Help fix my russian big muff :(

[Roseweave]

Awesome ILF related find today.



Got this for €40. Pretty good deal considering how much everything costs over here. My LPB-1 cost me more and I'm pretty sure this is more awesome than an LPB-1.

It looks to be an older 90s model rather than the newer ones(I think this is better). When I first brought it home, I was getting no distortion out of it. At all. With the volume and gain up, there was no overall gain. I opened it up and poked things with a screwdriver(i.e. connecting up areas that might need to be soldered) and nothing happened. Then I bent out the PCB slightly and an awesome sound popped out. I ended up shoving the battery underneath it to keep it up. Not a great solution, but maybe someone can help me out with this. There was also a loose white wire with a hoop on it.

I managed to snap the cheap plastic jacks pretty quickly but I glued them back on which to be fair wouldn't work with a metal jack.

This box is really the bees knees. It's got way more Bass than my Little Big Muff, I'm considering selling it. This particular iteration of the RBM is more fuzzy than a lot of them, I can get plenty good for Pumpkinsy tones. At lower sustain and high sustain settings it does sound a bit more like a distortion/overdrive though.

I'll take some recordings, stacked with some Devis of course(and maybe the LBM) at some point.

EDIT: It borked ;(

[sevenSHARPnine]

Russian Big Muffs FTW!!!

[Roseweave]

Unfortunately I just ran into a problem :|

When the jack snapped off, it wouldn't go on again right. The problem with it having no gain isn't being countered by shoving the battery under the pcb at all... I can't figure out what's causing it, it's so weird. I think I probably need to replace the output jack... I already had to resolder the battery snap as I managed to break it fiddling with the insides.

It's as if it's responding to orientation/position or something. I couldn't find any wires that when pulled or prodded or whatever caused it to leap on again.

What should I do? I guess it can only be the input/output jacks...

[sevenSHARPnine]

That's pretty bizarre. Unfortunately I don't have a whole lot of advice to give, especially if you already checked the wires/soldering joints and whatnot. I do know that Small Bear (smallbearelec.com) has pcb-mounted jacks just like the ones on the Muff. They're easy to replace, so that would at least be a step in the right direction.

I do believe this is what you'd be looking for... http://www.smallbearelec.com/Detail.bok?no=798

[Roseweave]

It's weird but when I took the PCB out completley, and bent it a bit, it came back on, then went again when I relieved the pressure. It doesn't seem to have anything to do with the input jack after all.

[sevenSHARPnine]

I wonder if there's something funky going on with one of the traces? I'm really at a loss. I wish I could help ya more

[Scruffie]

Bending a pcb and stuff going on can be a sign of broken tracks or a bad solder joint indeed, a magnifying glass is often required in this sort of situation to check tracks, best idea is to just reheat all the solder joints first to check they're okay and after if it's still not working if you spot a broken track with your magnifying glass to connect it up with some solder and possibly a jumper if it wont go.

Do you have any gut pictures aswell and of this loose white wire aswell? Can't really help without them.

You're located in Ireland if i'm not mistaken Roseweave? I'd suggest using http://www.bitsbox.co.uk to order the jacks to save getting them from too far across the pond, great prices and great shipping charges.

Finally if you do give up eventually (hope you fix it without), i'm in the U.K and if you cover postage and any componets (if needed) I can probably get it sorted out for you.

[Roseweave]

Which parts would I be ordering from there Scruffie?

I will send you the pedal if I can't figure out anything else. It will negate the bargain of finding the pedal, but I really love the pants off it I don't want it to go to waste.

A girl and her fuzz

[Roseweave]

Resoldered pretty much everything around the area affected by the bend. Even soldered over some areas on the Trace that looked a bit dodgy. No difference whatsoever.

I tried fiddling with the bits on the Input jack and now it's not working at all... I think it was definitely the input jack. I got it to come in and out after pushing in the input jack(though this was after all the resoldering).

I don't actually know how to DEsolder things thing. I think partly because my Iron is shit. I need a better one but don't have a lot of money to spend.

[Scruffie]

From bitsbox, I thought you needed new jacks and they offer the PCB mount plastic type you need, usually the boards have 2 stereo ones...

Desoldering, you either need a Desolder Pump (stocked by bitsbox aswell) which on small PCB joints can be hard to use or you need Desolder Braid picked up from E-bay or electronic shops where you heat the joint and the solder transfers onto the braid.

Aslong as your iron is over 25watts it should be okay, 30 is prefferable though and needle tips do make life easier, careful not to heat damage the components though trying to get them out, transistors are more vunerable than resistors and capacitors though.

Shipping will take away some of the bargain sadly yes but hopefully it wont cost too much to ship and hate to see a pedal go to waste.

Could well be a bad input jack, as I said bitsbox stock them so you could order some and try replacing it but you will need something to remove the solder with, sometimes you can get things out if you hold them with something like pliers and pull while you heat all the seperate joints but you have to be quick and careful.

Also when reheating joints it can help to add some extra solder to get it flowing properly and can help cold joints.

As I said though, some gutshots might alert to something you miss, always good to have a second pair of eyes.

[Roseweave]

All the shipping and stuff to fix this pedal, it might be best to send it right to you actually... I don't want to muck it up, I think I disconnected one of the wires for the LED.

How much do you think it'd cost total.

[Scruffie]

Right... well the Bitsbox cost is £2.42 to get two stereo jacks (do you need both replaced do you think?) delivered
Dependant on the weight of the thing it'll probably cost me £4ish to send it back to you (i'l charge whatever it costs, if you tell me how much it weighs i'l work it out on my side)
Then whatever it costs you to post it to me and there's your total.

Tell me the weight, post a gut shot so I can give it one more check to make sure there's nothing else I should get incase and we can go from there.

[Roseweave]

I'd need a desoldering braid and pointy tip soldering Iron too...

I don't even know for sure what's wrong though so it might be an idea to have it looked at.

The pedal itself weighs very little.

I'll sell my Little Big Muff anyway so I won't be stuck for cash.

[Scruffie]

I'd need a desoldering braid and pointy tip soldering Iron too...

I don't even know for sure what's wrong though so it might be an idea to have it looked at.

The pedal itself weighs very little.

I'll sell my Little Big Muff anyway so I won't be stuck for cash.

You don't neccessarily need a pointy tipped iron, just helps I find, i've used the flat chisel kind aswell, just the fine tips are more direct and I find cleaner and take less time to heat the joints.

If it doesn't weigh much that should mean it'll be pretty cheap to post, I know some size guidelines have been implaced on posting but I wouldn't have thought it would be too affected.

Well if you sell that, just give me a PM when you're ready and you can post it to me and i'l look at it, aslong as the boards still in one piece and you were getting intermittent sound i'm sure it's still very fixable even if it does need new jacks they're easily sorted and I have all the tools to desolder and to measure for continuity on the board etc. and some spares if anything needs replacing (dependant on age and use the electrolytic capacitors might need to be replaced)

[devnulljp]

At this point, I'd probably gut it and throw in a BYOC board or talk to John Lyons and get a loaded muff PCB, some real jacks and a decent switch. Better than throwing good money after bad shipping it around to get it repaired.

Or take off and nuke it from orbit -- it's the only way to be sure.