Home Forums Vintage EHX Why isn’t it possible to recommission old IC’s like the Reticon SAD1024?

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  • #83531

    Sorry if this isn’t the right thread for this but it didn’t really seem to fit specifically in any of them so vintage EHX seemed to be the best since a bunch of old EHX pedals used this Integrated Circuit. Why isn’t it possible for any company to recommission this IC? Surely they would make a mint because of the demand for it?

    #120042
    The EH Man
    Moderator

    Because it would cost thousands of dollars just to get production started and the returns would likely not cover it.

    #120043

    This makes me curious as to how a company like Visual Sound would be able to recommission some old Panasonic chips then?

    #120044
    The EH Man
    Moderator

    The Panasonics are better chips and I think they’d be worth putting the money into.

    #120045

    Fair enough. Looks like the old Mistresses and other various modulation pedals are bound to die out one day :/

    Thanks for the insight!

    #120085
    Stephengiles
    Member
    Quote:
    The Panasonics are better chips and I think they’d be worth putting the money into.

    “Better” is a matter of opinion. No BBD in my view sounds as good as SAD 1024!!

    #120313
    Mark Hammer
    Member
    Quote:
    This makes me curious as to how a company like Visual Sound would be able to recommission some old Panasonic chips then?

    To the best of my knowledge, Visual Sound did not “recommission” the Panasonic/Matsushita chips. There are currently two manufacturers of several of the chips (MN3205, MN3207, MN3102): Beiling and Coolaudio, the latter providing chips to Behringer.

    #120315
    Fender&EHX4ever
    Moderator

    Is this something that a 3D printer could do? :question:

    #120319
    Mark Hammer
    Member

    Sure…if you’re willing to wait another 20 years until they have that capability.

    But seriously, it would take one helluva big demand for the chip to financially justify its resurrection. There IS a big demand…WITHIN A CERTAIN SMALL COMMUNITY…but outside of that community, there ain’t much going on.

    As well, the only thing that an SAD1024 does significantly better than its competitors do is flanging, simply because it tolerates faster clocking better than the Panasonic chips. Even there, the Panasonic chips can be made to tolerate faster clocking, with some outside buffering help. As for delays longer than what is needed for flanging, we have the good old MN3207 and MN3205 clones. There is no real advantage to using SAD1024s for chorus and analog delays.

    So when one considers just how large (read: “small”) the flanger-user market is, and what share of them use it for its shortest possible delay times, there is simply very little financial return for whomever got it in their head that fabricating a new batch would be a good idea….which is as big a disappointment to me as it is to you.

    #121126
    Tarmogoyf
    Member

    Sure. There is a big demand within a small community now, but that would change over time with the availability of new SAD1024 chips.

    #126008
    Blaze_Infernus
    Participant

    Because you can’t just start making someone else’s chip, you either have to own the patent or be willing to pay the appropriate licensing fees. That’s before you even get to the actual tooling to do it. There is no demand for this chip (yes I need one too). As a matter of fact they are still in stock with a few different bulk electronics suppliers — one place I looked at has 5000+ of them, brand new—but they require minimum orders of 1000 pcs. So if no one is willing to do that, it’s not considered high in demand. An electronics manufacturer has to demand it, i.e. cranking out hundreds if not thousands of units a day that use the part, not a few dozen, or even a couple hundred pedal geeks like us.

    #126122
    Delicieuxz
    Member
    Quote:
    Because you can’t just start making someone else’s chip, you either have to own the patent or be willing to pay the appropriate licensing fees. That’s before you even get to the actual tooling to do it. There is no demand for this chip (yes I need one too). As a matter of fact they are still in stock with a few different bulk electronics suppliers — one place I looked at has 5000+ of them, brand new—but they require minimum orders of 1000 pcs. So if no one is willing to do that, it’s not considered high in demand. An electronics manufacturer has to demand it, i.e. cranking out hundreds if not thousands of units a day that use the part, not a few dozen, or even a couple hundred pedal geeks like us.

    If there are sources offering thousands of the SAD2014 for reasonable prices, then I wonder why EHX hasn’t bought them to re-release their vintage pedals that go for many hundreds of dollars used. 5000 would go a long way for a pedal company without being too many, especially for a company like EHX. They might be able to keep reproduction vintage-spec Electric Mistresses available for a year with that stock.

    #211349
    McLovin
    Participant

    I know this old, Anyways which suppliers could have 5000+ units in stock? Please

    #211552
    scooter500
    Participant

    We need the new chip manufacturing plant in the US!

    I googled “new chip plant in the US” and apparently there are eight being built, with a couple projected to open in 2025. Now we just hold our breath until they open and….

    #211553
    scooter500
    Participant

    We need the new chip manufacturing plant in the US!

    I googled “new chip plant in the US” and apparently there are eight being built, with a couple projected to open in 2025. Now we just hold our breath until they open and….

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