BOSS DS-1 Trouble

[MmmMikal]

Straight to the point - My DS-1 isn't working how it should!

It works in bypass, and it works when switched on.
BUT!
when engaged the distortion doesn't start right away, it takes a few seconds before it works, sounds like the distortion is fading in or warming up....

Its an early 90s DS-1 and looks like its been to hell and back, but i assume its a pretty easy fix.

Anyone know what i should do?

cheers!

[DavenPaget]

Straight to the point - My DS-1 isn't working how it should!

It works in bypass, and it works when switched on.
BUT!
when engaged the distortion doesn't start right away, it takes a few seconds before it works, sounds like the distortion is fading in or warming up....

Its an early 90s DS-1 and looks like its been to hell and back, but i assume its a pretty easy fix.

Anyone know what i should do?

cheers!

Sounds like a cold joint around the opamp or the op amp is producing so low a signal that the diodes are completely shunting to ground , or the diodes are completely shunting the signal to ground , which is unlikely . ( if it has a diode to ground clipper , that i'm not sure )
Operate it out of the enclosure and measure the voltages , i don't have a DS-1 , but somebody else can help you .

[ayayay!]

when engaged the distortion doesn't start right away, it takes a few seconds before it works, sounds like the distortion is fading in or warming up.... 

That's worse than a broken pedal, as far as troubleshooting, because the effect does work, right?     It's just not optimal.  If it were me, the first thing I would do is try it with just a GOOD ( and I mean measure it ) battery and make sure it's at least 8.7 Volts.  Less than that and it's questionable.  This sounds like the "gated" sound/effect that happens when a pedal has the diode/resistor combo for unregulated power supplies.  There are simple fixes for this, but first report back and let us know what happens with just a battery.  No DC cable plugged in. 

Once we eliminate that, there's plenty of other places to look.   

[MmmMikal]

Brand new duracell battery and the effect still fades in

When i was given the pedal one of the wires that connects to the DC socket was loose and thus it didn't work at all, I soldered the wire back onto its terminal, and ever since, it has worked, but takes a moment to get going. could this have caused the problem?

[ayayay!]

Brand new duracell battery and the effect still fades in

When i was given the pedal one of the wires that connects to the DC socket was loose and thus it didn't work at all, I soldered the wire back onto its terminal, and ever since, it has worked, but takes a moment to get going. could this have caused the problem?

Probably not.  Next question is:  has this been modified, to your knowledge?  Some mod kits floating around out there unnecessarily modify things that are not in the signal path, and can create a slow pull-up effect in the switching circuit.  Even if it wasn't modified, those switching FETs can and do go bad.  There was a recent thread, I think by Mark Hammer, that asked why this is kind of more common nowadays on Boss pedals. 

[soupbone]

Straight to the point - My DS-1 isn't working how it should!

It works in bypass, and it works when switched on.
BUT!
when engaged the distortion doesn't start right away, it takes a few seconds before it works, sounds like the distortion is fading in or warming up....

Its an early 90s DS-1 and looks like its been to hell and back, but i assume its a pretty easy fix.

Anyone know what i should do?

cheers!

Have you tried using a multimeter and checking to make sure everthing is connected?If everything is connected,It could be like ayayay! said,One of the fet's could have probably gone awry.