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.

Viewing 11 posts - 1 through 11 (of 11 total)
  • Author
    Posts
  • October 3, 2010 at 5:23 am #80812
    kay ciceo
    Member

    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 #111776
    The EH Man
    Moderator

    Sounds 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 #111778
    kay ciceo
    Member

    Thanks.
    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 here

    Kay

    October 3, 2010 at 6:56 pm #111788
    The EH Man
    Moderator

    The ground wire won’t make a difference.

    It’s hard to say w/o seeing it.

    October 4, 2010 at 2:33 am #111799
    kay ciceo
    Member

    Ok, 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 #111801
    The EH Man
    Moderator

    Is this a black or green Sovtek?

    October 4, 2010 at 4:43 pm #111808
    kay ciceo
    Member

    This is a black russian big muff.

    thanks,
    Kay

    October 4, 2010 at 4:45 pm #111809
    The EH Man
    Moderator

    Take it to a tech.

    October 5, 2010 at 11:27 pm #111832
    Ned Flanders
    Moderator

    The 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 #111860
    kay ciceo
    Member

    Thanks,
    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
    Kay

    December 2, 2012 at 5:47 am #118477
    johnyboy_pt
    Member

    Kay, 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

  • Author
    Posts
Viewing 11 posts - 1 through 11 (of 11 total)
  • You must be logged in to reply to this topic.