Home › Forums › Help/Technical Questions › My Russian Big Muff hums/buzzes/sounds broken either on or off. It’s not a battery. cable or equipment issue.
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October 3, 2010 at 5:23 am #80812kay ciceoMember
Today, I plug my Sovtek big muff into my amplifier, and as soon as i turn the amp on,
I hear this horrible loud sound – constant hum, like a blown speaker or touching the end of a guitar cable. I do a check and the problem is originating inside the big muff. I change the battery and nothing gets better. the same loud droning hum whether i have the pedal engaged or not; the effect control knobs have no bearing on this sound.How can I test the components to see what’s busted?
Does EHX repair sovtek pedals?
Do they use the same components when replacing?Thank-you
Kay
October 3, 2010 at 10:32 am #111776The EH ManModeratorSounds like a bad ground. You might check the board and see if the jacks are securely soldered on all 6 pins.
October 3, 2010 at 1:04 pm #111778kay ciceoMemberThanks.
I’ve looked close and the pins on each jack appear to be connecting solidly with the pcb.
There is a ground wire soldered to the board and i assume that this is screwed to the back of one of the feet on the effect casing?Can you speculate which other components might be the cause?
Is there a way i can verify if they work individually?thanks alot,
learning my way hereKay
October 3, 2010 at 6:56 pm #111788The EH ManModeratorThe ground wire won’t make a difference.
It’s hard to say w/o seeing it.
October 4, 2010 at 2:33 am #111799kay ciceoMemberOk, I tried the pedal again tonight. Here is an update:
The hum is still very loud.
It gets louder in volume when i touch the footswitch with my finger.
My guitar signal comes though now, but only after i activate the pedal… There is a hum but i can hear the sound of the muff distortion beneath it.
When the effect is disengaged, i can’t get any guitar signal through at all.
Any ideas?
October 4, 2010 at 9:35 am #111801The EH ManModeratorIs this a black or green Sovtek?
October 4, 2010 at 4:43 pm #111808kay ciceoMemberThis is a black russian big muff.
thanks,
KayOctober 4, 2010 at 4:45 pm #111809The EH ManModeratorTake it to a tech.
October 5, 2010 at 11:27 pm #111832Ned FlandersModeratorThe sovtek traces on the PCB have been known to get hairline cracks in them, you cant see it but its there, this could be the problem. I had a green one do this. The only way you can find it is with a multimeter, testing every piece of trace for continuity. I’m not saying its this, just that its a possibility, especially if its been dropped hard…
Before I checked every section of trace it was doing my head in as nothing looked broken, in fact it looked brand new.The solution is a simple bit of solder over the invisible crack.
October 8, 2010 at 4:11 pm #111860kay ciceoMemberThanks,
that seems daunting right now, but i will take a look at the pcb and probe with my multimeter.
Should i just pick two points on the traces and measure, and then move on to the next bit?If you know of an online resource where i could learn about this, i’d appreciate it.
Thanks
KayDecember 2, 2012 at 5:47 am #118477johnyboy_ptMemberKay, did you manage to solve your problem in the end?
I believe I have the same problem, but I’ve gone through this three times now and couldn’t find any cracks, just wanna make sure before I move on or dive back in with the meter, ’cause since there are so many points to measure, I could’ve missed a spot…
Thanks.
John -
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