Greetings folks,
Ive just received a Boss HF2 flanger from an ebay purchase. It's one of the earlier made in Japan pedals.
Doing a quick check (using a battery), i am loving the sound but the Res (?resonance/feedback) control pot is a bit crackly and i get the flanging whooshing sound without any plucking of guitar strings. I.e - pedal on (controls at top middle), guitar plugged in and run into a Blackstar TVP. If the res control is turned much past top middle, i get the whooshing without a guitar signal.
Does this sound normal for this pedal (crackling aside)?
Is replacing the crackly pot likely to improve things?
Anything else that might be wrong?
Cheers in advance,
Adam
Comments
Try some contact cleaner on the crackly pot, may be an easy fix.
I had a look inside and dont see any obvious signs of blown components (to my very rookie eyes), but the split shaft of the res pot has snapped one part of the split off. So maybe there has been some damage to it.
If contact cleaner doesnt fix the issue - do you happen to know where I could locate some of the small Boss pedal pots? Specifically a reverse log 50k? (from a schematic I found online).
Many thanks,
Adam
I said maybe.....
Mr Monkey, when i had a peek inside, i noticed 3 trimpots including the one labelled 'res'. If i was to adjust this, is there anything i should be aiming for? Or is it a case of adjust, see if it works, adjust some more, repeat?
Your help is much appreciated,
Adam
It sounds like the pot is damaged though - if it makes a poor contact it will probably cause the resonance to go to above full, which is why it whines. Adjusting the trimmer probably won't fix that. Try cleaning the pot first, and replace it if that doesn't work - although that make be easier said than done, those little specialist pots are hard to get...
"Take these three items, some WD-40, a vise grip, and a roll of duct tape. Any man worth his salt can fix almost any problem with this stuff alone." - Walt Kowalski
"Only two things are infinite - the universe, and human stupidity. And I'm not sure about the universe." - Albert Einstein
Cheers,
Adam
"Take these three items, some WD-40, a vise grip, and a roll of duct tape. Any man worth his salt can fix almost any problem with this stuff alone." - Walt Kowalski
"Only two things are infinite - the universe, and human stupidity. And I'm not sure about the universe." - Albert Einstein
Actually, I had meant that it was probably something Boss would have even if the pedal is out of production. But I do take your point.
As it happens, the pots are not PCB mounted - they are wired in. So if Im unable to locate another direct replacement I can always make do with another internal trim pot. I am after a working pedal more than something cosmetically perfect.
Cheers,
Adam
It seems, as ICBM alluded to, that nowhere in the universe stocks the 9mm C50K pot needed. So, following a squirt of contact cleaner the crackling went a little, I decided to have a go at removing the metal case from the pot and giving it a direct clean on the taper. Hey presto, smoother rotation and no crackling.
No improvement on the self-oscillation, though. So, with the backplate off, a fresh battery in and pedal plugged into my trusty Blackstar TVP15 (not, it would seem, a great pedal platform), I had at the res trim pot. Voila, gentle flagging with no crackle or oscillation.
Thanks chaps,
Adam
Feedback