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A while ago I bought a bundle of two KORG ToneWorks 301dl delay pedals. The seller told me that one of them wasn't always working reliably.

The 301dl Dynamic Echo is one of my favourite pedals with great sound and cool options. I have two mint and boxed units in my collection.

I took the one that was in better shape and cleaned everything. It works like a charm and I gave it to my brother on his birthday in March. He loves it to pieces!

A few days ago I opened the other pedal and it was in quite bad and very dirty condition. It had a bit damage from leaking batteries that I had to remove with steel wool. The bypass switch was replaced by a different switch, thus causing trouble when turning the effect on or off. I bought the correct type and replaced it - it works perfectly now. The original rubber strips were removed for velcro. I replaced them with strips of a slip-resistant mat and they do a great job. The closing part of the battery lid is broken, but it keeps in place even without it.

Sadly I don't have a "before" picture of this pedal. In this current shape you wouldn't think that it had looked absolutely terrible before I put my hands on it. I'm very happy with the result. This one will be sold in the future.

Those Korg 301dl delays bring back memories! I worked at a store in the 90s that sold those, and remember very well how great that delay was. I was using a BOSS DD5 with FS5U tap and was going to get the KORG when the Line 6 DL4 came out and that one snagged me.
If I came across another 301dl, I'd surely get it.

Pepe wrote: ↑

Thu Apr 27, 2023 9:13 pm

A while ago I bought a bundle of two KORG ToneWorks 301dl delay pedals. The seller told me that one of them wasn't always working reliably.

The 301dl Dynamic Echo is one of my favourite pedals with great sound and cool options. I have two mint and boxed units in my collection.

I took the one that was in better shape and cleaned everything. It works like a charm and I gave it to my brother on his birthday in March. He loves it to pieces!

A few days ago I opened the other pedal and it was in quite bad and very dirty condition. It had a bit damage from leaking batteries that I had to remove with steel wool. The bypass switch was replaced by a different switch, thus causing trouble when turning the effect on or off. I bought the correct type and replaced it - it works perfectly now. The original rubber strips were removed for velcro. I replaced them with strips of a slip-resistant mat and they do a great job. The closing part of the battery lid is broken, but it keeps in place even without it.

Sadly I don't have a "before" picture of this pedal. In this current shape you wouldn't think that it had looked absolutely terrible before I put my hands on it. I'm very happy with the result. This one will be sold in the future.

Very nice Pepe. always satisfying to get something back up to shape!

Pepe wrote: ↑

Sat Feb 04, 2023 4:28 pm

My Frankenstein FZ-2 seems to have found a new home. It is on its way to North Germany and the buyer is already very excited to play an original Hyper Fuzz.

The pedal has already arrived. The buyer is absolutely happy.

Pepe wrote: ↑

Tue Jun 20, 2023 4:28 pm

The pedal has already arrived. The buyer is absolutely happy.

removing the paint was such a good idea it looks great

Nice! Glad you found a cool buyer.

Yes, I'm also very happy every time when a pedal or instrument that I sell finds a good new home. I had some brazen offers for the FZ-2 (that looks indeed really good with the removed blue paint) during the last weeks, but it was no bailout, so I waited for the right guy.

Another Frankenstein BOSS pedal has arrived at my place last week. This Japanese DD-3 has been treated poorly by its previous owner(s).

As you can see someone scratched off some letters of the pedal treadle. Don’t ask me why! When I bought the pedal I hoped that it was only Tipp-Ex, but sadly this isn’t the case. The treadle must have been used as a replacement part, because it is definitely from a ’90s Taiwanese DD-3 and it has a brighter colour than the body.

The base plate is also not the original one, as it has a black label with the ACA power supply information (which is definitely wrong!).

At some point the 11V zener diode must have been faulty. It was removed by someone with bad soldering skills, because apart from the solder lugs of the zener diodes two conductive paths were broken by this procedure. I used jumpers to repair the broken connections and I also put in a new zener diode.

The Level potentiometer is slightly bent, but it works without any problem. The potentiometer caps are a little bit discoloured. The pedal doesn’t have the original thumbscrew and I didn’t have one in my parts bin.

The pedal works and sounds great, just like my other MIJ DD-3. Everything was cleaned inside and out, plus the jacks and the potentiometers received my well-proven treatment that ensures crackle-free operation.

Thats a beast! Nice save.