LCA Guitars overdrive/distortion

General documentation, gut shot, schematic links, ongoing circuit tracing, deep thoughts ... all about boutique stompboxes.
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Vinnie
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Post by Vinnie »

Hello,

A friend of mine came with that pedal, it stopped working and he wanted me to have a look and repair it, I I corroborated that it does not work, but what a surprise I found when I removed the cover, I asked him how musch did it cost ans he answer that he paid 100 eur for this:

https://img.photobucket.com/albums/v640 ... fu9o0p.jpg

https://img.photobucket.com/albums/v640 ... nulcok.jpg

https://img.photobucket.com/albums/v640 ... jwg8pl.jpg

https://img.photobucket.com/albums/v640 ... lgeixm.jpg

Seen the poor construction quality I think my friend was swindled, what do you think?

I will try to post a picture of the front pcb side to let anybody help me to identify what pedal is it.

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mictester
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Post by mictester »

That's better than many of the "Boutique" pedals I've seen!

It might be best to scrap it and use the hardware to build a Zendrive or something else that's simple.
"Why is it humming?" "Because it doesn't know the words!"

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Vinnie
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Post by Vinnie »

mictester wrote:That's better than many of the "Boutique" pedals I've seen!
:lol: :lol: :lol: :lol:
mictester wrote:It might be best to scrap it and use the hardware to build a Zendrive or something else that's simple.
That was my first impression, this seem to be impossible to be repaired.

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vtguedes
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Post by vtguedes »

I would bet that something is touching the enclosure and shorting signal to ground. Happened to me in my first builds.

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theehman
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Post by theehman »

Seeing what people pay for builds like that seriously makes me question if I'm pricing my stuff too low.
Ron Neely II
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mictester
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Post by mictester »

theehman wrote:Seeing what people pay for builds like that seriously makes me question if I'm pricing my stuff too low.
You probably are! Recently I saw Yet Another Fuzz Face that was advertised as "better than the 1960s germanium Fuzz Face - this uses SILICON semiconductors!". The build wasn't good, it used cheap sockets and a nasty blue footswitch, and sounded horribly mis-biased when I tried it. It had a brand name and they were asking £199.95 for it !!

Just for the sake of amusement, I priced up the thing, using components from my regular suppliers. Buying everything including the diecast box, good quality sockets and relay switching (to eliminate the blue junk switch) cost around £20. Factor in some time to build it, and £75 would be more reasonable!
"Why is it humming?" "Because it doesn't know the words!"

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Post by fuzzbunny »

Despite the 'rat's nest' build, debugging might be simple. Perhaps a shorted wire? Clean up the circuit traces? Looks a bit 'hairy'...

(could also be a complete diy nightmare too...!)

********

Funny, a local audio tech used to do what I considered 'bullshit' repairs. Quick fixes and then wrap with electrical tape.
Honestly, it just looked careless and shitty. The thing is, he was really skilled and could fix almost anything. High end rack gear, tube amps, mixers, systems etc.

So, his repairs were very good, quick and functional. They just looked sketchy.

I actually consider his methods legit now, although I rarely employ them. (He has since passed away)
Honestly, if a circuit is working well, the cosmetics are a much lesser issue.

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