The Mask of Zorro

The Dunlop Jimi Hendrix Fuzz Face sure looks like the original. Two knobs and a switch. All battery powered with no DC power jack. Mostly authentic. However, the new version uses NPN silicon transistors.

That's good news. The NPN transistors are the same polarity as the transistors as most pedals out there. A DC power jack can be installed and it will have the same polarity as your other pedals. The Fuzz Face can be powered by a brick or 1-spot without any problems.

Adding the DC jack is easy. Drill a hole, install the jack, and do some minor rewiring. Another option is to install a LED indicator.

Adding the LED indicator usually means replacing the DPDT switch in the Fuzz Face with a 3PDT switch commonly used in boutique and DIY pedals.

Below shows where a jack and LED grommet have been installed in a fuzz face. The INPUT and OUTPUT jacks have been removed to make a little room to work in.



Below shows the all the new wiring in place. The connections from the DPDT switch were migrated to the top two rows of the 3PDT switch. The last row provides a connection between ground and the LED when the pedal is engaged. A 4.7k resistor was connected in series between the DC jack and the LED.



Here's the modified pedal. A nice bright blue was selected for the LED color.

The MXR Dyna Comp is one of the best compressors out there. It is generally regarded as the compressor against which other compressors are compaired.

However, they have a double sided circuit board. This makes repairs a bit tricky. Desoldering in particular becomes a cumbersome task. Too much heat can make a pad lift off from the board.

The pedal below came into the shop with some intermittent problems after a previous potentiometer replacement. The pedal would cut out when the sensitivity knob was touched or manipulated. I found that the pads connecting the pot were starting to come loose. The solution was to make a solid electrical connection by putting in some jumper wires. These connected the lugs of the pot to the next component that the pot was supposed to be connected to. Some circuit tracing was required to figure out where to connect to.

Whoa this pedal is totally cool! What a great idea to combine a TS-808-like distortion with compression in one pedal. The housing is all totally old school pressed metal. The inside circuit is most beatious. Nice circuit layout, wide and roamy with plenty of elbow room.

This unit had a fried resistor due to some abusive power supplies. The resistor was fried beyond all recognition (FUBAR). No way to tell what value it was. Some circuit tracing in the power supply section was required to determine an appropriate replacement value. The pedal is now on it's second life!!

The Arion and Roctek pedals are notorious for failures in the potentiometers. The small cheap pots have extra-long shafts and are mounted directly onto the PCB. The long shafts provide more leverage, increasing the chances of something breaking.

It's possible to replace these pots in some cases. With the Arion Stereo Flanger there isn't quite enough room to replace all 4 pots with standard 16mm Alpha pots. But you *can* replace the two outside pots.

An example is shown below. The outside pots have been replaced with Alpha 16mm pots. The pots are now mounted on the pedal housing. The original Arion knobs wouldn't fit on the Alpha shaft. Some filing, or drilling out, is required so that the knob can go onto the new shaft. The plastic bar that goes across the pot shafts inside the pedal housing was also cut so that it only went across the two original shafts.

This pedal lost it's original battery cover. Generic replacements are available directly from Arion.

Here's a Boss HM-2 with a switch that selects between a Boss PSA or ACA power supply.




When you use a PSA power supply and put the switch in the PSA position then the pedal works great. When you use a PSA power supply and put the switch in the ACA position, like the stock circuit, then the pedal is starved for voltage. The circuit isn't quite getting enough voltage to work like it was designed to. It sounds very lo-fi and ratty. In a mostly bad sort of way.

One of my earlier posts talked about the ACA to PSA mod. This pedal has a switch to select the option of engaging the mod (PSA mode) or going back to stock (ACA mode).

The Boss SD-1 is like a DS-1 on steroids. The distortion is more aggressive.

I tried several mods on this SD-1 until I finally found some that I liked. It has a Seeing Eye-Dog mod on the inside. There is a new toggle switch for the tone. In one position a filter cap is lifted out. This gives the pedal a bright loud sound, great for punk or No Wave. Putting the switch in the other position gives a darker bassier sound, like a neck pick up sound.

Of course the boring little red LED indicator has been swapped out for a giant bright orange LED.

Here's the inside of the pedal showing the filter cap and toggle switch.



Here's a photo of the modded pedal with the toggle switch for the tone.

Got to check out the new aquarium at the Shipwreck Tavern before the show on May 21, 2011. At 150 gallons this big tank is noticeable.

It's a fresh water aquarium. There was a catfish, a couple of boisterous crayfish and a few other fish (gouramis?). The show went well - the Shipwreck is always a good place to play.