Also I have an Octave Multiplexer from the 1990s.

In the 1970s I decided to take 4 EHX pedals, the EM, OM, Bib Muff Pi V1, Small Stone Phase V1 and a breadboarded Guitar Sound Intensifier (fancy words for preamp/treble/bass boost/cut circuit) that was actually featured in an old Popular Mechanics magazine that I still have the article for. I decided to disassemble the individual boxes and get one bigger box and make it “The Squawking Owl” that incorporates all the effects with a power supply I made. Used it for many years. I decide I would like to sell the unit but when I went to test it I noticed the Flanger, when on, had a whole lot of white noise in the background with the flanging. I thought I would exlude the power supply and I disconnected the flanger from it and wired a separage AC adapter type PS to the board but I screwed up and reversed the polarity. That made something unhappy. After awhile I stopped getting sound entirely out of that effect. The rest were still working fine. But then I took the flanger out to troubleshoot it and wired around the footswitch for it and for some reason, now my Octavizer isn’t working in effect mode. Ugh. So frustrating. Everything on that effect seems to be wired correctly with power. So I no longer own my big old oscilloscope, I decided to buy a small portable OS and a small transistor/capacitor/diode tester.

I went ahead on the flanger and replaced all the chips but the one that’s hard to get, the Reticon SAD1024 (that used to be $7 at Radio Shack). I also replaced the two transistors with equivalent PNPs. I get sound out of the flanger in effect mode but no flanging (oscillation) but no white noise either. Hmmm.

So my problem is I can do a rudimentary troubleshooting with a signal generator and the oscilloscope and see that the wave is making it through the Op Amps and such, but it would help if I had a service guide that would tell me what I should see at the various points at the chips and such. So I can see where the flaw is. Same with the Octave effect. I haven’t changed any parts on that yet. But all the chips on it are available for not that expensive as it’s a newer effect.

If I can’t fix it I will probably have to start selling off parts as non working on Ebay.

Thanks for reading.