Treble Bass Booster w/ pictures!

All about modern commercial stompbox circuits from Electro Harmonix over MXR, Boss and Ibanez into the nineties.
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ovid9
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Post by ovid9 »

I purchased a pedal that I have next to NO information about and the internet has not been helpful.

I was told it was a "Gretsch Treble-Bass Booster but nothing on it says anything about Gretsch. Someone wrote on the box in pencil "Gretsch" but that's it.

There is no tag, no serial number. The case is chrome, stamped with "Treble Bass Booster" on top, "Bass-Treble" on the front by the knob, "Guitar" on the input side, "Amp" on the output side and "Made in Japan" on the bottom.

The box says "Treble Bass Booster" on it and on one end says "MEDE IN JAPAN" yes, its printed wrong on the box. I have no idea what this thing is so I figured you kind folk might know or at least be interested in it. I can supply more pictures if you like. Thanks!

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CHEEZOR
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Post by CHEEZOR »

I have no idea what that is, but it looks AWESOME!!!! :thumbsup

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DiscoFreq
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Post by DiscoFreq »

The enclosure reminds me of this one (recently bought one of those myself):
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Apollo Treble-Bass Booster
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modman
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Post by modman »

https://www.freestompboxes.org/viewtopic ... 535#p15535
http://analogguru.an.ohost.de/001/schem ... sBoost.gif

But they are not the same unit. They deserve different threads...
Does either of the two give any indication of brand on the unit?
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Post by DiscoFreq »

modman wrote:https://www.freestompboxes.org/viewtopic ... 535#p15535
http://analogguru.an.ohost.de/001/schem ... sBoost.gif

But they are not the same unit. They deserve different threads...
Does either of the two give any indication of brand on the unit?
The Apollo has a brand name, this pedal only has Gretsch written on the box in pencil.
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Post by ovid9 »

modman wrote:https://www.freestompboxes.org/viewtopic ... 535#p15535
http://analogguru.an.ohost.de/001/schem ... sBoost.gif

But they are not the same unit. They deserve different threads...
Does either of the two give any indication of brand on the unit?
As DiscoFreq said there is NO brand indication at all, either on the box or on the pedal itself that I've seen.

I'll look inside the guts again to see if there's anywhere they hid some info, but its pretty sparse in there. :lol:

And thanks Cheezor! Its look was about 99.9% of the reason I bought it. I gotta say there was some hope of value appreciation as well, but hell, its old, its shiny and it looks pretty awesome. :D

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tube-exorcist
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Post by tube-exorcist »

Ever heard or seen of the Sekova (Apollo) FA-II ?
Sekova_FA-II.jpg
Sekova_FA-II.jpg (13.79 KiB) Viewed 1518 times
Chrome case, engraved letters and inside it looks very similar too:
Sekova_FA-II_guts.jpg
Sekova_FA-II_guts.jpg (14.41 KiB) Viewed 1518 times
I'll look inside the guts again to see if there's anywhere they hid some info, but its pretty sparse in there.
Please don´t forget to unscrew the footswitch and take a picture of the solder side of the pcb. I am pretty sure there will be written someting (like TR-II or similar) on it. Oh, and more pictures of the components would be appreciated.
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ovid9
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Post by ovid9 »

tube-exorcist wrote:Ever heard or seen of the Sekova (Apollo) FA-II ?

*snip*

Chrome case, engraved letters and inside it looks very similar too:

*snip*

I'll look inside the guts again to see if there's anywhere they hid some info, but its pretty sparse in there.
Please don´t forget to unscrew the footswitch and take a picture of the solder side of the pcb. I am pretty sure there will be written someting (like TR-II or similar) on it. Oh, and more pictures of the components would be appreciated.
No, I have never heard of those, (this isn't surprising I'm not very knowledgeable on this stuff). It definitely has a similar look going on.

I'll get some more component photos and unscrew the footswitch as well to see if there is anything else under there.

Thanks!

Doing some more searching on the Sekova, the stamping, feet, box design, everything are exactly the same as the pedal I have.

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Post by ovid9 »

GAH!!!

Unscrewed the footswitch, looked at the underside of the board....ITS COVERED IN SOME SORT OF INSULATING TAPE CRAP!

And I have apparently misplaced my camera since last night. :slap:

Thanks for your help so far guys. I'll find my camera and get some pics either tomorrow or this weekend.

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Post by edkoppel »

hey, yeah that looks like the Sekova for sure!
which was probably made at the Shin Ei factory in the late 60s?

but I have never seen one of those before, so thanks for posting!

also, in relation to Bart's post, there was an Apollo version of the Sekova wedge fuzz, so they could probably be related?
http://www.effectsdatabase.com/model/apollo/fuzz
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Post by DiscoFreq »

Yes, I thought briefly about the Sekova (because of the circuit around the switch), but I didn't remember it also had engraved (or stamped?) labels, so I didn't seriously think about a relation :D
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