Boss CS-1 troubleshooting

[sebastien32]

Hi,

I have a CS-1 since 6 months but never tried it (oups) so today was the day to try it out to see if it's working and it's not... At least not completely, the volume is really low even when bypassed with a lot of noise. I can here the effect of the knobs and toggle switch so the pedal is "working". it's so low in volume that it's not usable.

Where should I look for? I already opened it to see if something obvious was causing it without luck. I tried both with a battery and with an ACA adapter with no difference.

[Old_Iron]

Hi,

I have a CS-1 since 6 months but never tried it (oups) so today was the day to try it out to see if it's working and it's not... At least not completely, the volume is really low even when bypassed with a lot of noise. I can here the effect of the knobs and toggle switch so the pedal is "working". it's so low in volume that it's not usable.

Where should I look for? I already opened it to see if something obvious was causing it without luck. I tried both with a battery and with an ACA adapter with no difference.

A possible solution for what you are saying could be to clean the IN and OUT jack contacts, some oxidation could cause that.

Another possibility is a leaking electrolytic capacitor, but a bit rare to happen.

Laurie is our tech man here, he will give you a better advice.

[laurie]

Let's start with some hi-res pics. PM me for my email address - can't upload large file sizes here.

Pics:
1) Front of board, several angles.
2) Rear of board.
3) internal wiring, several angles.

[sebastien32]

Let's start with some hi-res pics. PM me for my email address - can't upload large file sizes here.

Pics:
1) Front of board, several angles.
2) Rear of board.
3) internal wiring, several angles.

PM sent

Thank you very much!!!

[Old_Iron]

Sorry, I misunderstood it.

[laurie]

Another possibility is a leaking electrolytic capacitor, but a bit rare to happen.

Looking at the pics sent to my email, this is almost certainly the problem.

[Pepe]

The older the pedal, the higher the possibility that the electrolytic capacitors might be faulty. That's also why most '70s synthesizers need to be recapped nowadays. My oldest pedals (from the mid- and late-'70s) as well as a few ones from the early '80s had faulty electrolytic capacitors that caused problems. Those beasts simply don't work forever.

[sebastien32]

As suggested by Laurie (thanks for the help again), I will change all the electrolytic capacitors and see if it works. I just need to figure out what to order exactly. I found a schematic but it doesn't match exactly my version of the CS-1. The board on mine is marked as ET-30D and the schematic that I found is Et-30B

[sebastien32]

Update: Capacitors removed from the pedal and new ones orders. Now I'm waiting...

[Pepe]

Normally I replace old capacitors piece by piece, so that I cannot mix up the different values. Good luck!