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DOD DFX9 Digital Delay

gregmon79

gregmon79

Dec 20, 2012
27,397
19,561
46
Chicago IL
#1
Hey all you pedal builders and fiddlers alike, I have a small issue with my DOD DFX9. This delay pedal is awesome and have grown to love it over the 14 years I've had it. It's a staple on my board. Always will be. This particular pedal has 2 adjustable pots on the inside. I have been tweaking them for the last few months and have found great levels for the pots to get the most out of the delay. So here's my issue, I removed the plastic housing for the battery so that I could get at the pots whenever I may need to by just popping off the battery door. The thing is, I've noticed that if I want a long long ambient delay and the repeat is maxed, sometimes it won't repeat but only one time with repeats maxed and volume maxed. I was adjusting the internal pots and noticed that I get the long repeats I want but only when the cord for the battery inside is touching, or maybe not touching, something inside the pedal. If I can't get the pedal to do the long repeats I want it to I have to open the battery door and jostle the battery cord around a little until it will perform the way I want it to. Do y'all think this is a grounding issue? Can it be solved if I just put the plastic battery box back in the pedal? I wrapped electric tape around the diodes for where the battery contexts so it wouldn't possibly short on anything. Could that be the culprit? Here's a pic of the inside:

ImageUploadedByTalkBass1372869759.998783.jpg

The long delay works the way the wires inside are setting right now. Now for the long explanation, just trying to get as much info to you guys so you could better help me. Is this a grounding issue you think? Thanks for helping.
 
#2
I just jostled the volume and repeat pots while it was repeating the way I wanted it too and the repeats cut off. Does that sound like bad pots maybe? I will have to open er up and see what the connections look like and take pics for you all to see. Maybe the connections need to be resoldered. The pedal is about 20 years I think mind you.
 
#4
Sounds like its just something funky going on with the battery clip. I have a dod pedal thats around the same age as yours that coincidentally i was working on today and i noticed some strange things in the design. For one thing the battery clip is connected to the jack in a way so that it is connected to your basses signal. Another thing i noticed was that the case of the pedal is used to connect the ground instead of a wire. So what i'd recommend doing is just taping over the battery clip with electrical tape so the terminals aren't exposed to prevent them from messing with any thing and see if that fixes it. Judging by how my pedal was designed i would think that the battery clip just touching the case of the pedal could even cause this problem so i think taping over the battery clip would likely fix this.
 
#5
danielfnj96 said:
Sounds like its just something funky going on with the battery clip. I have a dod pedal thats around the same age as yours that coincidentally i was working on today and i noticed some strange things in the design. For one thing the battery clip is connected to the jack in a way so that it is connected to your basses signal. Another thing i noticed was that the case of the pedal is used to connect the ground instead of a wire. So what i'd recommend doing is just taping over the battery clip with electrical tape so the terminals aren't exposed to prevent them from messing with any thing and see if that fixes it.
Click to expand...

Yeah I did the electric tape already. I removed the plastic piece for the battery and taped it then. I was having issues with it before I removed the battery box so I don't think that's it. That's odd the designs you're pointing out. I think it's just old. I need to open er up and look at the inside to see if all the connections are right and solid. Thanks for your input, I appreciate it.
 
#6
gregmon79 said:
Yeah I did the electric tape already. I removed the plastic piece for the battery and taped it then. I was having issues with it before I removed the battery box so I don't think that's it. That's odd the designs you're pointing out. I think it's just old. I need to open er up and look at the inside to see if all the connections are right and solid. Thanks for your input, I appreciate it.
Click to expand...

Well if thats not it my next guess would actually be that you might have damaged or worn out one or both of your trim pots, but taking a looksy at the wiring can never hurt. I know when i was looking around in mine the wiring was really poor, the soldering was terrible to the point were a wire broke just from me moving the pcb, and i had to re-solder it in place.
 
#7
danielfnj96 said:
Well if thats not it my next guess would actually be that you might have damaged or worn out one or both of your trim pots, but taking a looksy at the wiring can never hurt. I know when i was looking around in mine the wiring was really poor, the soldering was terrible to the point were a wire broke just from me moving the pcb, and i had to re-solder it in place.
Click to expand...

Thanks, I have a feeling that's what it is. Did re-soldering fix yours?
 
#9
I think I may have fixed it. All I did was tighten the nuts that hold the shafts for the knobs in place. Time will tell. There's no way I'm going to try and open this pedal any further. I can't tell how it's anchored in the housing so I stopped at that point.
 
#11
mouthmw said:
Maybe it's time for a new delay pedal? :) What do you like about this particular dod delay? Plenty of great (and more versatile) delays out there.
Click to expand...

I use to not like my DOD delay. But after years of using it and getting use to it, I love it now. I also have a hardwire DL8 which is nice too. My main goal is to get a line 6 DL....6 is it?? The big green one, the module. But I like the DOD because I can get some really cool oscillating sweeps on it while it's delaying. I can get that with the hardwire, it doesn't act anything like the DOD when I turn knobs while its trailing delays.
 

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