# Anyone Do Effects Pedal Repairs in Canada?



## tomsy49 (Apr 2, 2015)

Anyone in Canada (preferably on the forum) repair effects pedals?? Specifically vintage ones?? I am considering buying an old civil war muff that isn't working for cheap but need someone to repair it. Also an old 70's memory man. If anyone can help me out that would be awesome!


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## jbealsmusic (Feb 12, 2014)

TONS of guys on here and across Canada do pedal repairs. Pretty much anyone who does amp repairs also does pedals repairs. Do a search for a local amp tech in your area.

*mhammer* seems to be the go-to pedal guy on this forum.


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## mhammer (Nov 30, 2007)

At this point in my life, it's a bit of a nuisance to take on out-of-town repairs. However, I have no problem talking you through the repairs yourself, on or off-line, or at leat narrowing down what the problem is, so that the specifics can be pinpointed for a local repair person, and whatever bench time you end up having to pay for is kept to a blessed minimum. Sometimes these things can be easily fixed by a person who may not specialize in pedals but understands electronics and can do the repair if they know exactly what the issue is.

You would, however, need to be in possession of a voltage meter, whether digital or analog.


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## tomsy49 (Apr 2, 2015)

I do have a digital voltmeter. I would love to get a little help and possibly fix it myself and get into fixing pedals overall. But a little help and direction would be awesome!


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## mhammer (Nov 30, 2007)

Then we can begin. Your choice of off-line or on-line.

These pages are a good place to start:
Debugging - DIY_Wiki
Frequently Asked Questions (DIY FAQ) - DIY_Wiki

Incidentally, I took a peek at Wawota on Streetview. I gather your "local electronics distributor" is necessarily the Post Office on Railway Ave. I will be mindful of that.

Should you need any parts, many, though not all, can be ordered from this place in Niagara Falls: Electronic components - dipmicro electronics They don't have everything, but are crazy cheap, there's no "broker" fees, and stuff comes super-quick through Canada Post. I honestly have no idea how they make a profit. I just hope they make enough to stay in business.


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## tomsy49 (Apr 2, 2015)

@mhammer Thank you very much! I only have pencil soldering iron so I suspect a good quality one may be of good use?? Also, what type of solder would you recommend??


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## greco (Jul 15, 2007)

I'll be following this thread with interest. 
@tomsy49 ..I just want you to know that you have a true gentleman and scholar (mhammer) helping you.


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## davetcan (Feb 27, 2006)

Greg at Solid Gold FX did some for me a few years ago, excellent work and reasonably priced.


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## mhammer (Nov 30, 2007)

tomsy49 said:


> @mhammer Thank you very much! I only have pencil soldering iron so I suspect a good quality one may be of good use?? Also, what type of solder would you recommend??


I'm agnostic when it comes to solder. The standard 60/40 stuff is fine with me, although more countries are insisting on lead-free. Lead free stuff requires more heat, and probably higher wattage than your soldering pencil. So as long as you aren't planning to sell your repaired pedals to someone in Japan or Europe, regular 60/40 or 63/37 will be fine.

Mark


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## tomsy49 (Apr 2, 2015)

And the pencil iron should be fine??


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## greco (Jul 15, 2007)

tomsy49 said:


> And the pencil iron should be fine??


What is the power of your pencil iron? It should be labelled in "watts" somewhere on the iron.


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## Dukemcrae (Aug 2, 2016)

A question for mhammer:


Boss PSM-5 to be used as boss FS-5L
I have a boss pedalboard (BCB-6) i've used for a long time, and love it, and one of the pedals I use is a super-overdrive SD-2, which needs a remote pedal to change modes from lead to crunch. 
The pedal they suggest and that I've been using for years is the Boss FS-5L, but sadly, it doesn't fit in the BCB-6.
I have an old PSM-5 that I would like to repurpose to do the same thing as the FS-5L, it even has a dual colour LED that would let me know which mode it has changed the SD-2 to.
In the hopes of it working as-is, I tried every combination of TRS to TS and y-cable I could think of from the PSM-5 to the SD-2 to try to change the modes with no luck.
I would like to set the PSM-5 so it acts like a latching switch, and still retains the dual-colour LED as well.
Do you have any suggestions as to anything I could do to modify the PSM-5 to turn it into a latching switch using any of the 4 jacks?


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## mhammer (Nov 30, 2007)

As near as I can tell from quickly looking at the schematics for the SD-2 and the PSM-5, you would need to gut the PSM-5 to make it do the trick you need. It would be far easier to just pop over to Honson or Creatron on College St. (just west of Spadina) and pick up the appropriate stompswitch and a small Hammond Chassis (1590A or 1590LB). Neither of those units will fit snugly in the allotted slot of the BCB6, but it will pack up neatly inside the closed case and be easily placed beside the BCB-6 when in use.

The pedal bypass uses a momentary switch to actuate an electronic flip-flop circuit. The mode switch, on the other hand, appears to use a latching (non-momentary) SPST switch that simply grounds a contact to change the state of several FETs that Boss uses as the actual switch. So, phone plug goes into remote jack. Ground connection goes to one contact on the switch, and "hot" connection goes to the other. That's it. Should you only be able to find a SPDT or DPDT switch that you like, you can still use it as a remote mode-switch, by using only two of its contacts: one in the middle, and one of the adjacent side lugs.

The PSM-5 mimics the electronic switching found in virtually all Boss effects, except that the foot treadle simply switches between an unspecified send/return and buffered bypass, compared to that send/return being an effect circuit in a pedal.

Does all of that make sense to you?


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## Dukemcrae (Aug 2, 2016)

mhammer said:


> As near as I can tell from quickly looking at the schematics for the SD-2 and the PSM-5, you would need to gut the PSM-5 to make it do the trick you need. It would be far easier to just pop over to Honson or Creatron on College St. (just west of Spadina) and pick up the appropriate stompswitch and a small Hammond Chassis (1590A or 1590LB). Neither of those units will fit snugly in the allotted slot of the BCB6, but it will pack up neatly inside the closed case and be easily placed beside the BCB-6 when in use.
> 
> The pedal bypass uses a momentary switch to actuate an electronic flip-flop circuit. The mode switch, on the other hand, appears to use a latching (non-momentary) SPST switch that simply grounds a contact to change the state of several FETs that Boss uses as the actual switch. So, phone plug goes into remote jack. Ground connection goes to one contact on the switch, and "hot" connection goes to the other. That's it. Should you only be able to find a SPDT or DPDT switch that you like, you can still use it as a remote mode-switch, by using only two of its contacts: one in the middle, and one of the adjacent side lugs.
> 
> ...



Thanks mhammer - I may try and do all of that and see if I can do it within the guts of the PSm-5 - my OCD wants a boss pedal in that slot, come hell or high water.....if there's any way of changing the guts to turn into a latching switch and still use the LED's, I'm interested in that....

Creatron or Honson it is!

Thank you very much for your input - if you think of anything else, let me know!


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## mhammer (Nov 30, 2007)

Your choice ultimately, but I think leaving the PSM-5 as-is may be the wiser and much less complicated choice. The mode-switch you want is a very simple thing to make, but a more complicated thing to install in the PSM-5 chassis. And having a loop-switcher is always a handy thing.

Given that you appear to have a number of Boss pedals, you might want to take a look at this:


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## sh333 (Apr 6, 2006)

I can vouch for this fellow: Built-by-brian.com

He does quite alot of repair work and is reasonably priced. He also pre-builds BYOC kits for us.


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## Dukemcrae (Aug 2, 2016)

sh333 said:


> I can vouch for this fellow: Built-by-brian.com
> 
> He does quite alot of repair work and is reasonably priced. He also pre-builds BYOC kits for us.


Sent an email to him today! Thanks for the suggestion!

Update - went to see him today, he said it would be an easy fix, and he's very knowledgeable, so thank you again for the suggestion! I'll add pics of the job when it's done next week!


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## Dukemcrae (Aug 2, 2016)

Further update - took 2 pedals in to Brian (one needed fixing, one needed modding as per my earlier post), Brian was knowledgeable, friendly, did the exact mod I asked for, had both pedals done in 24 hours, and all for a very reasonable price! 

Thanks again sh333 for the suggestion!


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## Roryfan (Apr 19, 2010)

Where is Brian located?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


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## greco (Jul 15, 2007)

Roryfan said:


> Where is Brian located?
> 
> 
> Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


The link from post 16.......Built-by-brian.com


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## Roryfan (Apr 19, 2010)

I didn't find an address on his website. Need to repair a vintage Memory Man that was damaged in shipping & would prefer to find someone local-ish to the GTA/SW Ontario.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


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## greco (Jul 15, 2007)

Roryfan said:


> I didn't find an address on his website. Need to repair a vintage Memory Man that was damaged in shipping & would prefer to find someone local-ish to the GTA/SW Ontario.


Sorry...I noticed that also when I looked at the website ...AFTER posting...DOH

I'm fairly sure that he is in the Burlington area.

Confirmed...I found this in another thread..
_"I got some pedals repaired and modded by a great guy - Brian at www.built-by-Brian.com , he's in Burlington, and was great to deal with!"_


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## bduguay (Jul 15, 2009)

I'll take a shot at the Memory Man if you see fit.
B.


Roryfan said:


> I didn't find an address on his website. Need to repair a vintage Memory Man that was damaged in shipping & would prefer to find someone local-ish to the GTA/SW Ontario.
> 
> 
> Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


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## rousseau (Nov 2, 2021)

Reviving an old thread. I accidentally sent 12V into a 9V pedal and damaged it. An EHX Mel9 Tape Replay Machine.

I'm in southern Ontario outside of Toronto. Who can I contact?


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## paraedolia (Nov 26, 2008)

rousseau said:


> Reviving an old thread. I accidentally sent 12V into a 9V pedal and damaged it. An EHX Mel9 Tape Replay Machine.


If you're lucky, there's a zener diode in there that took the brunt of the voltage and blew, saving the rest of the pedal. Pop it open and replace it. Take you 10 minutes if you stop to make a cup of tea in the middle.


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## mhammer (Nov 30, 2007)

paraedolia said:


> If you're lucky, there's a zener diode in there that took the brunt of the voltage and blew, saving the rest of the pedal. Pop it open and replace it. Take you 10 minutes if you stop to make a cup of tea in the middle.


Often true. Manufacturers have learned from their authorized service outlets how they can easily avoid costly repairs and bad PR by means of simple changes to circuits that only involve minor repairs.

Having said that, some folks can do such fixes, and many others are ill-equipped to do such things and need a qualified repair person. My default recommendation is to seek out Brian Duguay in Burlington, who many others here have had their problems solved by satisfactorily.


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## Okay Player (May 24, 2020)

greco said:


> I'll be following this thread with interest.
> @tomsy49 ..I just want you to know that you have a true gentleman and scholar (mhammer) helping you.


It's rare that expression is used and the person is actually a scholar.


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## rousseau (Nov 2, 2021)

paraedolia said:


> If you're lucky, there's a zener diode in there that took the brunt of the voltage and blew, saving the rest of the pedal. Pop it open and replace it. Take you 10 minutes if you stop to make a cup of tea in the middle.


Well, good to know. Though I'm not handy with electronics or electrical, so I dunno if I can do this myself.



mhammer said:


> Often true. Manufacturers have learned from their authorized service outlets how they can easily avoid costly repairs and bad PR by means of simple changes to circuits that only involve minor repairs.
> 
> Having said that, some folks can do such fixes, and many others are ill-equipped to do such things and need a qualified repair person. My default recommendation is to seek out Brian Duguay in Burlington, who many others here have had their problems solved by satisfactorily.


Thanks for the recommendation.


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## paraedolia (Nov 26, 2008)

mhammer said:


> My default recommendation is to seek out Brian Duguay in Burlington, who many others here have had their problems solved by satisfactorily.


Good toknow. I have a dead old MXR Flanger that is well beyond my limited abilities to repair, I'd love to get it fixed.
Maybe I'll give him a call. Tnx


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## tomee2 (Feb 27, 2017)

paraedolia said:


> If you're lucky, there's a zener diode in there that took the brunt of the voltage and blew, saving the rest of the pedal. Pop it open and replace it. Take you 10 minutes if you stop to make a cup of tea in the middle.


Any chance that same failure works when 9VAC power is plugged into the 9VDC input jack on a pedal?


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## paraedolia (Nov 26, 2008)

tomee2 said:


> Any chance that same failure works when 9VAC power is plugged into the 9VDC input jack on a pedal?


That's a bit above my pay grade I'm afraid. 
AFAIK, some manufacturers have circuit protection for that, but I've heard a few tales of bricked pedals from accidentally plugging in an AC adapter. Don't think I've ever done it (yet).

They should really standardize and make them different plug sizes don't you think?


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## mhammer (Nov 30, 2007)

tomee2 said:


> Any chance that same failure works when 9VAC power is plugged into the 9VDC input jack on a pedal?


This is one of the reasons why companies often insist that you MUST use their adaptors, or one of the recommended ones. But yes, I would imagine that, since this is a not infrequent mistake by end users (look for the straight line on the wallwart information, NOT the wiggly one!), the protection diodes are intended to avert it as well.


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