New (broken) pedal day!

[laurie]

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[The_Doc]

Great work all round ! This save makes me very happy Such a useful phaser that should never end up in a bin

[Pepe]

Everything else had surprised me, Doc!

Laurie, the big bias trimpot of this pedal does either seem to be stuck or does it work differently to other trimpots? I almost cannot move the srew on the top. I wonder if adjusting the bias could lead to optimised phasing. Should I replace it with a new one in the case that this behaviour isn't normal?

[laurie]

Everything else had surprised me, Doc!

Laurie, the big bias trimpot of this pedal does either seem to be stuck or does it work differently to other trimpots? I almost cannot move the srew on the top. I wonder if adjusting the bias could lead to optimised phasing. Should I replace it with a new one in the case that this behaviour isn't normal?

The bias trimpot works the same as any other phaser. If it is "stuck" try some contact cleaner to loosen it up, or just replace it. You should be able to tune the phasing in by ear once you get the bias working properly.

[Pepe]

Thanks! I will try that.

[Pepe]

The trimpot was indeed stuck and I think that it was the intention by MXR that it keeps that way. In this picture (that I took before replacing the opamps) you can see solder just below the screw that made it a permanent setting. When I fiddled around with it again that solder connection broke and I was able to adjust the bias to an even better sounding position. Man, this is really a nice sounding phaser! 2-stage phasing is enjoyingly subtle, yet present.

[The_Doc]

It reminds me of the phasers that I heard in the early 1970’s. Simple but they sounded so great.

[laurie]

A very happy outcome!

A couple of observations/thoughts.

• The capacitors are unremarkable ceramic disc style. All the attention we pay to having "the right" metallized polypropylene style might not actually help in some cases (like a vintage phase sound).

• The matched FETs are key - the two blue + one red dot are clear indicators of the hand matching that was done.

• It doesn't need to be complicated...

[Pepe]

A new project! As if I hadn't enough piled up already ...

Today I received this Italian Jen Mister Cry Baby Super. I had a Jen Double Sound Super years ago and that contained wah and fuzz. I liked the wah more than the Fuzz Face iteration and the combination of both led to a heavy volume drop. But somehow I still regretted selling this one. The wah sounded awesome.

So when I saw the ad for this one, that only cost a tenner plus shipping, I immediately bought it. In the pics it was obvious that the rack gear, the potentiometer and the rubber feet were missing, but the seller wrote that the circuit board "should still be inside". Thanks God, it is! Although I don't know if the bigger 100kΩ resistor is the original one. Somehow it looks like a bad soldering job from this side of the board, but I don't know for sure. An old potentiometer might have been worn out, so I would have had to order one at some point in the future anyway.

Not too bad looking and with the correct replacement parts it should be an easy fix.

[laurie]

Nice score! I have a similar vintage one