The Magical Tale of a Faulty Diva
I got a new MXR Phase 95, a pedal that I have wanted for a while, but just couldn’t afford until October 2019. After a short period of enjoying my new phaser it inexplicably developed a fault.
The Phase 45 mode (the feature I bought it for) stopped working. The Phase 90 mode worked perfectly still, but other than that… silence!
After arranging a return with the dealer in the USA, it turned out that it was a false economy for me to get a replacement. I didn’t want to effectively buy the pedal again, so I decided to live with it as it was and keep it as an occasional pedal.
Recently, out of an undying curiosity I had another look inside. I guess I just had a strong wish for a miracle to either get it working or know what it needed to get it fixed locally or something.
To my amazement I did indeed receive a miracle. I don’t know why, but I decided to touch various points on the circuit board with a screwdriver just to see if I could trace out what part could possibly be faulty. I had the pedal powered up and connected in my pedalboard’s signal chain.
As I stroked the tip of the screwdriver over the legs of the op amp in the centre of the circuit board I heard a noise and then magically the pedal started passing a signal. I had to check to the front because I assumed I must have just switched on the Phase 90 mode by accident.
I hadn’t. The Phase 45 mode, my favourite mode was working again. The problem didn’t go away for good however. It regularly needs this procedure done to it, so I drilled a hole in the bottom of the pdeal, located over the chip that needs a tickle from the screwdriver and now I can just turn the pedal over and do it whenever I need to instead of unscrewing and removing the base.
It’s not perfect, but it’s as good as I can imagine it being for a faulty pedal!
More details in the video and a demo song too!
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