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Miscellanious Stuff

When hunting for stuff one always runs into things unexpected. Either too interesting not to take, a bargain etc etc. This part of this page is for all those effects of brands of which I only have one or which are simply not worth creating a page for.

Dunlop GCB-95 Wah

Another Wah that came to me in desperate need for a new pot.... as usual. This wah is quite heavily modified. Other than a standard True Bypass conversion and an added LED, most components on the pcb were replaced as well. I don't know what the people at Dunlop are doing but I don't see what a capacitor type tagetted at power supply decoupling is doing in an audio circuit. Other than that the 10nF feedback cap is replaced by a 6 way rotary switch switching through various values an therefore making the wah more tunable to specific requirement in frequency range. Usually I'm not that eager on drilling additional holes in pedals. However, considering the amount of these wah's made I don't have the feeling of having destroyed a heavily collectable vintege valued item.

Dunlop JH-1 Wah

My first Wah! Other than that I don't remember that I have spend much time with this wah. I guess that this is partially due to a) Having to learn how to wah (at age 16), b) The sound of a JH wah not being too great and c) the pot of this wah getting scratchy by the time I finally managed to wah. Naturally I have attempted to clean the pot to get rid of the scratching. From doing this I can only get to one conclusion. Hot Potz Pot's do suck. Mark. These pots are labelled "long life". Is 3 months of not so exstensive use a long life? That's how long this pot lived relatively scratchfree. Hello!! My 70's Ibanez WauWau has a typical Japanese low budget pot and has never scratched and was never cleaned, replaced or whatever. What's the difference? The single wiper in a Hot Potz that is. Junk.

Jen Mr Crybaby Super

Cool stuff comes in strange ways. I got a request for a recase job where the elecronics of effect x had to be built into a Dunlop style wah shell. Browsing for these showed that the costs for aquiring such a shell would exceed the the budget for the project. Not such a great idea after all. So I put up an online addy requesting defective Dunlop type wah's. Defective not a problem. I actually (for the price I bid) got 2 responses. One was another Hendrix wah which was overtweaked by the previous owner to the point of destruction of the electronics. Fine shell however so problem solved. The other response was for a, and I quote " Kind a like a crybaby but an Italian one and not american so not worth repairing....". Showed up to be a Jen Crybaby, fully original (not scratching) with the red Fasel and all. Thanks! Defective indeed. In both switchpositions it acted like a volume pedal..... which meant that the volume pedal mod, which disconnects an electrolytic, more or less came into existence in a natural way as this elco slowly dried out causing it to lose capacitance.

Realistic Electronic Reverb

Pretty often recommended as a poor mans analog delay these come very cheap indeed. Unfortunately these are made around a 1024 step MN3207 BBD which is very short for creating audible delays, causing the bandwith to be very limited.

Tokai Compressor TCO-1

No description yet

Morley Volume Wah

Worldwide critisism on the sound of Morleys or not, the do have one advantage which really counts for me. No scratchy pots! Never.

Morley Rotating Wah

Sigh. The beast. The biggest pedal I own.... and it doesn't work. And actually, I'd say that every oilcan based effect should be considered defective until stated that it was fully restored. Oilcan you say? Yes indeed. The oilcan delay was invented by Ray Lubow and sold under his Tel-Ray company. It was manufactured under licence and can be found in boxes like the Fender Dimension IV and Vox effects. Without diving into tech details too much the Oilcan delay is the counterpart of the tape delay. Where tape works with magnetics and inductive elements the oilcans work on a basis of capacity. Inside the device there's a drum with a disc that rotates throung oil. In this oil are tiny particles. there's 2 wipers that wipe this oil over the discs surface to a thin film. One of these wipers is connected to the input signal. The signal charges the particles in the oil and because they're in oil they cannot discharge to one and another. The second wiper is placed a little further and the particle will discharge to this one with levels that are more or less proportionally to the input signal but, because of the time delay of the rotating disc, with a slight delay. If you think this is hard to understand try explaining it! The thing is that all these oilcan based effects are over 30 years old and in most cases the oil had gradually leaked out. This means they have gone dry and the effect is gone. To simply put new oil in doesn't work. The oil is the special and hard to get (unless you're a big company) LB65 made by the UCON (Bopal) company. Which is the reason for regarding them as defective initially. They surely have gone dry. Operating a dry one will not give effect but will damage the disc eventually.

Morley EDL Electrostatic Delay

No description yet

Keio Synthesizer Traveler

MXR Flanger M-117

One of these "you've just made my day" events, where a friend had a box full of music related junk to check out and take from it whatver you want..... This one was completely wrapped in tape, dirty and with a heavily damaged power chord. After removal of all the tape remains the hope of finding a near mint device was not the case. It definitely had a lot of history aready. However, the inside was completely mint, non tweaked or whatever. New powerchord and the thing got back to life. Thanks for a great gift! What more was in that box??? A shitload of damaged microphone cables (meaning a fresh supply of XLR plugs), The Aria Wah also mentioned on this page, a brand-X from the 70's expression pedal......Yep, that sums it up pretty much.

Profi-Sound Graphic Equalizer

My first modproject. I bought this one new for some (converted) 7 euro's new from someone on the local market selling junk electronics like cheap incomplete electric screwdrivers, almost broken walkmans etc etc. Definitely leftovers which didn't pass quality control somewhere in Taiwan or the like. This one did work... technically. Opening it up immediately showed that it's somewhat of an MXR ripoff. Furthermore the "designers" had tried their very best to save some additional money by keeping component count in different component values as limited as possible. Recalculating the frequency bands therefore gave extreme differences to what the frequency's should be. Apart from that the thing was noisy as hell. I recalculated all frequency bands to the value they should have and changed all resistors by metal film types to the closest value. All capacitors in the filtering were changed as well to higher quality types. All opamps (1458's) were replaced by lower noise TL072's (LM388 for even lower noise were tried as well but they're prone to oscillation at 9 volts supply power). This modification really cleared up the sound as the relation between the frequency's became more defined and therefore more musical. This is a modification which aplies very well to Boss and Ibanez graphic EQ's (though they're definitely better in their stock shape) as well.

Aria Chorus

I had this chorus over for repair a few years ago. It was not working and was claimed to have been in the past before the owner had lend it to someone. Repair came to cross swapping the BBD and its driver from position and replacing a schortcitted reverse polarity diode. Apparently someone had attempted to fix the thing after blowing it up with a wrong adapter. After not having been used after this repair it was given to me for the collection. Odd tech detail is that it's based on a MN3209 256-stage BBD instad of the more common 1024-stage MN3207's. Although short delay times suggest that this would tend to be more flangelike than chorus it's definitely a chorus and despite it's budget plastic casing, it's a very good, nice sounding, one.

Aria Flanger FL-10

More or less my first encounter with the Aria "dual stage" series, as well as my first encounter with non-plastic boxed aria effects. These pedals are quite well build! The gimmick is ofcourse the "dual stage" part that when stepped on, changes the rate of the effect. Soundwise not my initial favourite. Definitely isnteresting from acollecting point of view.

Aria Analog Delay AD-10

And so, after running into the Flanger, I managed to get the delay. Delaytime was a little too short for my taste but could be adjusted inside (Note: I strongly oppose to the recent "twist the internal controls because it makes your pedal better!" fashion. Don't tweak em unless you know what you're doing. ). Drawback of this tweaking is that the amount of distortion for the higher pitched notes definitely increases. For the delay in general, it's OK. Especially with delays for me the only way to judge them is by how they inspire me while playing and therefore how much time it takes before they bore me. This one is OK. Nothing more, nothing less.

Arion Flanger SFL-1

No description yet

Dod Swell Pedal FX-15

No description yet

Dod Stereo Chorus FX-60

Tipped off by a friend for this one being on auction with a very low BIN and in a poor state. I only saw his message about 4 days later as I was on holiday and therefore couldn't believe the thing wasn't sold yet. It seems the previous owner had tried to give the thing it's own cables instead of having to plug it in and while doing that, messed the whole thing up to a "defective" state. Nice chorus from a sound perspective.

Visual Sound H20 Chorus/Delay

Great delay but why is that chorus so incredibly stiff. Works great for stuff like Floyds "Run like Hell"

DOD FX55B Supra Distortion

(Not Completely but a little) My first Distortion....... This (not exactly) pedal was given to me for my sixteenth birthday by my parents. I loved it! Now That's Rock!!! .... The parents didn't love it that much too and seemed to regret their present somewhat. After buying a multi-effect some 3 years later and thinking that I wouldn't use a standalone distortion anymore I sold this pedal..... It only took two weeks of owning a multi-effect before I bought my TS-10 Tubescreamer. However, running into this one whit a very decent BIN on ebay made me decide to get the pedal again. Just for the "my first" feeling. So, years later..... is it that great? Nope. It's not. Too fuzzy for an OD and too OD-ish for a fuzz. It's a stayer nevertheless. I'm not going to get this pedal for a third time when I get curious again (say, in 15 years from now).

ProCo Rat

This is one of the newer rats, The Rat, Rat 3 and revB on the PCB. I used to have an older one but not being much of a rat player myself I traded that one for this one with someone who really liked my older one and does play it almost weekly live. However, At the time of that trade I had the pleasure of playing around with several Rat versions. The PCB texts still come funny: - "The baddest box for the baddest axe, Brought to you by the captain of the universe the RAT" Board Rev C, around 1986 - "The captain is smiling" Multi Rat, around 1983 - "Fuzztones for the Connoiseur" The Rat type B, Board rev C around 1981

Tech 21 Sansamp GT2

No description yet

Kay tremolo

Cheap plastic! Never, really never expected that these non (foot)bypassable plastic boxes were that old and that well known. I got this one by pure accident. Too short travel on the pedal mechanism and too much depth in the vibrato for my taste.

UMI Treble Bass Booster & Mute

What's there to tell about UMI. They're distinct and it seems little to none isknown about the company.This pedal is a one germanium transistor tone control and, based on the pot codes, from somewhere around 1967. The mid control is some kind of wicked frequency adjust and has a lot of feedback back into the input causing it to have an extreme resonance at the centerfrequency. I aquired this pedal some 12 years ago as a trade and have been on the edge of trading it in severeral times. As I learned more about the extreme rarity and got more of a collector I started to appreciate the value of this thin. A stayer, if it were only for that rarity.

Kampo Tube Overdrive

These tubedriver ripoffs are/were sold by the German Conrad company and come real chap. Considering it's a real tube overdrive it tends to seem like a bargain. The unit is made extremely well from a mechanical perpective and should be able to withstand even elephants. Drawback is that while all the controls have a very smooth click while turning them the "lo" control had teh same clicks but without the smoothness, giving it a very cheap feel Plugged in one starts to understand why it's so cheap. They sound horrible and with a very muffled sound. Even converting it back to "as close as" tubedriver specs didn't make it much better. It can in no way compare to something like an Ibanez Tubeking. In this device amplification is done with a 12AX7 in starved plate (low voltage) design whereas in a tubeking amplification is done with opamps and the tube stage only has to act as a filter. Furthermore the 3 stage tonecontrol isn't too effective as compared to the tubekings active tone control. If looking for a decent tube based overdrive leave this one for what it is and look further.

Cosmosound Powerful-Sound E-6

Brought to my attention somewhere in the second half of 2005 this was one of the things which ended up on my wish/lookout list. This cosmosound is an early Italian copy of the Fender Blender (the Italian music industry of the 60's and 7-'s must have been so big...) . A blender is somewehere on the bottom of my wish list as well but especially the vintage ones are pretty unaffordable... This one arrived in a pretty poor state and required some initial restoration so it would kinda work at least. First of all it showed signs of the age-ing of components. Something I see more and more often lately. This cosmosound is from 1978 and I don't think the Italians that built it ever thought a1bout the fact that people might want to use it 27 years later. As for restoration, the tone footswitch was resoldered and did not funiction anymore. Easy fix. Furthermore the 2 controls I replaced (for their unsmooth control, even after spraying) had a resistance value which didn't have anything resembling with the value which they should have. The tolex covering has schrunk over the years. Taking it off and ironing it to get rid of the rounded edges could't solve that size problem anymore. In the near future I'll be checking all electrolytics since I expect them to have gone dry. For now, soundwise, a wannahave. Too cool. too prety. Thank you now probaly retired Italians who build this 27 years ago! You build a classic copy.

Play Mate Phaser PH-2B

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When finding the time I'll write an "engineering special" on this one. Unfortunately not because of its qualities in a positive perspective. I never have seen a pedal with so many errors, cheap solutions, poor cosmetics, etc. Let's name a few: The colour green of the 2 knobs is just green. It doesn't seem they were at any time selected to have any similarity the green of the case in mind, the pots have a plastic shaft of some 3mm thick, the various parts of the case don't fit together, the rate control is wired in reverse, the Led only stays in place because the (insulated) wires rest against the DC connector, the Led barely lights up when activated... need to go on? As for the thing itself, It's made in India by the Northern Electronics Corp. When looking inside the size of the PCB, as well as the way of engineering suggests something Bossy. The same goes for the font type of the lettering on the front that says Phaser PH-2B that has a strong resemblance to the font used by Boss as well. Problem is that there seems to be no PH-2B in the Boss pedal arsenal. Now, when playing the thing it seems there is so much bass in the sound that I took a bass to play it. It seems indeed to be a bass phaser! Bottom line? it's a rarity and will be put in the freaks department/

Hohner HWP-30

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Plastic... feels cheap, switches cheap, sounds cheap, cost 5 euro's in a garage sale.... was cheap. This Wah, manufactured by the PSK company can be obtained under a lot of different brandnames. This is just one of them. All that aside, there's positives!. The circuit is based on a crybaby with some what seem to be enhancements. Converted back to a stock crybaby circuit made it a lot better from a sound perspective already. But, there's more. The effect in out switching is done with one half of a DPDT switch which meant that it was made TB within a few minutes. That all leaves the crappy feel of the thing. Not much to be changed about that.

Aria AWP-100

0	Have Mercy!! OK, one shouldn't be too critical on a gift but still... One of these plastic devices is enough... and selling is cose to impossible

Marshall Bluesbreaker

Another gift. The one who gave it to me git it as a gift too. For whatever obscure reason someone had been screwing around with the jacks resulting in the copper PCB traces on which they are soldered were completely ripped off the board. Since the box is always more interesting in a working condition than as a spare parts supplier (there's nothing "special"in a bluesbreaker) I made a new jack in out board for the thing holding 2 standard jacks. Up and running. Nice present!

Reverberation Amplifier

Arion Chorus SCH1

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Hmmm.... Still not the hyped (and excellent sounding) SFC1, fat chorus but still a misunderstood device. Ive had the PCB's of the SFC and the SCH1 next to each other and they are very different. Not just a matter of changing a few component values. Other than that, it's a great chorus though it came in a completely beat up state.

DOD Octoplus FX35

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Came in the same deal with the SCH1 above. The FX35 is a strange one to me. I once had one. Years ago. I cannot remember why I bought it in the first place and can only suspect I got rid of it around '96. It's an octaver on the same principle as the Boss octave and the Pearl Octaver but with less add ons. As with all octavers of this type. The input wave is refctified to a square wave , divided by 2 (a very simple digital circuit) and tone shaped. Therefore there's absolutely nothing of the original tonal character of the input signal left.

Dunlop Univibe

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I got this one broken. I can only assume that the previous owner had a reverse polarity power supply and blew the thing up. After changing the power supply electrolytics he gave up and sold the thing. replacement of the voltage regulator did not help. When measuring the rest of the IC's (some 18?) I got such weird results from the logic inside that I decided to stop measuring and just replace all. A much faster job than desoldering all, test em and determine wther or not broken. Got it running at the first try. Nice Univibe but by far not as exciting as my beloved Shin Ei Phaser tone.

Digitech Whammy XP-100

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Ofcourse I want a WH-1 too. However these go for extraordinary prices and, as I had to admit, I had never played a whammy anyway. Therefore I got this one. Removed the beer inside (and learned that a whammy with beer residue will play for 8 minutes before stopping), Replaced the switches and was goods to go. Whammy's are good fun but in a band situation I don't have a clue how to use it. The wah sims are OK to get you through the gig but will not easily replace the wah's they claim to model.

Arion Fat Chorus SFC1

No description yet

Aria Chorus CH-10

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Digitech Modulator XP-200

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Digitech Reverberator XP-400

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DOD Phasor 595-A

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