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I'm all too familiar with this problem too Jimjam. I'll remember to add an extra bit of solder time. Got to be careful not to flood the pad though!

you only needs add the tiniest bit to flow out a joint. I always try to err on the side of too little solder. when I try to work too  quickly is when I run into problems. soldering isnt difficult but it must be done methodically and with the same technique every single time. rushing is only going to cause problems and make a build take far more time when you have to track down errors and fix them. tip cleaner (tinning paste) that comes in the little round tins at radio shack helps you acheive smooth shiny joints, especially if you set your iron pretty hot as i do. touch the tip in just before you make a joint and again after to keep the tip well tinned and I use steel wool and poke my tip in to remove crusty solder buildup from the iron as i work.

Thanks for the replies everyone.  I'll be sure to give it a decent clean and scrub before I start soldering again.

Can I take it that if you make a solder bridge between two pads that aren't also connected by traced that the board is a write off?  I've never had much luck completely removing solder with a braid or pump.

also each time you reheat a joint you MUST add new solder for it to flow out. reheating solder causes it to stick to the iron's tip and drag away dull looking  "horns" of semi molten solder and quite make quite a mess especially on a dense layout. I've been at this for years but sometimes I get lazy and skip adding new solder (the tiniest bit) and everytime I do I pay the price for it... solder bridge somewhere almost always

It helps if you lightly take something like a green scotchbrite pad and rub it over the copper traces/pads.  The copper oxidizes very quickly and it makes it difficult to solder.  Then take some rubbing alcohol 98% or acetone and clean it before soldering.

Josh

agree.... by the way the solder appears to by "resisting" the traces you should clean the oxidation off the copper before soldering. if a board sits around it will oxidize pretty quickly making soldering difficult. scoth bright or very light sandpaper.600 grit or more should clean it up. or if you want to store the boards use some "tinnit" solution to plate the trace side with a thin layer of tin that resists oxidation and makes soldering easier

I'm just about done with an ada build on one of those boards glad to hear that it's a winner. I plan to test out an nte1641 bbd in mine

I remember reading an interview where steve morse said he was on the fence about playing in deep purple until he started rehearsing and realised what a great musician jon was. he said that he underestimated the calibre of the guys in the band. and ended up playing with a guy( who was incredibly creative and intuitive, creating a great situation for some intense improvisation and musical "conversation" between him and jon. it turned out to be one of the best gigs he ever got.

I always loved the sound of that organ in such a heavy outfit. If anybody isn't familiar with there more recent stuff that purple did with steve morse. do yourself a favor and check it out.

god bless ya Jon!

zombie woof off of zappa plays zappa...dweezil and steve vai swap some jaw dropping licks. I always gotta stop whatever I'm doing and listen. then find the nearest closet and sob about my shitty playing

I've found that having too hot an iron will cause the toner to glue the paper to the enclosure. on my iron I set it to about 30%, ymmv. also i fill a basin with luke warm water and let the enclosure soak till the paper simply lifts off by itself. I them reinforce the mask with an enamal paint marker getting as close to the edge of the transfer as i can and completely filling in the background. also it is very important to "flatten the surface by block sanding with a hard flat surface to remove any dips in the surface. edges and holes tend to round over if you sand without a block and your iron will not make full even contact with the enclosure. getting a clean transfer is all in the sanding. I tend to sand about 20-30 minutes in order to get a workable surface. but that work pays off later when i have sharp text and a smooth clean background without any specs or pits.

136000s are 89cents at smallbear. i just got 20 of em.

nice build mate! I started this today with the g-string mod. I'm glad this project was made available. it's the best noise gate i've ever used.

audiophile knobs....

check out the descrition on this! I'm throwing all my other pedals in the garbage!!!

http://www.ebay.com/itm/TONE-MONSTER-OPTIMUM-OVERDRIVE-Guitar-Effect-Pedal-FREE-SHIPPING-Patch-Cable-/180908094461?pt=Guitar_Accessories&hash=item2a1ef673fd#ht_3153wt_922

omg! mac users behave yourselves

fell off the couch laughing at this!!!

The Univibe effect is created by four phase shifting stages, whereas the Phase45 is two stages. So, you won't get a true Univibe but you might be able to get something convincing. You need to set C4 and C5 on the Smoothie at a 10:1 ratio, according to the info here: http://www.lynx.bc.ca/~jc/phase45modded.gif

Switch C5 to 100n.

Haven't tried this...let us know how it works out!

i've done this mod and it does have a convincing vibe tone.

I like a well tuned ge fuzz face with the fuzz backed off a bit (especially with single coils). it has a smooth overdrive tone that responds better than anything with playing dynamics a the guitars volume knob. I love the clean tones that a ff delivers as well. it would be my desert island pedal. also really like the catalinbread sft (mb faultline) it's a bass effect but sounds awesome with guitar IMO. it has a very warm (dark) vintage-y amp like tone great for classic rock and rythym playing.

you should read rg's article on the technology of the univibe. has some good mods. particularly the the one to eliminate volume drop. the neovibe can have a pretty drastic one when done with true bypass switching. the stereo conversion mod is cool too. I'm working one one for a modulation rack module that I'm developing right now.