Possibly risqué, but some help please.

[chokeyou]

So I'm tracing a popular, current production, "boutique" pedal that everybody is dying to find out how it works/what makes it different. I'm not tracing it for production, other than my own purposes (I want to rebuild it in a format that works better for myself).

The creator took measures to make it difficult, he scratched off the top of a 14 pin DIP (opamp i'm assuming...it's a gain pedal. The catch is, the creator says in the product description that the circuit uses a part not normally used in this application, and this chip is the only thing odd enough to qualify).

Is there any end-all be-all way to ID this chip?

I understand this is probably unethical because this pedal is in current production. I assure you I have purchased it for myself, the pedal format, however does not work for me and I'd rather not rehouse it with the existing board.

I don't know how much more I can say without overstepping my boundaries. If somebody knowledgeable enough wants to help, please PM me. The subject matter is confidential, as the creator's design is at risk...I do not plan on giving this design away.

[chokeyou]

thanks for the tips everyone 

[aron]

I don't know how you would id an unmarked chip. I suppose if you traced out the circuit, then you could try and identify what type of chip would work there. 14 pins... is that a CD4049 type chip - rats.... 16 pins on that one.

I typed in "14 pin IC guitar pedal"

saw a 556 chip (two 555 in a chip).

Saw this:

RC4739DB

You can measure voltages and see if they match up to what you would expect a chip to need.

It's not unethical to trace circuits at all as far as I know.

[jrc4558]

this 'may' be a transistor array, like CA3086. this doesn't happen to be a swollen pickle?

[Alex C]

CD4069?

[smnm]

The creator took measures to make it difficult, he scratched off the top of a 14 pin DIP (opamp i'm assuming...it's a gain pedal. The catch is, the creator says in the product description that the circuit uses a part not normally used in this application, and this chip is the only thing odd enough to qualify).

Is there any end-all be-all way to ID this chip?

...you could start with identifying which pins are for power and which are ins and outs on your one and see if these match the pinouts of the suggested ICs, or spend a long time looking through 14 pin audio IC pinouts looking for matches...

[gez]

Possibly a 4007.

PS  Half an hour between first two posts and you expect a torrent of replies?!  We're definitely living in the 'now' society...

[toneman]

SEEING the signal and voltages levels is much better than just Measuring them 
Get/use an oscilloscope   
Use a function generator's triangle or sine wave at 1Vpp for input.
Observe the signal and, especially, any and all voltage levels the signal is riding on 
Also, as has been mentioned, sketch which components are attached to which pin(s) 
The transistor array suggestion is a *good* one  
T

[jakenold]

My guess is it's the ReezaFratzitz, or something similar. The suggestions you've gotten this far, are very good. Try 'em out!

[Barcode80]

dude, just tell us what pedal. there is nothing wrong with tracing a production pedal, just don't distribute it freely like we would do with others. there are many here who given a PM would be happy to share self traced schems and layouts of production pedals, provided courtesy is exercised and you don't use the trace to start pumping out a clone of someone else's currently in production pedal. this should be no different. i myself have nearly identical copy traces of pcb layouts for the sd-1, the bd-2, and the ts-9. i would never distribute them publicly, but sometimes people ruin their boards from overmodding and need to etch a replacement. just be reasonable with it.

[Mark Hammer]

First-off, chokeyou has, to my mind anyways, taken some pains to make this activity as above-board and ethical as he possibly can.  For that, he (I assume he) should be commended, and supported.  Trying to "guess the pedal" was not requested and also puts chokeyou in a difficult position, relative to his original intent.  So, as fun an activity as this might be (and I love a guess-the-pedal challenge as much as anyone), we should back off a little and provide the space to do what he set out to do.

Second, are you certain that the markings have been removed?  A while back, in response to a stupid error I made etching a board, it became apparent that one could conceivably bend the pins of a key semiconductor "backwards" (which I had to do to get the mis-etched board to work) and lay a board out in anticipation of the backwards upside down chip (with identifying information buried on the underside of the chip).  So, before driving yourself crazy, does it appear that the chip in question is installed in its "proper" (i.e., upright) position?

[Barcode80]

i only mentioned that he should tell us what pedal it is so as to make it easier for someone who might happen to have seen/worked on/owned the same pedal who might either have acces to a schem for him or might at least know the chip.

good thinking about the upside down thing. wouldn't have thought of that....

[Mark Hammer]

i only mentioned that he should tell us what pedal it is so as to make it easier for someone who might happen to have seen/worked on/owned the same pedal who might either have acces to a schem for him or might at least know the chip.

good thinking about the upside down thing. wouldn't have thought of that....

No harm done.  I only mentioned it because sometimes one can unintentionally provide pressure on someone to do something they don't want to without realizing it.

As for the upside down thing, I didn't think of it either....until I made some really dumb mistakes.   I think it was RG who mentioned in that thread from long ago that it could serve as a kind of quick and dirty "security" measure to make chip identification difficult.  Not only is the identifying information underneath the chip, but of course the pads and connections would be all messed up, right?  For example, is one flipped an 8-pin dual op-amp upside down, what looked like pin 1 would have V+ and what looked like pin 5 would have ground.  Unless you knew to look for that, imagine how much of a headscratcher it would be testing the voltages on all those pins.  "Huh, I don't git it!  How come pin 1 is 9v and pin 8 isn't?"

[MikeH]

I'd have to second that there's nothing wrong with telling us what pedal it is.  If he doesn't want to, thats fine.  But as long as you don't go posting the schematic everywhere, no hard will be done. Chokeyou, there's absolutely nothing wrong with reverse engineering a pedal for your own use.  If there was guys like Keeley and Analogman wouldn't be able to be in the mod business.  Plus I'm dieing to know what the hell were talking about.  There are so many 14 pin IC's out there, it literally could be any of them.  You'd probably get a prompt response if you told us...

[TELEFUNKON]

I read this description too:

a part not normally used in this application,

somewhere

[chokeyou]

Possibly a 4007.

PS  Half an hour between first two posts and you expect a torrent of replies?!  We're definitely living in the 'now' society...

nono,
actually people had PMed me some tips, I'm working off some leads now.

Thanks everyone!

[chokeyou]

dude, just tell us what pedal. there is nothing wrong with tracing a production pedal, just don't distribute it freely like we would do with others. there are many here who given a PM would be happy to share self traced schems and layouts of production pedals, provided courtesy is exercised and you don't use the trace to start pumping out a clone of someone else's currently in production pedal. this should be no different. i myself have nearly identical copy traces of pcb layouts for the sd-1, the bd-2, and the ts-9. i would never distribute them publicly, but sometimes people ruin their boards from overmodding and need to etch a replacement. just be reasonable with it.

I don't plan on publically announcing which pedal it is, or the chip used in it...just to keep everybody in the dark...and if I can't figure it out, he wins, and theres no harm in that.

and I respect this pedal builder a whole lot more than BOSS or Ibanez. This is, after all, this guy's living.

Mark Hammer, I'm 99% sure it's seated correctly. the notch between 1 and 14 is shown, and there is clearly some grayed out rubbing on the top of the chip. Thanks for the tip, though!

[aron]

actually people had PMed me some tips, I'm working off some leads now.

Well, whatever you do, I hope you share some of the "tips" you got if they turn out useful.

[tcobretti]

If a chip is being used in an unorthodox way, it would at least be very cool if you posted the gist of how it is being used, even if you don't post the actual schem of the pedal.

You aren't affecting someone's business by discussing technical ideas that are derived from a pedal whose identity is unknown.

[gez]

Work out which pins the power is going to (follow V+ and ground traces to chip).  It might help narrow down your search.  Good luck.  Kudos for keeping it to yourself.