# Sabbath distortion



## Adam Dale (Jul 28, 2020)

Guys. It goes without saying that im a noob. Ive built a few kits and wanted to try my hand at sourcing my own parts. On this sabbath build i used a different pot for the presence. It called for b10k and i used a10k. Also on one of the caps i used a 250v. Its overkill but it shouldnt be preventing me from getting a signal. Signal is very dim. Sounds very far away and tinny. I double checked the orientation of the electrolytic sections and theyre all correct. Any help would be appreciated


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## Nostradoomus (Jul 28, 2020)

Where did you get your JFETs (4393)? If you got them from eBay or amazon or any dealer that isn’t reputable that’s probably your problem.


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## Adam Dale (Jul 28, 2020)

Well dang. Thats where ill start. Thank you. It was certainly ebay. Any substitutions for that jfet?


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## Nostradoomus (Jul 28, 2020)

Well let’s start by getting some pictures and carefully checking your values before you buy more stuff!


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## Adam Dale (Jul 28, 2020)

Also true. How do i go about checking values? I know the rings have a color code but beyond that. I use a multimeter?


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## Nostradoomus (Jul 28, 2020)

Using a multimeter with the components in the circuit is problematic, just do a thorough visual inspection. Your electro caps will have the value written on them, film caps are coded differently ie 474 is 470nf, 473 is 47nf, 472 is 4.7nf. There’s charts on the internet if you feel inclined to find em and learn. There’s a DigiKey app that has resistor value tools and such in it, it’s pretty handy.


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## Adam Dale (Jul 28, 2020)

Nostradoomus said:


> Using a multimeter with the components in the circuit is problematic, just do a thorough visual inspection. Your electro caps will have the value written on them, film caps are coded differently ie 474 is 470nf, 473 is 47nf, 472 is 4.7nf. There’s charts on the internet if you feel inclined to find em and learn. There’s a DigiKey app that has resistor value tools and such in it, it’s pretty handy.


Thank you man. Appreciate the help


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## Dr. Satan (Aug 1, 2020)

You can also download a program called "Electronics Assistant" from electronics2000.co.uk if you're on a windows machine. It's got your basics on how to read resistor bands (literally just point and click the colors and it spits out the answer so it's easy to associate and learn) cap codes and conversions, LED current limiting resistor calculations, resistors in series/parallel, caps in series/parallel, 555 timer stuff and some other stuff for power and inductance etc. It's a great educational tool or to keep handy if you just casually use some functions sparsely and don't really remember the details. I use it a lot for calculating resistors in parallel because I'm too lazy to do the math, lol.


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## Adam Dale (Aug 7, 2020)

It appears that i used a bc184lc in Q1 as opposed to bc184. I believe the pinout is different. Or should this have worked


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## moonlightpedalbuilds (Aug 8, 2020)

You can use 184LC just mind the pin configuration. I use the same transistor too.


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## Danbieranowski (Aug 8, 2020)

Adam Dale said:


> It appears that i used a bc184lc in Q1 as opposed to bc184. I believe the pinout is different. Or should this have worked


As a fellow newb, one tip I could add is to always socket your transistors (and ICs) so you can try different stuff or more easily troubleshoot. It’s saved my butt a few times.


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