Pigtronix OFO Disnortion - Fuzz problems

[spartadrive_in]

Hello again, it's been awhile for me on here.

My problem with the above pedal is the Fuzz effect is very low. I'd have to turn the volume UP on my AMP to even hear anything. The Octava and OD functions work great.

I opened it up to check for loose ground connections and upon opening I found a small PCB that appears to have been modded into the main board. Lots of cut wires and tape (see pictures).
Is this a known mod or standard from the factory? The soldering job looks amateurish so I think it might have been the previous owner's doing.

Can this be what's wrong with my fuzz effect?

Any help is greatly appreciated.



P.S. I'm fixing this for a friend. He bought it used and the Fuzz used to work until recently it stopped.

[spartadrive_in]

Anyone, por favor?

[Mark Hammer]

Pretty complex pedal. I see they have sanded off the markings on some of the chips to keep the mysteries to themselves. Fair enough.

That 4093 on the small daughter board doesn't look especially healthy if I'm using the brown stuff around the pins 1-14 area as an indicator. CMOS chips are ostensibly capable of handling up to 18vdc on their power lines but voltages higher than 15v can be problematic sometimes. Easy to imagine a previous owner plugging in the wrong power supply and frying a CMOS chip. On the other hand there is no similar suggestions of burn on the copper side of that same board, so I'm not sure what to make of it. CMOS chips like the 4093 (a quad NAND gate often used for an oscillator) are not especially expensive, so get another one, pop it in and see what happens.

And thanks for the pics. Never seen the insides of a Pigtronix pedal before.

[spartadrive_in]

Thank mark. I just replaced the two 4093s on the small board and no change.
Any idea if this could have been a mod put in by a previous owner or just some last minute changes over at Pigtronix? Any knowledge??

Thanks again.

[Mark Hammer]

The fact that the board is legended suggests it was stock. The fact that those chips are often used as oscillators suggests it was separate for a reason....but what reason?

Looking at the second picture from the right, there appear to be melt marks on the header where somebody's iron obviously got too close attempting to solder what I gather was that green wire. Any ideas about that?

[spartadrive_in]

Hey Mark. I thought the same about the legendary board but figured maybe it was an "official mod kit"?? idk

That header was also a reason I thought a previous owner had got into it.

UPDATE: I fixed it. LOL> broken LEVEL pot for the fuzz. After measuring with my meter I decided to remove it for possible replacement and realized the hairline crack right across it. Gotta remember to not think so far into these things. Thanks for the insights though. Never knew the info on the 4093s.

[Mark Hammer]

Yep. It's often the things that you THINK have continuity or are functioning correctly.....dammit.

I've had plenty of wires that were fractured on the inside from too much bending, but the insulation on the outside looked fine, so who woulda thunk it, right?

Glad it's all copasetic now. And thanks again for the inside peek.