Man O War Deluxe - only works in TAILS mode

[slowpogo]

https://www.madbeanpedals.com/projects/_folders/Delay/pdf/ManOWarDX.pdf

I built this years ago and it worked perfectly for a long time. But now it only produces echo when in TAILS mode. If I turn off TAILS so the pedal is on but in true bypass mode, I get no echo at all.

I've examined the board, re-flowed solder on the footswitches and associated pads, and everything else looks like it always did. But the problem persists.

Any suggestions to troubleshoot this issue?

[thomasha]

Tails needs to be on for the effect to work, otherwise there is no signal going to the BBDs

To use it in true bypass mode (without tails) use the bypass switch (with tais switch on)

To use it in tails mode, bypass is always on and you switch the tails switch on and off.

Otherwise, I would check the footswitch. I had some that failed after some time.

[slowpogo]

lol okay, I was confused about how it worked. It sat on the shelf for a few years and I was remembering wrong.

However I also noticed a different, real issue. This pedal does not self-oscillate but it will repeat for a very long time with Feedback and Mix turned all the way up. However now, after half a dozen repeats the echo kind of distorts and craps out, not the usual BBD degradation, but like the signal gets too weak and breaks up. I know for sure it did not used to do that.

[thomasha]

We all been there. I forget every time how the loophole works, and in which order one has to stomp it.

About the sound getting weak, there I have no Idea. My guess would be a capacitor or the bias changing somewhere.
The compander does the rest of the job and just filters it out.

Maybe you could check it with an audio probe.