thanks for the help.  It must have been some strange short.  Got it going great.

Transferring my design from breadboard to perfboard was easy enough, but a new and intresting problem has arisen.

I added to the design a pre and post gain using a 4049.  Everything works fine plugged in to my battery powered amp, but when I put ANY stompbox between the downgrader and the amp the 4049 heats up and I have take it out and put it back in for it to work again.  On the breadboard this never happened.

any help would be wonderful. I'm a long time stalker, first time poster.  

henry