New (broken) pedal day!

[The_Doc]

As always you’ve done a very professional job mate. It looks factory fresh and it will sound better too.

[Pepe]

Here we go. This is the Gold Azure (photos from seller site). You can see some degradation of the surface and some greenish parts etc. Could it clean up? ANd how?

Maybe you can really try out the method with the halved onion that I wrote about in a recent e-mail. Rub the juice in, let it rest for two hours and then wash it off. In the TV quiz show the result was surprisingly good. And I have to try it out with a second Marshall GV-2 in the coming weeks.

[laurie]

I'm not sure that gold is able to be cleaned. Either it will wipe off, or it is permanently pitted. No way to tell until it is in-hand.

[fuzzbuzzfuzz]

Here we go. This is the Gold Azure (photos from seller site). You can see some degradation of the surface and some greenish parts etc. Could it clean up? ANd how?

Maybe you can really try out the method with the halved onion that I wrote about in a recent e-mail. Rub the juice in, let it rest for two hours and then wash it off. In the TV quiz show the result was surprisingly good. And I have to try it out with a second Marshall GV-2 in the coming weeks.

will it be tears of joy or just tears of onion peeling!

[Pepe]

We have another Frankenstein repair, but the monster lives!

A few weeks ago I received a faulty Arion SCH-1 (Made in Japan) for 30 EUR including shipping. The seller said that his boss has given it to him for free a few years ago, because it was defective. The Rate (speed) knob was faulty. He already tried to replace it with a somewhat fitting potentiometer, but the problem remained. In the next pictures it is clear why the repair wasn't successful.

This is the photo from the ad. The replaced potentiometer has a long shaft, but not long enough for the Arion pedals. For some reason the pedal didn't come with the original knobs, instead it had two knobs of a Rocktek pedal. Yesterday I received an Arion SDI-1 Distortion and I took the knobs of it for the legendary Stereo Chorus.



It turned out that the Depth potentiometer was faulty as well. When I desoldered it and I had a look at its crumbled bottom it became obvious that something heavy must have fallen on the pedal knobs, thus destroying two potentiometers. Or maybe someone stepped on the wrong side of the pedal. Here is a picture of the repaired pedal with the broken potentiometer. Only the Tone potentiometer was still completely intact and I will keep it as a spare in case that another Japanese SCH-1 crosses my way.



It is very difficult finding a replacement for the potentiometers used in the Arion pedals. The shaft is extra long and it has a knurled top. The only proper solution that I managed to order were trimpots with separate shafts in the correct length. The problem is that a) the three legs of the trimpots aren't next to each other (well, that's normal for trimpots), b) the size of the trimpots is a bit too large to elegantly place them on the board and c) the trimpots have no solder legs on the sides for the grounding and for being stabilized. So I had to become creative, a few components had to be bent to make the trimpots fit inside, I placed cut-outs of anti-slip mats under the trimpots to make them stand as horizontally as possible. The result is okay-ish, but surprisingly the knobs aren't as wobbly as expected.



Now here's the bottom of the circuit board. The previous repair attempt resulted in completely broken conductive paths around the solder legs of the Rate potentiometer (on top in the picture). I had to use wires and jumpers to repair everything. I also had to replace the DC jack, because the battery mode didn't work anymore.



Here you can see that the potentiometer shafts are now almost of the same height as those of the Arion Distortion that I took the knobs of. It was a tough job fitting and squeezing the trimpots until the shafts were in line. At first glance it looks like it is normal in this picture.



This is the final result after a few hours of stupid work. Repairing pedals that other people previously tried to repair with mediocre skills is a thankless task.

[laurie]

Nice rescue! The pots are functionally OK, this can be considered to be a good repair.

[Pepe]

At least good enough for my own use. I would never offer this one for sale with clear conscience. It's nice to have it for the personal "sound archive".

[fuzzbuzzfuzz]

Quite a rare find, and at least 20,000 yen here in Japan for that mode. Famed for its "Leslie" like tones. Can't see the pictures though...

[Pepe]

Can't see the pictures though...

Hmmm. They are on my webspace. Have you always had difficulties seeing these?

[bigtone23]

At least good enough for my own use. I would never offer this one for sale with clear conscience. It's nice to have it for the personal "sound archive".

That's a labor of love, and well worth it. It's working again. Kudos!
I like having 'rescue' gear that I get to use and enjoy, but couldn't ethically sell (unless fully disclosed/understood by the buyer).