Pedal Repair Recommendations?

speedfish · Post by **speedfish** » Thu Oct 06, 2016 2:35 pm

Hello,

Can you recommend someone to repair a pedal for me in the U.S.? I have an Electro Harmonix "Polychorus" from the 1980's that I'm considering having repaired. I had a local electronic repair shop check it out way back when, but the estimate was high and they seemed rather clueless regarding pedals and I suspect would've taken a shotgun approach toward repair. I've looked online and there are ton of people to be found, but who can I trust to do the job at a reasonable cost? Have any of you used any of the online pedal repair services?

Thanks,

I see this gentleman worked and designed for EH. I wonder if that would be the best way to go?

http://howardmickdavis.com/

Post by **Doog** » Thu Oct 06, 2016 3:01 pm

Have you approached EHX themselves?

speedfish · Post by **speedfish** » Thu Oct 06, 2016 3:05 pm

Doog wrote:Have you approached EHX themselves?

Not in the last twenty years, but I'll give it another go.

(Edit)

just checked their faqs page and they do not repair vintage pedals.

http://www.ehx.com/faqs

71Smallbox · Post by **71Smallbox** » Fri Oct 07, 2016 7:00 pm

Check with Analog Man, he does alot of vintage EH pedals and his rates aren't that bad. Or you could check with Howard "Mick" Davis, he used to work at EH in the 70's and designed some of the pedals himself. I had Howard fix my old DMM pedal and he did a good job, but he's a little out there if you meet him in person. Here's his link:
http://www.howardmickdavis.com/

What's wrong with your pedal? Does it work at all?

NickS · Post by **NickS** » Fri Oct 07, 2016 9:30 pm

speedfish wrote: I see this gentleman worked and designed for EH. I wonder if that would be the best way to go?

http://howardmickdavis.com/

71Smallbox wrote: you could check with Howard "Mick" Davis, he used to work at EH in the 70's and designed some of the pedals himself. I had Howard fix my old DMM pedal and he did a good job, but he's a little out there if you meet him in person. Here's his link:
http://www.howardmickdavis.com/

Bacchus · Post by **Bacchus** » Fri Oct 07, 2016 9:32 pm

Hmmmm, dunno about any of the other suggestions, but may I suggest mickhowarddavis?

Brandon W · Post by **Brandon W** » Fri Oct 07, 2016 9:50 pm

i have one of the very old muff fuzz's.. the ones that was just a little box with one slider switch. It doesn't work but i'd like to fix it so if you have luck let me know

71Smallbox · Post by **71Smallbox** » Fri Oct 07, 2016 9:57 pm

NickS wrote:
speedfish wrote: I see this gentleman worked and designed for EH. I wonder if that would be the best way to go?

http://howardmickdavis.com/
71Smallbox wrote: you could check with Howard "Mick" Davis, he used to work at EH in the 70's and designed some of the pedals himself. I had Howard fix my old DMM pedal and he did a good job, but he's a little out there if you meet him in person. Here's his link:
http://www.howardmickdavis.com/

Fuck, I don't know how I missed that

NickS · Post by **NickS** » Fri Oct 07, 2016 9:59 pm

He comes over as a bit of a character, doesn't he?

Brandon W · Post by **Brandon W** » Fri Oct 07, 2016 10:05 pm

71Smallbox wrote:
NickS wrote:
speedfish wrote: I see this gentleman worked and designed for EH. I wonder if that would be the best way to go?

http://howardmickdavis.com/
71Smallbox wrote: you could check with Howard "Mick" Davis, he used to work at EH in the 70's and designed some of the pedals himself. I had Howard fix my old DMM pedal and he did a good job, but he's a little out there if you meet him in person. Here's his link:
http://www.howardmickdavis.com/
Fuck, I don't know how I missed that

Hey there's this guy named mick something or other.. i'll search his info and get back to you.. I know i saw his name somewheres..

71Smallbox · Post by **71Smallbox** » Sat Oct 08, 2016 12:14 am

NickS wrote:He comes over as a bit of a character, doesn't he?

Quite, in person even more so than over the phone.

speedfish · Post by **speedfish** » Sat Oct 08, 2016 1:38 am

I emailed Mick, but haven't heard back yet.

Thanks,

speedfish · Post by **speedfish** » Mon Oct 10, 2016 5:41 pm

An excerpt from Howard's email replay:

"I designed it, so I certainly can fix it."

speedfish · Post by **speedfish** » Wed Oct 12, 2016 12:32 pm

Bad news! After emailing Howard back and forth and sending him a pic of the internals of my unit it turns out that my pedal is the older crappy version of the Polychorus not the improved reissue that he designed, so he has declined to work on it.

Here's what Howard wrote in his email response:

"If this pedal was made prior to 1998 as you said, it could not be the Stereo reissue of the old Polychorus.
Also, as it has a CD4053 chip, this could not be the Stereo Polychorus, which does not use that chip. It MUST be the old vintage unit. Perhaps someone put the internal works in a Stereo Polychorus box?"

Any one know anything or have any personal experience with fxdoctor?

http://www.fxdoctor.com/

this isn't mine, but mine looks like this one.

Post by **Doog** » Wed Oct 12, 2016 2:23 pm

How weird. Presuming it even works at all, does the 'output 2' actual give a stereo output as per the stereo reissues? The vintage ones just had a 'direct out' instead.

Fuck, this is really making me want to buy one of the new ones, despite having owned the original stereo reissue the second it arrived in the UK years ago..

#kurdtzkidthings

NickS · Post by **NickS** » Wed Oct 12, 2016 2:45 pm

Post gut pics so we know whether it's really the EH7700 or the Stereo Poly PCB.
Hang on a minute.... didn't the original Polychorus use mains and the Stereo one use an external PSU? Which does yours do?

speedfish · Post by **speedfish** » Wed Oct 12, 2016 3:11 pm

NickS wrote:Post gut pics so we know whether it's really the EH7700 or the Stereo Poly PCB.
Hang on a minute.... didn't the original Polychorus use mains and the Stereo one use an external PSU? Which does yours do?

You will notice, in the upper right of the board, that the two ICU's have been disconnected/removed from their locations. If I recall these were found to be bad by my local tech back in 1988. I have the original ICU's and I think that I may have purchased new ones for replacement and still have them stashed somewhere.

NickS · Post by **NickS** » Wed Oct 12, 2016 3:29 pm

Paxolin board, mains transformer, most chips running north-south; that's the original (non-stereo) Polychorus.

Your first issue is that the two missing chips are the rare-as-hen's-teeth Reticon SAD1024 delay chips. You say you have the originals and spare? They're rare/valuable enough that fakes have been around. They were used in a bunch of pedals back then; I used one to build an Electric Mistress clone back in the 70s (and I have a spare). They're very susceptible to static damage by handling. The original Poly uses them in series to give a longer delay but that means if one dies you have no effect.

speedfish · Post by **speedfish** » Wed Oct 12, 2016 3:33 pm

NickS wrote:Paxolin board, mains transformer, most chips running north-south; that's the original (non-stereo) Polychorus.

Your first issue is that the two missing chips are the rare-as-hen's-teeth Reticon SAD1024 delay chips. You say you have the originals and spare? They're rare/valuable enough that fakes have been around. They were used in a bunch of pedals back then; I used one to build an Electric Mistress clone back in the 70s (and I have a spare). They're very susceptible to static damage by handling. The original Poly uses them in series to give a longer delay but that means if one dies you have no effect.

So, these are likely the cause of my trouble?

NickS · Post by **NickS** » Wed Oct 12, 2016 3:41 pm

There could be other issues, but you won't have any chorus effect without them.

Do you get any sound through the unit at the moment?

A pic on this page in Greek shows you which way round they should be installed. If you decide to try it yourself remember, these are very sensitive to any static charge and you need to make sure you are resting bare flesh on the case while handling the ICs.