Black Russian EH Small Stone - switch, jacks, mods questions?

[trumpus]

Hey all,

I've got a Black, Russian EH Small Stone phaser that i've been using for the last 8 years or so.  A few months ago, it started acting weird - I would hit the switch to turn it on, and though the LED would light up, the effect wouldn't engage.  Sometimes it would turn on after a few seconds, sometimes I had to hit the switch again and again.  Since then, it has gone downhill to the point that it doesn't engage at all (and now the LED is really dim or off entirely).  The switch has also become really "loose" feeling - in that it doesn't have a nice, distinct "click" when it depress it.

I am thinking the switch needs to be swapped out - I found the X-winf DPDT switch at small bear, but am wondering how difficult it would be to make it TB with a 3PDT switch?  Is this possilbe in a relatively simple way?  Ifg not, is there a better or more reliable switch to use? (the SB site called this one a bedroom or proto'ing switch - i'd like something a bit more sturdy)

Additionally, when I opened it to check the wiring and switch, I noticed the jacks are of the plastic board-mounted type.  I would love to swap these out for some higher quality Switchcraft jacks, but have never done a board-mounted to case mounted swap.  Is this relatively easy to do also?

Finally, I've caught wind of the possiblility that some mods exist for this pedal - namely to correct volume drop.  Are there others?  Does anyone have any info on how these can be done?

I've already gone ahead and replaced the SS on my board - with an HBE Psilocybe, which sounds great - but I would love to get my trusty old SS up and running again, a bit sturdier and a bit better sounding.

Any help would be great!!

Thanks,
Brian

[calculating_infinity]

Hey all,

I've got a Black, Russian EH Small Stone phaser that i've been using for the last 8 years or so.  A few months ago, it started acting weird - I would hit the switch to turn it on, and though the LED would light up, the effect wouldn't engage.  Sometimes it would turn on after a few seconds, sometimes I had to hit the switch again and again.  Since then, it has gone downhill to the point that it doesn't engage at all (and now the LED is really dim or off entirely).  The switch has also become really "loose" feeling - in that it doesn't have a nice, distinct "click" when it depress it.

I am thinking the switch needs to be swapped out - I found the X-winf DPDT switch at small bear, but am wondering how difficult it would be to make it TB with a 3PDT switch?  Is this possilbe in a relatively simple way?  Ifg not, is there a better or more reliable switch to use? (the SB site called this one a bedroom or proto'ing switch - i'd like something a bit more sturdy)

Additionally, when I opened it to check the wiring and switch, I noticed the jacks are of the plastic board-mounted type.  I would love to swap these out for some higher quality Switchcraft jacks, but have never done a board-mounted to case mounted swap.  Is this relatively easy to do also?

Finally, I've caught wind of the possiblility that some mods exist for this pedal - namely to correct volume drop.  Are there others?  Does anyone have any info on how these can be done?

I've already gone ahead and replaced the SS on my board - with an HBE Psilocybe, which sounds great - but I would love to get my trusty old SS up and running again, a bit sturdier and a bit better sounding.

Any help would be great!!

Thanks,
Brian

Well if you search the forum I'm sure your answers will be answered.  I can answer you these questions (still noobish sorry).  You can get TB with a DPDT but if you still want to use your LED you will need to make a Millenium Bypass circuit as found on R.G. Keen's http://geofex.com/ .  I suggest buying switches from Aron, you can support the forum and get some kick ass switches at the same time!  None have failed on me so far!  True Bypass with a 3PDT is very simple, there a few diagrams in DIY FAQ. (look at the links on the top of the page)  Also http://generalguitargadgets.com have a few diagrams with many switching options.  The X-Wing's are notorious for failure rate.  However in a previous post on the forum Mark Hammer suggests that it is the grease that the factories apply to the switch may be the culprit. 

Switching out the jacks should be simple just desolder and replace with wires to the jacks you want to use. 

As far as other mods im sure if you search here or google you're bound to find a bunch. 

-Jonathan

P.S.  If you havent read the FAQ's already do it!  It will help you learn some stuff.  I know I did!

[joelap]

Hey man, I'll chime in since I was in the same boat as you a few weeks ago.  Unfortunately, there's not much info on the russian small stones available online, so I was going to post a tutorial on my website sometime this week.  Since my laptop motherboard melted (quite literally), I'll have to wait to upload some pictures, but here is what I've gathered so far:

The plastic jacks dont really need to be replaced if they are in good shape.  They are pretty much the only thing holding the board in place inside of the enclosure, so you'll probably want to leave that alone at least.

True Bypass with a 3PDT shouldnt be too hard.  I havent finished doing this to mine yet, maybe I will today.

The reason that the pedal doesnt work immediately is that the caps need time to charge.  I've found with mine if I plug in DC power, turn it on, then spin the speed knob a bit, it takes about 2-3 seconds before the phase kicks in.  Then you can turn it off and it'll react immediately when you step on it again, assuming you didnt remove the 9V DC input.

As far as the volume loss mod, here's where I'm at a catch 22.  There are three different known ways to do this on the russian small stone.  One way is to change two resistors that I think have to do with the bias of the transistors so they give more gain.  This did work for me, but at the expense of changing the way one of the modes on the color switch sounded (I think the up direction).  The next way I tried was lowering the 100k Input resistor to 50k.  This also worked, but I thought it gave off a little more distortion than the previous way BUT I was using a guitar loaded with Seymour Duncan Invaders, which are probably the hottest wound passive pickups around.  The final way I've seen done to correct the problem is to add a JFET gain stage after the output of the effect.  I havent tried that method yet.

I will take pictures today and hopefully upload them tonight or sometime tomorrow, and let you know the resistor values that I used.

As far as other mods, there are mods available to turn the pedal into a pseudo- univibe, I've added a "bright" switch that I found on moosapotamus's website, but I chose a value even smaller than him.  To me it makes the color down mode sound more like an MXR phase 90/100 at that value.  I believe I picked .01uf.  There are other mods too to control the color and whatnot.  I will post evertything when I have my notes in front of me with some pictures as well.

Joe

[trumpus]

Thanks a lot for the info - I look forward to seeing your pics/site/descriptions!

As fgor the jacks - the though of changing them out was a part of an idea to rehouse it, which i've since abandonned since seeing how damn big the board is!

Could you post to this thread when you get your site up and running?

Thanks!

Brian

[thedefog]

You can still rehouse it. It would probably fit into a hammond BB if you shaved down the two extending edges and ran jumpers for where those traces used to be.

[Mark Hammer]

The thing about footswitches is that they really need to be situated where your foot strikes them at exactly 90 degrees to the chassis surface, or else you end up applying a lot of pressure at an angle and gradually stressing the plunger and housing.  The looseness is an almost inevitable byproduct of not having the switch in the right spot.  Of course, what "the right spot" is for any given foot is a difficult thing to guess.  Happily, the traditional sloped front of the EHX pedals made it all the more easy to step at close to 90 degrees, and likely extended the lifespan of the switch.

You can replace the existing switch with a DPDT or 3PDT switch.  One of the traditional problems with converting to "true" bypass is that when the original circuit is predicated on the loading which comes with SPDT switching (i.e., a switch that selects what the output jack connects to but leaves the board tied to the input jack at all times), you can get a volume drop in bypass mode.  That's fine if you only want to use the pedal for leads, or if you never switch the pedal on and off during a song at a gig, but it doesn't work for everyone all the time.

One possible solution is to introduce some sort of volume compensation by adjusting the gain.  Another possible solution lies in doing what Boss and 100 other companies have done: simply cancel the effect without bypassing anything.  In this case, assuming the Russian circuit is like this one - http://www.freeinfosociety.com/electronics/schematics/audio/pictures/smallstonephasereffect.jpg - it would involved simply breaking a connection between the 27k resistor near the output, and the point where it links up to the 30k resistor and 0.1uf cap.  The level should remain about the same.  True, you have whatever noise the input stage of the SS contributes, but you lose the loading effect it would have when the input stays tied to the circuit, as it does in the schematic.

As for getting past the "grease hurdle" with X-wing and other switches, make sure you tin the connectng wire and solder lug on the switch first.  Tinning the solder lug only requires application of a little bit of heat so the grease inside the switch should not start to flow.  Once wire and lug are tinned, slip the wire through and make sure that it has a nice firm grip of the lug.  Then you cansolder the wire quickly without overheating anything.  If you have anyliquid flux available dab a little bit on the wire and solder lug and you should have no problems with the grease melting from overheating.

As for mods, don't get me started.  I would like to get home from work today!