What is it? Boss GE-7 Equalizer, made in taiwan in may 2002. Otherwise in fair condition, but missing a few slider knobs (which seem to very hard to source as spares). Schematic is online, courtesy of Hobby-Hour.com. There are three DIP-8 and two SIP-9 opamps plus a transistor based output buffer that make up the…
Month: January 2014
ENO Music PT-21 Guitar Tuner
What is it? ENO Music PT-21 Guitar Tuner, made in china 2013. I wanted to try something tiny as a tuner for my personal pedal board. The price was one factor. I didn’t want to get another TC Electronic tuner as the old Polytune i have works reasonably well and i’m familiar with the use….
Morley DDB Diamond Distortion
What is it? Morley DDB Diamond Distortion from so called “Jewel box” series. Made in US between 1995-98. My passion for pedals and effects is something that i don’t quite understand myself. This series is perfect example. I seem to like stuff that may not be worth it. Morley is best known for their wahs…
Boss BD-2 Blues Driver
What is it? Boss BD-2 Blues Driver. Made in Taiwan. Unit has nice road worn on the casing. Manufactured in april, 2004. Although i’m not deeply in love with Boss boxes, there are a few designs that i find interesting and usable at the same time. This is one of those. Discrete opamp and well…
Ibanez AW5 Autowah
What is it? Ibanez AW5 Autowah in plastic enclosure from later soundtank series. Made in taiwan around late 80’s. This model has couple things that are unique. First of all, it is the only Soundtank with analog opto-isolator on board. The box and the component layout itself is quite neat. It’s pretty well made and…
Danelectro CV-1 Vibe
What is it? Danelectro CV-1 Vibe from Cool Cat Series. Original version, no level trimmer under the battery slot. I did get pretty far with my collection without having a single vibe-only pedal in it. This unit finally changed that fact. Danelectro made a number of itself with the vibe from its mini series. And…
Digitech DBM Bad Monkey
What is it? Digitech DBM Bad Monkey Tube Overdrive from Distortion series. Made in china around 2008. Bought mine for a very low price as an broken unit through ebay. As usual, my first suspicion was that the unit had gotten a jolt from wrong polarity supply. This wasn’t the case. Seller stated that he…
Boss MD-2 Mega Distortion
What is it? Boss MD-2 Mega Distortion, made in Taiwan in february 2009. Got the unit in very good condition for a fair price – without a box and papers, but still nice. Actually i got this on the same day as the Morley Crystal Chorus. So, of course, i hooked them both up for…
Ibanez CD5 Cyberdrive
What is it? Ibanez CD5 Cyberdrive, fixed wah distortion from later Soundtank series. Made in taiwan late 90’s. Ok. I’ve said this before. There’s one sub-genre of distortions that just isn’t for me. This being the fixed wah distortion. And here’s the Ibanez’ take on one with modern, dull traces and nothing earth shattering. Well….
Colorless writings, part 6 – The Diode Breakdown
What on earth are you talking about this time? Doesn’t the title say it all? Ok, ok. I admit it’s somewhat ambiguous. I’ll start by talking about the diodes in general and you just try to hang on. Is that ok? Good. Most of you know the basic use of diodes in stompboxes. First one…