1970s Bass Balls — not working

[Jean-Luc Pickguard]

I recently found my EHX bassballs and Morley sync attack effects which I'd not seen for decades. I'm hoping my 70s coloursound tone bender will turn up as well, but I might have left it somewhere or gave it away back in the distant past.

 

The Sync attack was an easy fix and is now fully working once I'd rigged up a working metal pick to trigger the effect, but the Bass Balls seems to be dead when tested with a 9v battery.

 

It looks like I, or someone else was in there previously with a soldering iron as there appears to be a non-original pink wire.

 

Does anyone know about these or own an similar 70s example of this pedal they can compare with mine to see if I have any wires missing or incorrectly connected?

 

 

[Hellzero]

Here are 3 views of the guts of 1979 models:

 

 

 

[Jean-Luc Pickguard]

Thank you — that is a great help.

 

It looks like we have the same version of the circuit board and on initial inspection the wires on mine look like they're all present and connected the same as yours, albeit with some colour differences.

 

One area of interest is the power socket. I was wondering about mine as I can't see it clearly, but I can see from yours that theres a pair of elements that appear to act as a switch to cut off the battery when a psu's mini-jack is plugged in. I wonder whether my issue could be as simple as the two bits on mine that make up the switching part of the socket either not making contact or in need a clean.

 

I will take a closer look and have a poke about with the multimeter.

 

 

Edited October 31, 2024 by Jean-Luc Pickguard

[ped]

One of my favourite pedals ❤️ 

[tauzero]

20 hours ago, Jean-Luc Pickguard said:

One area of interest is the power socket. I was wondering about mine as I can't see it clearly, but I can see from yours that theres a pair of elements that appear to act as a switch to cut off the battery when a psu's mini-jack is plugged in. I wonder whether my issue could be as simple as the two bits on mine that make up the switching part of the socket either not making contact or in need a clean.

 

Could you try powering it with a power supply rather than a battery?

[Jean-Luc Pickguard]

I don’t have a PSU with a mini jack so I can’t try that. I have replaced the battery clip as the original one was corroded from a leaky battery and wasn’t making the multimeter beep in a continuity test. I put a clip over the switching part of the power socket and tested the pedal but it is still not working. Will have to try some more in-depth investigations.