New (broken) pedal day!

[Pepe]

But the good thing that came out of this story is that I now appreciate the sound of the MZ-2 more than I did before. With decreased amount of gain the pedal has a really lively and "singing" character that I like a lot. I'm not too fond of the then-fancy digital delay/chorus and I rather like to use it in "SGL" mode, but in stereo the other modes really shine and enhance the sound in a nice way.

So I'm glad that I have another unit, mint in box. That one will stay for sure.

[bigtone23]

Picked up a free, non-working Hardwire DL8 Delay Looper. The internals date it to 2014 and it is scratched up and pitted, so it had an active and busy life in a much more humid place than Colorado.
The LED briefly flashes when either a power supply or battery is connected, but the effect does not work. Can hear a relay click while flipping the "tails" switch, so there seems to be power running through the circuit.
Going to try the usual suspects, cleaning the switch and jacks, touching up the solder joints on the power and in/out jacks and try a couple power supplies as I hear it's a picky pedal.
The bypass switch is the small one, like found in Ibanez pedals. If there would be some sort of LED reaction to pressing it, I would believe it was good. I find these switches to be really unreliable, so will also get a replacement on the way.

IF it's not easily fixed, I would be happy to send it to anyone for the cost of shipping. If you can get it working or cannibalize for parts, great!

[Zerksies]

I remember when these were new. LOL I'm getting damn old

[Pepe]

I moved your postings into this thread. Could you perhaps supply pictures of the circuit board, bigtone23? With some luck it's just a burnt diode.

[bigtone23]

I moved your postings into this thread. Could you perhaps supply pictures of the circuit board, bigtone23? With some luck it's just a burnt diode.

I'll get a shot of the board when I have it opened up next to try round one of repair. The DC power jack arrives tomorrow, the switch some time this week.

[bigtone23]

Got the parts.
Swapped out the power jack first, as I noticed some improvement in operation when I applied force with the power adapter at some angles in the original jack. This part swap alone got the pedal working, for the most part, but some of the modes don't work (like Reverse and Lo Fi). The standard modes (with tap tempo) and looper work great, so no need to replace the bypass/tempo switch. As to why some modes don't work, perhaps it's something wrong with the mode rotary switch, perhaps something else, like it took a power hit from that bad jack. It's glitchy sometimes--the mode switch seems to glitch and the switch position doesn't correspond to the mode being heard.
From what I can gather, I get why it's a cool delay pedal, kind of like my Line 6 Echo Park (which is a favorite). The basic function is happening and I'm calling it good enough. This is a resurrection of sorts and this pedal is going to be a gift delay to someone someday.

[Pepe]

Great to hear that it is alive again!

... but some of the modes don't work (like Reverse and Lo Fi). The standard modes (with tap tempo) and looper work great, so no need to replace the bypass/tempo switch. As to why some modes don't work, perhaps it's something wrong with the mode rotary switch, perhaps something else, like it took a power hit from that bad jack. It's glitchy sometimes--the mode switch seems to glitch and the switch position doesn't correspond to the mode being heard.

That sounds like the usual fault when a mode potentiometer isn't working properly again. See this thread:
http://www.bossareaforum.com/Forum/view ... ?f=6&t=974

[Pepe]

A few weeks ago I bought this wonderful looking vintage Vesta Fire CG-1 Comp/Gate for our dear member fuzzbuzzfuzz.



The seller said that the pedal wouldn't work with 9V power, only with 12V or more. When I received it, I tested it with various power supplies, for example the standard BOSS PSA, a few 12V wallwarts and a BOSS ACA (a little bit over 14V without load).

All the power supplies over 9V produced hum, but they made the pedal react much better than the 9V PSA type. While the compressor was working "so-so", the noise gate was pretty useless, no matter how I powered the unit.

When I inspected the circuit board, I found several bipolar electrolytic capacitors of rather tiny size. Being very familiar with the issues of ageing capacitors in the KORG PME-40X modules, I know that those bipolar capacitors can be the main culprit of malfunctioning after over 40 years. Especially those compact sized capacitors can be very dry these days, even more than polarised capacitors of the same size.
Nerd info: This is because a bipolar electrolytic capacitor is internally constructed as two polarised capacitors in series. To achieve the same total capacitance in such a small enclosure, they require more foil area, leaving significantly less room for the liquid electrolyte - which makes them dry out much faster over the decades.

So I recommended and offered a full recapping, which I finally did today.

The result: After replacing all the dried-up capacitors, the pedal works fantastically! It now runs perfectly on a standard, regulated 9V power supply without any hum or issues. The performance change is night and day: the compressor is now solid, punchy, and versatile. But the real surprise is the noise gate! I honestly expected it to be just some basic noise reduction. Instead, with the proper capacitance restored, it tracks great and can be set to sound very much like a BOSS SG-1 Slow Gear!

It is another reminder of how crucial and important a full recap is for these old 70s and 80s analog gems. This blue and rare pedal was sounding and behaving like the worst junk, now it is fully back alive - maybe better than ever, because I mainly used high quality Panasonic, Nichicon and WIMA capacitors.

This was the original state with the old capacitors:



After the recapping (I received a very large 2,2µF bipolar capacitor, although I ordered one with a length of 11mm, but gladly it did fit inside):



And the solder side has never been cleaner than after my treatment:




Here is a list of the original capacitors, in case that a reader has such a unit. Please, please do the recap and save this '80s secret weapon!

C2 0.47µF/50V bipolar
C4 10µF/16V
C5 10µF/16V
C6 33µF/10V bipolar
C9 10µF/16V
C12 1µF/50V
C20 10µF/16V bipolar
C21 4.7µF/35V
C22 4.7µF/35V
C23 0.47µF/50V bipolar
C24 0.22µF/50V bipolar
C25 0.47µF/25V
C27 1µF/50V
C28 1µF/50V
C30 2.2µF/50V bipolar
C38 1.000µF/10V
C39 10µF/16V
C40 1µF/50V
C41 1µF/50V
C42 1µF/50V
C43 100µF/10V