My BF-2 seems to be misbehaving

[SamXTherapy]

I bought a BF-2 a couple of years ago, having sold my old (yes, I know they're all old) one some time back and regretting it since.

It's been fine up to now but lately - with nothing changed in my rig - it's started to sound like it's clipping. Every so often, a really harsh unpleasant undertone sits with the signal.

It's a MIJ with silver screw and I'm powering it at 12v from a CS12 power supply. It's used in the effects loop of my amp, and up until recently it's been fault free, so I'm certain it ain't the effects loop, more so because it's the only pedal that does this and even then, not always.

I've tried it on its own, in conjunction with others, used different patch cables, guitar cables and whatnot but the problem remains.

I guess my question is, does anyone know how/where I can get this looked at and hopefully put right, and preferably not cost me an arm and a leg. I'm in the UK if that's at all relevant.

[Pepe]

My first action was to look at the electrolytic capacitors and swap them. That has so often been the source of malfunction in my old BOSS pedals.

[SamXTherapy]

Thanks. I'll get that looked at as soon as possible.

One other thing, I downloaded the advice regarding recalibrating the BF-2. It's not something I could do, not having a scope, but do you think it's worthwhile asking someone to take a look at that? I mean, it's an old pedal and it's not beyond imagining that someone somewhere decided to play around with it.

I guess I could have both things done, and while they're at it, replace the busted battery clip. That's something that's within my skill set but I haven't done because I don't need it.

[Pepe]

I have had a few BF-2s and they were all still well calibrated. One of them had increased resonance (that's something that an average player can do on his/her own), but the clock and bias calibration was still intact. A silver screw BF-2 is from 1980 or '81, so it's a 40-year-old pedal. A common flaw in the DD-2 (1982 onward) is the failure of 10µF capacitors. Laurie regularly recommended swapping these in his DD-2/3 discussion thread. I would try this first before touching the trimpots for the BBD.

[SamXTherapy]

Ok. Thanks for the clarification.

[Pepe]

Another thing you should watch out for are cold/bad solder joints and the proper function of the wires. This does also often lead to malfunction when the rest of the PCB is still working perfectly otherwise.

[Pepe]

I just stumbled over this in an old thread of the StompBoxZone forum:

The BF-2 has internal potentiometers that could cause distortion if they have been misadjusted at some point.

You can adjust VR6 slightly (the one in the lower right corner of the pcb) to see if the distortion reduces. It worth marking the original posistion with a marker before any adjustment.

[SamXTherapy]

Rightio! I'll give it a try when I change my board around.

[SamXTherapy]

Well, I had a perfect "Doh!" moment with this one. It wasn't the BF-2 acting up, I had my effects loop level too high, which was making everything clip on the inputs. After the BF-2, I noticed it on the CE-2w and a couple of other pedals.

Happy to say, problem solved easily.

[Pepe]

Good to hear that all is well!