I decided to add this to the Thread of Incredible Length:

I have my Surfy Bear FET Reverb all wired up and installed in its toolbox (the enclosure of discerning guitarists). Everything plugged in, guitar ready, amp on, AND...

Nothing.

No sound whatsoever. I double-check that all guitar cables are in the correct jacks; I double-check that the RCA cables to the pan are correct. I place a multimeter to the 12v connector to make sure it's getting power (it is, and I checked the polarity before soldering in place). I check all the connections to the board against the diagram, and all that looks correct.

So I have no clue what to do next. Please, can someone help? Thanks in advance!

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stratdancer wrote:

After listening it almost sounds like it should. With humbuckers your are going to get some harshness to your tone. You had said your other guitar has fairly hot outputs pickups also (P-90)'s. Hitting it hard will add to harshness. Try lowering the pickups in the other guitar until they are smoother and a bit more mellow. Keep the tone control near 10. Try to get the cleanest guitar tone possible then try the reverb.

The pickups in both guitars are not hot by any means actually. These sounds with the dwell at 1 are not at all comparable to the demo video with everything set at 6. I don't think it should sound like that with the dwell at 1, it seems pretty apparent that something is wrong.

I could imagine that sort of overdrive and fuzz with all the knobs at 10 and running a boost pedal into it, but I was not doing any of those things.

Last edited: Feb 07, 2017 12:16:31

Here's a closer view of the board.

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I'll throw this out, when I soldered mine together, in my excitement, I switched two of the pots. They were different values, and I think different tapers too. I don't remember if I got distortion like that, but it sounded better, and the controls responded much better with the pots in the correct configuration (go figure... ).

Gilette wrote:

SpaceTime, I can't find anything wrong with the connections. RCA plugs are ok. Still your problem sounds like a short on the output. If everything is wired up, do you get a signal when you tap the tank? Keep the pots at half way.

Yes, I agree, since you have 12V supply voltage you should at least get the dry signal thru with the settings: Dwell=0, Mix=0 and Tone=0.

You can also use a ohm meter to check connectivity and possibly short circuits.

SpaceTimC wrote:

OK. I am well and truly stumped. I have power. I have 12v at the output jack. With a plug in there, I can tap it with a multimeter probe and I hear a tapping sound from the amp. I put the probe at various points around the board and I show power. I put the probe on the jacks of the reverb pan and I show power; tapping at the pan output jack gets a bit of noise from the amp. I swapped out RCA cables.

Everything says I should be getting some kind of sound. But I am not. How can I tell if, say, the pan is bad? I don't have another r verb unit to put it into.

Any other ideas? And, thanks as always.

Ok, first measure the resistance at the connectors of the pan. If you get anything but infinity the pan is fine.

You wrote you have 12v at the output. At the output of the power supply I may hope? If there's 12v at the output of the surfy bear there's a serious problem.

When I told you to tap the pan you were ment to hear a crashing noise but I gather this didn't happen. Hmmmm.... this is a strange case.
Tell me, did you ever get a dry guitar signal from the surfy bear to the amp?

SPACETIMC, Its difficult to see on your picture... possibly the guitar out wires are reversed. Please check!

Do you have the board built into a chassis or on your desktop?

12 volts at the output of the unit is not what we want. I suggest you check all solder joints again for shorts. I can't imagine any of the parts failing so dramatically to explain this reading. In particular because there are capacitors at the output which have to prevent just that.

Last edited: Feb 08, 2017 14:46:51

Ok. It is likely the toolbox is grounded by the connectors touching the metal, so no need for a ground wire.

Since you got no signal at all you may have a short at the output. Just measure the DC resistance between the tip and the sleeve of the output. If resistance is zero it's shorted. There's no other scenario I can imagine that can explain your problem, apart from reversed polarity of the power supply. If this fails I think you should contact Björn directly to see what can be done about it.

Gilette wrote:

There's no other scenario I can imagine that can explain your problem, apart from reversed polarity of the power supply.

WELL. What I learned is... ya gotta set your multimeter to the proper setting in order to correctly determine polarity. And, yes, once I swapped the wires on the DC jack, I got glorious wet drippy reverb from my fully-functioning Surfy Bear FET Reverb!!!

I built the unit into the lid of the toolbox. The pan sits in the lift-out tray, and I now have storage underneath for cables and pedals and stuffs.

Thanks to everyone who helped out and exhibited great patience with this idiot.

The Reverbivores - we're local favorites!