Fake JRC4558 IC's

[JT20]

Wanted to make this post as sort of a PSA about fake JRC4558's IC's

When I first had an interest in building pedals, I bought 20 of what I thought were JRC4558's from an ebay seller. I built a ROG Mockman using the IC, and it came out pretty terrible. It had a bad tone, and was really buzzy, with a bad hum. I gave up on it for a while, and went on to other things. I recently got back into building, and have been reading about how many different things are faked (after looking for J201's ). I decided to give my Mockman another try and ordered some more JRC4558's (shout out to Small Bear for getting me some real ones!). I couldn't be happier with the results! Even outside of an enclosure, the pedal sounds great and has much less hum. I'll try to get a video up sometime, but it's a huge difference!

Here's an image of the fakes (the ones in the pink foam). It's hard to tell the difference initially, but when you look closely, it looks like someone painted over the fronts.

and here is the real one in my protoboard pedal.


I just wanted to help get the word out about fakes, so I hope this helps someone!

[blackieNYC]

Welcome! I must ask - did you try all these questionable ones in your working pedal? 
They do look a little funny. Unlike the 201 FETs, I would think the 4558 is widely available and unlikely to be counterfeit, but I guess it's all about how much they can profit.

[JT20]

Thanks!
I thought the same. They're still very readily available and cheap, so why bother. When I box this pedal up I'll test a few more just to see. They were $3 shipped, so it wouldn't be a huge loss, it more just makes me mad that I bought from a questionable source.

[duck_arse]

can I make a request for a photo? can you flip all those dud's and see if'n thars anything printed on the underneath - if so, take a pic for me? just for the complete picture, like.

[JT20]

can I make a request for a photo? can you flip all those dud's and see if'n thars anything printed on the underneath - if so, take a pic for me? just for the complete picture, like.

Here's the back. Some of the numbers area pretty hard to read in person, so the picture came out kind of bad. The chips have numbers on the back (800, h5, 9p J8 H2, 801, P9, P27, Q14, 601, C3, N5, F2, P1 P06, T19, 610T12, D2, J8)

[GGBB]

They were $3 shipped

For the lot of 20? Nobody is faking ICs for 15 cents a piece shipped.

Or $3 each? Nobody is selling real 4558s for $3 each, unless they are claimed to be NOS originals.

Apparently the "originals" had 4 digit date codes, so I'm guessing because of the 5 character code, those were not claimed to be NOS originals.

[duck_arse]

thanks for the pic. I was hoping for some inked characters, the moulded ones aren't of interest/information.

[davepedals]

I quit buying transistors and ICs years ago from eBay , way too many fakes, and/or just bad components.

[amptramp]

Fake IC's have been a big problem with military equipment (but not with spacecraft - they require traceability from the factory of origin).  We once got in a 16-pin 54HC74 (which is a 14-pin part) and it would have been interesting to see what was actually in it (if anything).  There are a number of companies who have bought up old silicon foundries and are producing obsolete parts for military customers.  We had a presentation form one of them extolling the virtues of buying new parts from their old foundries rather than making an engineering change to accommodate new parts and the salesman's name: Rusty Key.  I don't remember the names of a lot of the people I worked with but that name was appropriate and stayed with me.

[nonoxxx]

I always buy from reputable store (banzai music, musikdig... ) when buyings IC's .
On ebay there is too much  risk of getting a fake or a reject.