connections: at REV OUT, at REV IN (on the PCB), at the white RCA jack and at the red RCA jack.
Is it necessary to omit one or more of these ground connections to avoid a ground loop?

Nope.
And you would hear a ground loop as hum not as hiss.

Last edited: Mar 17, 2021 10:28:47

Ten days after I placed my order my toolbox still hasn't been shipped so I have time on my hands to tinker with the circuit.
I know I can put an SPDT switch between lug 1 of the Mixer pot and the PCB to kill the dry signal but is there a way to split dry and wet to two pots?
I don't remember where but I read somewhere that it is possible and that the dry signal doesn't lose high end.

kinski wrote:

That was my post.

You take the two outer lugs of the stock mix pot and give them their own pot. And don’t forget to put summing resistors on the output (middle lug) of the new pots so they don’t interact with each other.

I did find that for some reason, the signal is quieter with two separate pots than the stock value. This is not an issue for my build since I have plenty of volume on tap with the clean boost I added at the end. So I just turn up the volume a little bit and it’s solved. But if you don’t have a boost circuit on your build, you might not be happy with this modification.

Food for thought! As always, your help is greatly appreciated.