Chaser pedals / Chaser DL-4 Super delay

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Bernardduur
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Post by Bernardduur »

Hi all!

As of lately, I havent been posting that much on here as my job as my two newborn sons really take a lot of time...... But lately, I've been digging into this 'mystery' and I hope you can help me!

I've been looking into 'Chaser' pedals (or 'Chazer' as the fonts aren't that readable)

I got this Chaser DL-4 Super Delay pedal for dirt cheap; saw an ad for it in a second hand forum and took the plunge. What interested me most was that I could not find anything on the company or the pedals. It looks a lot like a Boss pedal, but then more grotesque, different. Well made pedals, solid metal enslocure, the works. Even a serial number.
(pics can be found on my instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bernardduur/ It is the black pedal with red knobs)

When I traced it, it turned out to be a 1:1 clone of the Boss DM3 (well, the PCB was made for a MN3205/MN3102 but was altered to hold a MN3005/MN3101). Only one resistor was off. Also the board is a 1:1 copy of the Boss PCB

I've never heard anything on this unit. I've never heard about Chaser pedals (except for http://www.effectsdatabase.com/model/chaser/dl4). The label on the back translates from Thai so it must be from Thailand. The label places itself in Bangkok

The weird thing is that on the compressor / expander IC there is a date code; it puts the pedal around 1983. The DM3 by Boss only came out in 1984 (Bossarea). Online pics all have a date code higher than my unit

Not getting any ideas, but I find it weird. Was de DM3 based on this pedal? Was it a (very early) clone? Did they just use super old compression / expander ICs? Or are they fake?
And look at the other pedals in their line up: http://www.effectsdatabase.com/model/chaser
I can't compare (as I only have this pedal) but that TR2 tremolo looks a lot like the Boss TR2; that was introduced in 1997. If this Chaser TR2 is from the 80's line, it really predates the Boss.......
'No more....... loud music.......'
Follow my love for pedals and amps on https://bernardduur.blogspot.com and https://www.instagram.com/bernardduur1

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bow_and_error
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Post by bow_and_error »

Sounds like an interesting find! I've never played the DM-3/DL-4, does it sound more like the DM-2 or some of the delays that came afterwards? I can't speak to this model in particular, but a few things that crossed my mind after reading your post:

1.) The Compander IC could have been replaced at some point, explaining the date code. Does the solder work all look about the same in terms of color/blob size?
2.) I've seen a few instances where a factory hired to produce a product for a particular market (as in Boss hired them to produce this for the US market) will produce a small run of the same product under a private label and sell it in a local market where there is less likelihood of it being spotted by the OG client. It could be that they were going to be producing the DM-3 for Boss and just ran some knock-off versions for themselves. OR that they did the first production runs well before the DM-3 hit the market, so both the Boss version & their private label copy were produced in 1983, but the Boss wasn't released until 1984.
3.) Same as #2 but just the PCB was diverted off to produce local market copies. This could explain the change in ICs.

I think option #2 is the most likely, but I don't know what Boss's distribution network was like at the time and whether or not they would be able to take stock & hold on to a lot of product before releasing it.

I'm sure there are some Boss-heads out there who might have more context about the company around that time, so hopefully someone else pipes up with more concrete info.

-mike

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Bernardduur
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Post by Bernardduur »

Hi!

1. All solder joints look identical. I do think there was someone who looked inside the unit, as it was missing two screws...... as yet, I find no real evidence of tampering
2. I thought this also, BUT the unit was made in Thailand. Most pedals from Boss at that timeframe came from Japan. As to say, the list of pedals from Thailand on the Effects Database is pretty small
3. hmmm, maybe

Still no luck in finding something else on this matter.....
'No more....... loud music.......'
Follow my love for pedals and amps on https://bernardduur.blogspot.com and https://www.instagram.com/bernardduur1

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Dirk_Hendrik
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Post by Dirk_Hendrik »

If the compander is dated 1983 the pedal is bult after that time. Since this pedal is rather uncommon one could expect not many were made. That in turn means that it could well be that
parts were procured from a more "local" supplier which had his compander stuck laying around for a longer time.
Sorry. Plain out of planes.

http://www.dirk-hendrik.com

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roseblood11
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Post by roseblood11 »

Effectsdatabase lists 5 Chaser pedals and their names are all similar to Boss pedals:
Maybe it's helpful to find out, when these Boss pedals were released?

Is the enclosure identical to Boss?

Please post some photos here!

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