1980's boss MIJ Pedals?

flakeh · #1 09-08-2007, 06:10 PM

I have found two 1980's MIJ black label boss pedals.

For mad cheap.

These anygood, Or are they all hype no good?

BTW its a CE-2 and a CS-2

bongomania · #2 09-08-2007, 06:55 PM

If they're mad cheap, then buy them to resell on Ebay. As I'm sure you know by mentioning them as MIJ black label, there's a market of bidders for those. Oh, and of course you get to try them out in the meantime.

flakeh · #3 09-08-2007, 07:04 PM

Heres the email I got describing them:

" Hey Flakeh, I got two 1980's MIJ black label boss pedals for yah.

CE-2, Black label, Very good condition, minor scrathes, no velcro
CS-2 Black Label, Mint conditon, No marks, nothing. LNIB.

80$ for both,I wanted 120$ for both, But your a good friend, and I know you'll have a better use then me"

There pending to someone who's on vacation, So there prolly mine soon.

How's the resale for these puppies?

bongomania · #4 09-08-2007, 07:42 PM

Decent, but it's kind of a roulette as far as how much they're worth, depending on who's bidding that day. If you don't feel like the hassle of Ebay, sell them to me, I'm all about it.

flakeh · #5 09-08-2007, 07:56 PM

We'll see Bongo, We'll see

If I like em I'll keep em, If I don't like one then I'll send em yer way.

Templar · #6 09-08-2007, 11:12 PM

I have an old CS-2 around here somewhere. Sounds okay, but IMO not in the same league as its predecessor, the CS-1. Different species altogether.

One thing....all three of the CS-2's I had were very fussy about what sort of adaptor was powering them. If yours has the little sticker calling for a ACA only, it may sound lousy without one.

I know, I know, I know...the ACA and PSA spec out the same, right? We had that debate before, but there must be something to it 'cos some Boss pedals can tell the difference! LOL

Value-wise, the CS-2 has been all over the map in the last few years, as it careens in and out of vogue with guitar players.

bongomania · #7 09-08-2007, 11:37 PM

The thing we discovered about ACA was that prior to a certain year, the ACA pedals needed 12VDC. Later, Boss redesigned them to only need 9V, but kept the ACA label on them. So that's why some ACA's work well on a non-ACA adapter.

I just got a CS-1, and it is definitely its own thing, unrelated to the later VCA designs.

Lebowsky · #8 09-09-2007, 05:49 AM

just a note regarding ACA/PSA:

Quote:

The ACA is an unregulated 9V or 12V adapter. For a long time both the ACA and the regulated PSA adapter was available but in the later part of the 90s the ACA adapter was discontinued as all Boss pedals then was designed to run with the PSA adapter.

When a power supply is unregulated, it means that the voltage level will drop as the load is increased. The ACA adapter may give out a full 12 volt when it is powering one or two pedals but if it is hooked up to a long row of pedals the voltage will drop. The ACA adapter is capable of supplying as much current as 250mA but problems keeping the voltage up may occur before the load reaches that level.

The early compact pedals was designed to run on either a 9V DC battery or 12V DC adapter. Because of this the ACA adapter was a 12V adapter. The voltage was reduced to 9V internally by using a 470 Ohm resistor and 1S2473 diode between the minus input on the power jack and ground. The resistor diode pair was later removed and at the same time the ACA adpater was redesigned to output 9V instead.

Powering ACA pedals with a PSA power supply
Powering the older pedals designed for 12V DC input with either a newer ACA or PSA adapter will not work very well. The voltage drop over the resistor and diode will prevent the pedal from getting enough power and its LED will usually only glow faintly. The solution is to use a daisy chain and plug in another pedal designed for the newer ACA or PSA adapter. The lead between the two pedals will short the resistor diode pair and the pedal will receive full power.

Depending on the mains voltage there are 4 were versions of the ACA adapter. ACA-100, ACA-120, ACA-220 and ACA-240. The number denotes the mains voltage that the adpapter should be plugged into. The 9V version of the ACA adapter has a G appended at the end of its name. Pictured is the ACA-120G which is the version sold in the USA.

source: bossarea.com

I have a MIJ ACA BF-2, and powering it from the TU-2 daisy chain works fine btw.

Jerry J · #9 12-12-2008, 04:21 PM

Resurecting an old thread...

I recently purchased an early Boss OC-2. Of course there was no power supply. The pedal is listed to use the ACA transformer which seem to be pretty rare.

So from what I've read so far I won't do any damage to the pedal by trying the PSA supply, right? So most likely what would happen would be that it works out fine or the input power would be too low to power the pedal? As indicated by a dim LED. There are no polarity issues to worry about?

I think that I have a line on a used ACA120(non-G version) so it may not matter. But it does raise another question. If I plug the ACA120 which puts out 12 volts into a pedal that is expecting 9 volts would that cause an issue?