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Thank you cooder! I'll be in touch soon.
Thanks Brian! I totally agree.

Hey guys,
     I was at a friends new studio and brought along a pedal that I built years ago to get some feedback. The owner, engineer, and the artist recording all freaked out and begged me to build one for them. They were saying that they knew a lot of people who would have to have one as well. There's no way I'm going to hand build a bunch of these on vero or anything like that but would like to see where this goes if I did a small run of maybe 20-50. The pedal is based off of a Plexitone (with some component value changes) but runs at +/-15v with added treble, mid, and bass with a few other tweaks/adds. Nothing earth shattering but it really does sound and react like a good plexi on just about any amp. I think the changes make it different enough to warrant producing it but that doesn't mean everyone else will. So my questions are:
1. Is it different enough to ethically do this?
2. Who would I get to design the board and how much would it cost?
3. Who makes your pcb's and at what quantity/cost?

Thanks for any insight!

I ordered a couple of metal can CA3080's that came in today. I tried them and I am getting audio from the master volume section and the compressor seems to be working correctly now. The cheapo chinese $2 CA3080's were definately a problem. There are still some issues though. It doesn't seem to have the gain that it should and there is still a weird power supply issue.

Thanks again for the help-m-Kresol.
I thought that was strange too that there is voltage on pins that should be no connection. I had to pull the master volume pot to get to the underside of the board but I didn't find any problems anywhere. All resistor values are correct on the ones you mentioned and there are no shorts between pins on IC10. I used the audio probe and pin 2 has clean audio in and pin 6 out is distorted. I wonder if I got a couple of bad CA3080's? That would also explain why the compressor LED is always on and will not go out no matter where I set the compressor pot or trim pot.

Thank you for the replies- I get it now Jon thanks to m-Kesol's post. Dang AC, DC, and signal get me confused every time.

I did some poking around with an audio probe and everything seems good until I get to the Master volume/Compressor/Output stages (IC1 - IC9 I get clean audio in and out). When I get to IC10 (CA3080) I get terrible super loud crackling audio. I tried another chip and that didn't do it. I checked the solder joints on the socket with a magnifying glass and everything is shiny and there are no shorts. Here are the DC voltages on the CA3080's:
IC10:
1. 12.91
2. 0
3. 0
4. -14.87
5. 13.53
6. 14.12
7. 15.07
8. 12.86

IC11
1. 0
2. 0
3. 0
4. -14.87
5. -0.9
6. -0.3
7. 15.06
8. 13.15

Here is the page with the documentation:      https://aionelectronics.com/project/l5-preamp/   Any insight would be greatly appreciated.

Yeah I get that but how can every pin except supply voltages be zero?

I took some voltages on all of the chips while I had good +15 and -15 power supply voltages. Almost every chip shows 0 volts on all of the pins except for the +15 volt supply on pin 8 (pin 7 on the single op amps) and -15 volts on pin 4. What the heck?

Yes this is the tech support forum.
Yes I am using the Aion Lab Series pcb and enclosure.

Hello everyone, I finally finished the Lab Series Preamp project and guess what? I doesn't work!
On the power supply I get always get -15v but +15 is intermittent (I get -0.8v). When I don't get +15v I can remove a random IC or two and power it up and it comes back to +15v. I replaced the voltage regulator but that didn't change the problem. When I do get the +15v with all IC installed all LEDs light up correctly when switching channels and in bypass mode (although the compressor LED is always on and will not go out by turning the pot or the trimmer). I can crank the volume all the way up on either channel and get the slightest bit of volume to be able to hear that all of the pots and switches work on both channels. The master volume control does nothing.

I am going to pull out the schematic and start tracing. Maybe try an audio probe as well. Any ideas on where you would start would be helpful.

Well thank you all for your input. After everything that has been brought up that I was totally clueless about, I think I am going to pass on this project. 

Thank you guys! I'm not 100% sure that I want to take this on but you have given me a lot to think about. I guess the first step would be creating a pcb with everything mounted directly to it. My current pedal has two boards with some components mounted on pots and such. Do you typically etch a single layer pcb yourself to test? What format is required to send the design to a pcb manufacturer?

  If it will save $1500...............

Man that sucks cause it has a charge pump!

Great idea about using drill marks on the silk screen. I didn't want to drill at all because laying out the marks is a pain but I could drill them pre-marked.

I guess not knowing what the interest level would be I would start out with a single run. If 75% or so were sold, I could re-order and start a list for the next batch. That would keep me from constantly having to keep building if I was between batches. I'm talking best case scenario as far as interest of course.

I guess I would have to get a tax ID and deal with that aspect as well.

Thanks for the replies and great info guys.
I would rather sell direct. Think Analogman, Paul Cochran, or Klon but wildly unsuccessful......
Also, time is important to me so I think it would be worth it to hire out as much of the process as I could. PPP would probably be my best bet to buy painted and drilled enclosures. My son is willing to help and he's a screen printer with access to everything needed at work to do graphics. He can also solder well and is willing to help me build. He also works at Music Lab in Austin so a lot of people could potentially demo the pedal with their own rig in that setting.