New (broken) pedal day!

[Pepe]

These two are on the way to me:

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Both units are declared as defective. Let's see what I can do (if anything has to be done at all). They seem to be ACA-models. I haven't heard an SD-1 in ages (more than 20 years!), so I'm looking forward to trying it out with my today's gear (and my today's ears). I didn't like it too much when we had it in our music shop, but little did I know back then in comparison to now.

EDIT: the seller already supplied me with the tracking information.

[zentropa]

Looks good.

I didn't like the SD-1 much in my younger days, particularly when I was playing solid state amps, but it has grown into one of my favorite overdrives of all time. I like it for low to medium grit into a clean amp, but it is my primary boost for dirty amps. I've probably had about 75 of them over the years as that was a pedal I used to mod quite a bit. From my experiences, the ACA ones tend to sound better and have a slightly different playfeel than the PSA versions. Something I have also found is that the MIJ and very early MIT ones seem to have more dry signal in the mix, which allows more of your guitar's wood to come through (up through ~1990).

[Pepe]

That's very good information, thank you! Seventy-Five SD-1 units?! Well, that's quite crazy.

[zentropa]

That's very good information, thank you! Seventy-Five SD-1 units?! Well, that's quite crazy.

I used to mod DS-1, SD-1, and MT-2 to sell for profit. e.g. buy a DS-1 for $20, do the keeley mods to it (~$3-5 in parts), and sell it for $70. I did this for 2-3 years and ended up with a lot of different versions/eras.

If it happens to be an early production SD-1, I have found several op amp variants used in the first couple of years, but they seemed to settle in on the JRC4558DD around mid-1983. I have had a few with other op amps and also swapped a bunch of them via mods and have found they affect the playfeel , compression, and attack definition more than changing the tone.

[laurie]

Both units are declared as defective.

Nice! Both are easy fixes if broken.

The only unobtanium part might be the BA634 flip-flop in the OC-2, if it has that chip, and if it has failed (I've never seen a broken one).

[Pepe]

Nice! Both are easy fixes if broken.

That was exactly what I thought, so this was a no-brainer for a price of under 50 EUR for the pair including shipping.

[laurie]

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[bigtone23]

I didn't like the SD-1 much in my younger days, particularly when I was playing solid state amps, but it has grown into one of my favorite overdrives of all time. I like it for low to medium grit into a clean amp, but it is my primary boost for dirty amps. I've probably had about 75 of them over the years as that was a pedal I used to mod quite a bit. From my experiences, the ACA ones tend to sound better and have a slightly different playfeel than the PSA versions. Something I have also found is that the MIJ and very early MIT ones seem to have more dry signal in the mix, which allows more of your guitar's wood to come through (up through ~1990).

I got my first SD1 around 1985.
I had a bandmate at that time with the simple signal chain of: MIJ SSS Strat>SD1>Silver Face Super Reverb. His tone was killer.
I had one extra spot on my BCB6, so I traded another friend for his SD1. It didn't sound as good as a stand alone drive with my VTX Peavey Classic or MX head, as they had a more mid forward tonality vs the Fender scoop. I did quickly find how great it was when boosting the DF2 (Distortion/Feedbacker version ) set to a much lower distortion setting. This has become my SD1 use: boosting crunchy signals.

[Pepe]

The two BOSS pedals might arrive later today. Yesterday I received this from Sweden (two days from Stockholm to Duisburg, only! ):



All modules were declared as defective (untested). I suppose that the Ext Selector and the Graphic EQ are working, but I haven't had the time to test them. The Wave Shaper is missing the main PCB, but everything else is there. It is one of the three rarest modules that often fetches prices over 300 USD.

Currently I have two complete and working Wave Shaper units. I am going to try to reverse engineer the circuit (it is one of the later units that is not included in the service notes). The original board is packed with tons of components, so let's see if there is a chance to do a sandwiched replacement board. This is going to be a time-consuming project for the late Summer or so. And it is going to require an own thread once I find the time for it.

[Pepe]

The two "defective" BOSS pedals have arrived. I don't know what the seller did to test them (there was a fresh German VARTA battery inside the OC-2; maybe he had a broken cable?), but they work great with a fresh battery or with a power supply (daisy-chained with a PSA-model). The potentiometers crackle a bit, but that's all. The OC-2 is even made in Japan!



EDIT:
The two complete KORG modules (Graphic EQ and Ext Selector) are also perfectly working. They only need a good cleaning. I have never had a faulty module, only two Analog Delay units that needed new potentiometers. These effects are extremely sturdy and well-built.