Boss silver screw to black screw date change

[fernieite]

On the heals of the SD-1 silver screw thread, I thought it would be helpful to start a new discussion for reference.

It seems that March 1981 may have been the last date of using silver screws and ink stamped batch/ serial numbers; AND the first use of black screws and printed sticker batch/ serial numbers.

We've seen both silver screw pedals with the ink stamped batch code of 0400, and the black screw printed sticker batch codes of 040500. Both are from March 1981!

Interesting overlap, isn't it?

[fernieite]

My CE-2 is from the later batch of March 1981. It has the new black screw, sticker serial of 040500, and has the long dash and "use a coin" black bottom label.

[fernieite]

Has anyone seen an earlier black screw/ sticker than 040500?

Or a later silver screw/ ink stamp than 0400?

[Old_Iron]

Has anyone seen an earlier black screw/ sticker than 040500?

Or a later silver screw/ ink stamp than 0400?

As I said before, Boss (and Boss history for that matter) is like a baby's butt, you never know what will come out of it.

Meaning that there are many inconsistencies and variations depending wich model we are talking about.

The date of March 1981 seems to be the end of the silver screws, at least for the majority of the models.

I never saw a 04XXXX sticker batch number, to my experience the change occurred by batch 06XXXX, as you can see in this example of an OD-1 with the stamped batch number 0500, the last stamped before the change:



1981 is a very interesting year to me, there are some models with many chips and diodes variations that I have from that year, and also some variants that are missing in my collection (SP-1 black screw, PH-1 black screw, GE-6 black screw, CE-2 long dash and black screw, etc.), so I pay very special attention to pedals from that period.

What I know for a fact is that OD-1, DS-1 and SD-1 models lost their silver screws by March 1981 (0400) and began with paper sticker batch numbers by May 1981 (06XXXX), but this may be different for another model...

We have many examples of inconsistencies, like this one: BF-2, PH-1r, SD-1 and DM-2, although came out before the change from long to short dashes, never had a long dash variant.

Is said that, again, the majority of models changed from long to short dash by January 1982 (14XXXX).

I am really curious to see a 04XXXX sticker batch number, could you please post a pic of it?

[bigtone23]

I have an OD1 revision D, 0500, April '81. It has a silver screw.
However, I bought it used, so I can't 100% say it's factory or a swap from a previous owner. Regardless, it's data for our info. Old Iron certainly has quite a database here!
I did buy my OD1 from Guitar Center for dirt cheap several years ago. Since it was not from a collector, it's possible there would be (in theory) no impetus to change the screw to increase the selling price. Unless the person that sold it to the store just didn't care or didn't know. I dunno!
FWIW, I only bought it because it had the silver screw & the stamped serial. I asked to open it up to look at the chip, I was hoping for the earlier 14 pin chip so it would be more unique vs my August '82 SD1 with the JRC4558DD, but it had the JRC4558D. Oh well!

[Old_Iron]

I did buy my OD1 from Guitar Center for dirt cheap several years ago. Since it was not from a collector, it's possible there would be (in theory) no impetus to change the screw to increase the selling price. Unless the person that sold it to the store just didn't care or didn't know. I dunno!

It is possible that soon after the first owner bought it, the original black screw broke off the black plastic cap, and by that time a more ready available substitute part would be a silver screw, who knows...

I have pedals that I bought with mismatch part, but I have pedals "for parts only" so I could change it back to it's original state.

[fernieite]

Has anyone seen an earlier black screw/ sticker than 040500?

Or a later silver screw/ ink stamp than 0400?

As I said before, Boss (and Boss history for that matter) is like a baby's butt, you never know what will come out of it.

Meaning that there are many inconsistencies and variations depending wich model we are talking about.

The date of March 1981 seems to be the end of the silver screws, at least for the majority of the models.

I never saw a 04XXXX sticker batch number, to my experience the change occurred by batch 06XXXX, as you can see in this example of an OD-1 with the stamped batch number 0500, the last stamped before the change:



1981 is a very interesting year to me, there are some models with many chips and diodes variations that I have from that year, and also some variants that are missing in my collection (SP-1 black screw, PH-1 black screw, GE-6 black screw, CE-2 long dash and black screw, etc.), so I pay very special attention to pedals from that period.

What I know for a fact is that OD-1, DS-1 and SD-1 models lost their silver screws by March 1981 (0400) and began with paper sticker batch numbers by May 1981 (06XXXX), but this may be different for another model...

We have many examples of inconsistencies, like this one: BF-2, PH-1r, SD-1 and DM-2, although came out before the change from long to short dashes, never had a long dash variant.

Is said that, again, the majority of models changed from long to short dash by January 1982 (14XXXX).

I am really curious to see a 04XXXX sticker batch number, could you please post a pic of it?

Thanks for the info!
There's a photo of my 040500 sticker in my for sale thread on the gear page. (It'll save me from re-sizing it here!)
https://www.thegearpage.net/board/index ... t-34150457

[Old_Iron]

Thanks for the info!
There's a photo of my 040500 sticker in my for sale thread on the gear page. (It'll save me from re-sizing it here!)
https://www.thegearpage.net/board/index ... t-34150457

Impressive, never saw a 04XXXX before.

Congrats, nice pedals and a very rare CE-2.

P.S.: To post the image here you just need to clic with the right mouse button over the pic, select : open image in another layer, go there an copy the image address, then clic here in the small icon with the mountain and the sun and place the image address. No need to resize it, it is automatically limited to the maximum size allowed by the forum.

[fernieite]

Thanks, but you lost me. Too many steps involved...

Well, that CE-2 is for sale. I'll be hanging onto my boxed December 1979 one instead. (8900)

EDIT: Here's that March 1981 stickered CE-2 I used to have.

mar 81.jpg (93.09 KiB) Viewed 11294 times

[SamXTherapy]

I reckon it wasn't an all at once change and largely depended on what the builder had in their parts bin at the time. My first BF-2, for example (now sadly sold), had the old "Use a coin" label and had a black screw. It was definitely the genuine article, too; it was only about a year old when I bought it and the Boss catalogues were still showing pedals with silver screws.

The one I bought a few years ago is approximately the same age but has a silver screw. I've no reason to think it was swapped out because the pedal itself wasn't particularly expensive and the screw looks to be around the same age and condition as the pedal.