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speedfish · . Joined: 27 Oct 2011 Posts: 1141

Hello,

Can you recommend someone to repair a pedal for me in the U.S.? I have an Electro Harmonix "Polychorus" from the 1980's that I'm considering having repaired. I had a local electronic repair shop check it out way back when, but the estimate was high and they seemed rather clueless regarding pedals and I suspect would've taken a shotgun approach toward repair. I've looked online and there are ton of people to be found, but who can I trust to do the job at a reasonable cost? Have any of you used any of the online pedal repair services?

Thanks,

I see this gentleman worked and designed for EH. I wonder if that would be the best way to go?

http://howardmickdavis.com/
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Disciple of Pain

"I'm like the monkey screwing the skunk. I haven't had enough, but I've about had all that I can stand!"

Doog · Posted: Thu Oct 06, 2016 3:01 pm Post subject:

Have you approached EHX themselves?

speedfish · . Joined: 27 Oct 2011 Posts: 1141

71Smallbox · . Joined: 04 Jan 2011 Posts: 2241 Location: Brooklyn

Check with Analog Man, he does alot of vintage EH pedals and his rates aren't that bad. Or you could check with Howard "Mick" Davis, he used to work at EH in the 70's and designed some of the pedals himself. I had Howard fix my old DMM pedal and he did a good job, but he's a little out there if you meet him in person. Here's his link:
http://www.howardmickdavis.com/

What's wrong with your pedal? Does it work at all?

NickS · Posted: Fri Oct 07, 2016 9:30 pm Post subject:

Bacchus · Posted: Fri Oct 07, 2016 9:32 pm Post subject:

Hmmmm, dunno about any of the other suggestions, but may I suggest mickhowarddavis?
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Brandon W · Posted: Fri Oct 07, 2016 9:50 pm Post subject:

i have one of the very old muff fuzz's.. the ones that was just a little box with one slider switch. It doesn't work but i'd like to fix it so if you have luck let me know
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71Smallbox · . Joined: 04 Jan 2011 Posts: 2241 Location: Brooklyn

NickS · Posted: Fri Oct 07, 2016 9:59 pm Post subject:

He comes over as a bit of a character, doesn't he?

Brandon W · Posted: Fri Oct 07, 2016 10:05 pm Post subject:

71Smallbox · . Joined: 04 Jan 2011 Posts: 2241 Location: Brooklyn

speedfish · . Joined: 27 Oct 2011 Posts: 1141

I emailed Mick, but haven't heard back yet.

Thanks,
_________________
Disciple of Pain

"I'm like the monkey screwing the skunk. I haven't had enough, but I've about had all that I can stand!"

speedfish · . Joined: 27 Oct 2011 Posts: 1141

An excerpt from Howard's email replay:

"I designed it, so I certainly can fix it."

Cool

_________________
Disciple of Pain

"I'm like the monkey screwing the skunk. I haven't had enough, but I've about had all that I can stand!"

speedfish · . Joined: 27 Oct 2011 Posts: 1141

Bad news! After emailing Howard back and forth and sending him a pic of the internals of my unit it turns out that my pedal is the older crappy version of the Polychorus not the improved reissue that he designed, so he has declined to work on it.

Here's what Howard wrote in his email response:

"If this pedal was made prior to 1998 as you said, it could not be the Stereo reissue of the old Polychorus.
Also, as it has a CD4053 chip, this could not be the Stereo Polychorus, which does not use that chip. It MUST be the old vintage unit. Perhaps someone put the internal works in a Stereo Polychorus box?"

Any one know anything or have any personal experience with fxdoctor?

http://www.fxdoctor.com/

[img]

this isn't mine, but mine looks like this one.
_________________
Disciple of Pain

"I'm like the monkey screwing the skunk. I haven't had enough, but I've about had all that I can stand!"

Doog · Posted: Wed Oct 12, 2016 2:23 pm Post subject:

How weird. Presuming it even works at all, does the 'output 2' actual give a stereo output as per the stereo reissues? The vintage ones just had a 'direct out' instead.

Fuck, this is really making me want to buy one of the new ones, despite having owned the original stereo reissue the second it arrived in the UK years ago..

#kurdtzkidthings

NickS · Posted: Wed Oct 12, 2016 2:45 pm Post subject:

Post gut pics so we know whether it's really the EH7700 or the Stereo Poly PCB.
Hang on a minute.... didn't the original Polychorus use mains and the Stereo one use an external PSU? Which does yours do?

speedfish · . Joined: 27 Oct 2011 Posts: 1141

NickS · Posted: Wed Oct 12, 2016 3:29 pm Post subject:

Paxolin board, mains transformer, most chips running north-south; that's the original (non-stereo) Polychorus.

Your first issue is that the two missing chips are the rare-as-hen's-teeth Reticon SAD1024 delay chips. You say you have the originals and spare? They're rare/valuable enough that fakes have been around. They were used in a bunch of pedals back then; I used one to build an Electric Mistress clone back in the 70s (and I have a spare). They're very susceptible to static damage by handling. The original Poly uses them in series to give a longer delay but that means if one dies you have no effect.

speedfish · . Joined: 27 Oct 2011 Posts: 1141

NickS · Posted: Wed Oct 12, 2016 3:41 pm Post subject:

There could be other issues, but you won't have any chorus effect without them.

Do you get any sound through the unit at the moment?

A pic on this page in Greek shows you which way round they should be installed. If you decide to try it yourself remember, these are very sensitive to any static charge and you need to make sure you are resting bare flesh on the case while handling the ICs.