The Ultimate Guide to Troubleshooting Pedals | DIY Guitar Pedals 

This is just what I was looking for when my kit pedal didn’t work. Helped me isolate a short in my switch wires. Was going to lose my mind without a systematic way to troubleshoot. Thanks!

Awesome video will definitely keep you from randomly checking everything to a more focused approach to find the problem sooner👍👍

This chart REALLY helps!!! I know just enough to get myself into trouble but not quite enough to get myself out- and this chart gave me the ideas I needed to get a new fuzz pedal working and sounding great! Thanks so much!

Creating a chart for people to follow was a great idea. The chart looks good and easy to follow.

Of the 6 pedals I've built, only 3 work the way they're supposed to. Now I can finally figure out where I went wrong! Thanks for creating this roadmap!

Thank you for the chart! Now I can troubleshoot 3 I've ditched aside out of 9 I wired. This is so helpful!

Nice flow chart. Appreciate it. For those who do not wish to buy a scope, you can build an "audio probe" rather easily. Then you can listen to the music from input through the pedal (or to the fault area).

Dude this chart is so awesome! It’s taken me a year of troubleshooting and reading forums to learn half of these solutions! Haha. Thanks !

Absolutely love this video and your chart. You pretty much mentioned it with ‘faulty 3pdt’ but I’ve made the mistake of flooding parts of my foot switch and causing all kinds of problems. (Connecting poles that shouldn’t be soldered together) Thanks again. And I appreciate your time.

Super useful document! Nice work.

That's really comprehensive and helpful. Thanks 🙏

You come across like an accountant not a guitar guy lol. Im super into because you actually explained things in a really clear way. Appreciate the troubleshooting guide!

Very well done. I have an ehx mel 9 not giving effect sounds when turned on. Will check voltage on it!

I'm a total noob fixing pedals but I finally fixed my analog delay pedal. I used the flowchart. Had a bad IC chip and maybe bad power diode and reflowed all the solder joints and it fixed. Also great lesson testing for pots and switches and jacks. Once I got engaged output sound, the delay still wasn't working, then used a power supply instead of battery and it came back to life. Thank you so much. Inspired to make pedalpcb pedals of discontinued pedals or way overpriced pedals and selling cheaper with cool artwork like you. Really fun man. Confident in my skills now. You are the shizzle!!!

just want to clarify,do you mean seated?

Hi! awesome chart! just one more hint, stero cable should not be used! Took me a while realizing that led will light on when tip of the jack was midway...

Great video! Maybe a nit but the correct term would be “seated” properly, not “seeded” on your chart. Keep up the good work!

I fried a pretty expensive pedal recently. Hopefully it can be fixed.

Once I understand this video I'll build my first pedal.

I have a regular 'pulsing' sound (about 2-4 beats per second) on an ancient Zoom 2020 multi-effects processor. I've had experience with faulty (computer) clock boards before and know how sensitive they are to capacitive effects. Thanks, I'll check the clock IC and associated components next...

This is PERFECT!

I have a digitech whammy 5 it sounds ok when is bypassed the sound goes through well but when I switch the pedal on it sounds very very low and crackling unusable, I hear the effect is working but the sounds is very messed up and low.. what could be the issue ? Nice video thank you very much !

maybe this is a silly question but can a busted LED prevent the whole pedal from working? Trying to fix a tuner pedal my friend got me, and it does seem like at least one of the three LEDs is busted, but could that be why the whole pedal isnt workng? or does a broken LED only affect the broken LED

Hey thanks for the video, great stuff ! Would you mind sharing the info about your scope ? Thanks !

Dude you know so little you're leading these people astray and youll meet someone that doesnt have a clue what you're saying as its like you learned some jargon but not what it means. You do not know enough to confuse yourself further with a crap scope. These people look up to you man. I was where you are once but realized the more i learned the less i knew. Im humble. Im only trying to help. Im harsh but it doesnt come from a mean place.

I’d suggest another block in the chart for “audio bypass ok but no sound when engaged”: is the input jack cable actually connected to the guitar and the output jack cable to the amp? I lost 2 hours yesterday for having them the other way around...

I bought a used Artec wish wah APW-07, at first it worked but had a problem with the "wish" pot where there's a place where it makes a huge "POP" sound then the're no guitar signal anymore even if you can hear the wah until you wiggle and play with potentiometers ,and when bypasse the signal goes with no problem....... I sprayed the potentiometers with contact cleaner, worked like charm , then left the pedal for a coupl of days untouched.....at my suprise the pedal would not work anymore when activated, I mean you hear the wah effect and the hiss with the toe down but abslotutely no guitar signal.....I checked the switch and pots and it seems to be no problem there

hello, I have a buzz in my tone bender, but I have no signal, no distortion, I'm thinking more of germanium transistors which are dead! What do you think? Thanks in advance and congratulations on your site!

Cool ❤

I’ve just built my first pedal, an overdrive based on the design on Wampler website.. volume and tone works as expected but drive does not.. have checked voltages on the board and everything is fine; so I’m thinking it’s either the pot has malfunctioned or it’s the capacitor or diodes in the clipping part of the circuit..

Hello. First off I don’t build or know Very much about petals. But this video has been the most informative on petals in general, but I am having a problem where I just bought a new panel change the battery and now the bypass works but it does not work when engaged with the light comes on and I may have missed it in this video but I did not really catch a way that I can troubleshoot any reply would be super helpful thank you

Great video as always! Thank you for the flow chart link. Do you have the link for the oscilloscope that you use?

I need some help, man. I recently got a Mosky RC5 multi-effect pedal and every effect works fine, except the chorus. When I turn it on, it sounds with a little bit of distortion

I just build a pedal ans it has a high pitch whistling noise if the agressor switch turn on (up/down) but in the center position, everything is normal... Can you give some advice on that please?

Hi guys. I have the following issue: When the pedal is off, a low/quiet signal is being received. When the pedal is on, the effect got engaged and the right volume got re-established. What could be causing this issue?

I’m having an issue I don’t think you covered here. Building a klon clone and I have sound, lights come on. However there is a fuzzing coming through. It’s subtle but definitely there. Also when I unplug the input there is a siren like sound wailing from the rig. Any ideas?

Bro, my distortion pedal still give a light indication but it did not give out any sound,,,,,? Can you help me.....?

Hey interesting video very informative however I have a question because I did not build my pedal I bought it , It's a joyo atmosphere Pedal and it turns on ... the LED lights work , however when I plug in the guitar The sound is very very quiet. even if I put the amp on 7, which should be really loud it sounds like The volume is below 1. The cables are fine, the amp is fine, the guitar is fine, and the power supply is fine. When I opened up the pedal and checked all the voltages it's a 9 V power supply but everything I checked with the multimeder is giving me the same 3 V reading. So there is a tiny tiny bit of sound But the pedal is unusable. What on the board could be causing the issue of low low sound any ideas or is it fried? Any advice would be good thank you very much for your time in advance.cheers

Question…I built a Spirit Box and the pedal works but LED does not work. I switched the polarity on my solo power supply and the LED works but then the pedal does not. I’ve been looking all over for an answer. Do I switch the pins around on the LED to the board? Hoping you can help.

Please help. My looper pedal isn’t working. Every time I plug the pedal in, it doesn’t turn on. If I hold the button down, it has a red light, but if I press the button, nothing happens. What could be the problem?

Dude can you help me please. I have a Seymour Duncan Tweak fuzz and I think it got some troubles. When the pedal set off and the tweak knob is in "1" all the signals totally goes bypass and clean, but when I tweak it to 2 - 6, it really adfects the signal and tone even when I turn off the pedal. Can you help me explain what's really happening here? Thankyou very much before.

I like the chart, but when updated can you post a high quality jpg or pdf? I copied it and it was barely legible. Thanks. Good work!!

What is a charge pump?

Hey i have an old DOD FX25. The Kermit green one from 1986-1986 that is right before the 2 knob sparkle green version. I had a sparkle green back in the day and remember it having a little bit of dirt on the decay of the filter. The one i have now seems to have quite a bit more distortion on the decay. What could cause this? ive already cleaned the PCB, checked solder joints, cleaned the pots and input/output jacks. It does this with both a power supply or battery. I have not checked the switch yet but it seems to be working fine. The LED is a bit dim. Any advice is greatly appreciated, Thanks!

What if it’s a reverb pedal and it has a light and hardly used. But there is signal. it’s just hissy and noisy and the effect don’t work.

I have a digiverb of digitech . the pedal wont turn on when u push the switch. when u plugged the adaptor into the pedal its blinks 3 times the red light. when u plugged it into amp sound goes through . do u have any idea what could be the problem? and how to check sw1 switch?

I'm having an issue with a 30 year old Morley wah pedal. The pedal works fine if my only effect is the Morley. When I add other effects to the chain the Morley stops working when engaged. When off the bypass still works. I checked the voltage on the input jack and it's 9.6 volts with no other effects in the chain. When I add other effects the voltage starts fluctuating (down). Any ideas would be appreciated. Thanks in advance.

i have a no name pedal some random guy made for me ages ago. if i don't have the schematics, am i fucked?

Also I forgot to add that I looked all over the Internet and I can't find a schematic for it anywhere

Are Canadians even real? Asking for a friend.

I built a JHS morning glory clone, called the Gloryhole from pedal PCB. I forgot to order the proper transistor. so I improvised with anything I had laying around. I found one that worked, but the volume is very low. I ordered a new transistor. Will this fix the volume problem?

So my pedal is at the stage where all the components are soldered but I haven’t connected the switch or the led. I wanted to test it so I hooked it up to my amp and guitar and got nothing but a constant noise. But when I would turn the pots, the hum would either get louder or quieter. Any suggestions?