I've "fixed" this one before. But it didn't stay fixed.
The LFO wasn't doing much of anything after a few weeks and sat in various places for more than a year awaiting some attention (I really do have too many hobbies).
My shed wasn't freezing and I had some clear space on my bench, so I decided to drag out the soldering iron and tinker for a bit. Not the easiest thing to do, when a small human is intent on using your legs as a storage compartment.
I cleaned the board, touched up some solder and pulled out the opamps.
Just in case this fails again, I decided to add some IC sockets to make it a painless fix in the future.
Anyway it's working again. Probably better than in any time I've owned it.
The trim pots were set from the last time and the flanger is able to self oscillate and do some really annoying noises.
If you share a house with someone who doesn't like the sound of sirens and sci-fi movies, maybe turn the speakers down when you check out the clip below.
FL-9 Test
Showing posts with label Ibanez. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Ibanez. Show all posts
Sunday, September 16, 2012
Monday, December 26, 2011
Summer Projects
The weather has improved, so I've been outside again and working on three of my older guitars before progressing with restoration of the Hummingbird. Painting anything outside means that there's always the chance that dust and feathers can ruin your finish.
I've lost count of the amount of times I've sanded back parts to polish out the little mistakes. For the Ibanez Bass and the Lagrange Strat I've used cheap spray paint, which is a little tricky to work with as it dries slowly and is a little more fluid than the paint I've used on the Kay SG copy.
The Ibanez is being returned to it's factory colour (well.. shade...) and the Strat copy is painted in a nice surfesque "creation blue". The strat copy has had it's horns cut off, dents filled in and is part way through a conversion to a lap steel configuration.
The Kay SG copy was to be painted Surf Green, but the closest thing the local paint seller had was "Dark Calypso" which is a few shades darker than I wanted, but kind of cool in it's own right and looks nice coupled with cream headstock & pick guard.
The last couple of days have been raining and xmas lunch with the family interrupted work, but I'm hoping to have them all in playable condition by the time I return to the office in mid January.
Sunday, August 14, 2011
Repairs: Ibanez FL9 Flanger
Since I don't get much time to play guitar these days and when I do, it's generally just guitar and amp. My FX don't get used too often, and the least often used of my FX would have to be my Ibanez FL9 Flanger. Generally I don't havemuch use for flanging effects. It's fun and all, but I prefer to use it sparingly. If I'm going to use a modulated effect, it's more likely that I'll use a phaser. Just personal preference.
Because of this, my FL9 sat in a drawer for the best part of a year. It's an old pedal (over 25 years) and the last time I went to use it, it just passed a clean tone. The pedal wasn't toally broken, the delay chip was still working as there as a bit of a flange sound when twiddling the controls. Upon opening it up, some of the jooints looked cold. So I proceeded to re-solder everything on the board. No go. It took a while to track down the schematic (didn't end up using it), but I'd read a snippet from one forum about replacing old electrolytic caps, so i figured that i'd give it a try. I went over the board and documented everything electrolytic.
There were two caps near the middle of the board which weren't coloured blue like the rest (they were orange), so I decided to replace them first and give it a test (I'd seen a similar arrangement on a synth I'd built). My hunch was right, they were there to control the LFO rate. The LFO was working again, but the effect was very subtle. Not at all like I remembered.
Fortunately the board has three trim pots for adjusting various biases. Ignore the middle one, it's there to bias a transistor and the factory setting is just right to avoid unwanted and unpleasant clipping. The trim pot closes to the middle controls feedback and the one further away controls depth. With these two trim pots you can get the pedal to self oscillate. Particularly with the first one. It's not a sound I'd want all the time, so I've set it up to kick in at about 70% maximum on the front panel feedback knob. The mod is safe and easy to do. You won't even need to take the board out to do it. While increasing the feedback makes the flanger more prominent, it still falls short of being a true "jet" flanger. Still it is nice to have in the tool kit.
Because of this, my FL9 sat in a drawer for the best part of a year. It's an old pedal (over 25 years) and the last time I went to use it, it just passed a clean tone. The pedal wasn't toally broken, the delay chip was still working as there as a bit of a flange sound when twiddling the controls. Upon opening it up, some of the jooints looked cold. So I proceeded to re-solder everything on the board. No go. It took a while to track down the schematic (didn't end up using it), but I'd read a snippet from one forum about replacing old electrolytic caps, so i figured that i'd give it a try. I went over the board and documented everything electrolytic.
There were two caps near the middle of the board which weren't coloured blue like the rest (they were orange), so I decided to replace them first and give it a test (I'd seen a similar arrangement on a synth I'd built). My hunch was right, they were there to control the LFO rate. The LFO was working again, but the effect was very subtle. Not at all like I remembered.
Fortunately the board has three trim pots for adjusting various biases. Ignore the middle one, it's there to bias a transistor and the factory setting is just right to avoid unwanted and unpleasant clipping. The trim pot closes to the middle controls feedback and the one further away controls depth. With these two trim pots you can get the pedal to self oscillate. Particularly with the first one. It's not a sound I'd want all the time, so I've set it up to kick in at about 70% maximum on the front panel feedback knob. The mod is safe and easy to do. You won't even need to take the board out to do it. While increasing the feedback makes the flanger more prominent, it still falls short of being a true "jet" flanger. Still it is nice to have in the tool kit.
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| FL9 Service Manual Page 1 |
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| FL9 Service Manual Page 2 (Schematic) |
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| FL9 Service Manual Page 3 (Trouble Shooting) |
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| FL9 Service Manual Page 4 (PCB Layout) - LFO Caps Highlighted w/red box. |
Monday, February 14, 2011
2008 - Ibanez FL9 Flanger
This one came to me as a present.Mine is pretty beat up and dates back to the early 80's.
No electrical problems, the switch if fine etc....
So... flangers eh?
Not my favourite kind of effect.
It's interesting sure, but I haven't found a use for it in a song yet.
The LFO on mine is capable of going so slow, that you don't even know if the thing is working or not.
Ibanez have made a whole bunch of sought after flangers, and the FL9 is no exception. It'll be really subtle, or do that big jet whoosh. There's also that hollow tube sound. Kind of like one of those rainmaker things. Sluuuuurp!
I like it for what it is, and as soon as I get off my bum and start recording, it's sure to find a place augmenting synth or guitar or something I haven't thought of yet.
Sunday, January 16, 2011
1994 - Ibanez SR800LE
Way back when I was 16, I figured I needed a bass.
There wasn't much available under $1000 in my local store, so I ended up buying the cheapest bass I could get my hands on.
It was ugly, still is. But it was all I could afford, so I bought the Ibanez Soundgear SR800LE.
Also known as The Metal Head's Bass.
The bass was black, four string, with active pickups.
I totally messed this bass up.
It had active pickups, but I went through a "phase" of ripping out the wires on all my guitars and just wiring the pickup to the output. You know, for a more "pure" tone. I also painted the entire body with glow in the dark rubbish which was a nightmare to get off. The things you do as a teenager!
Yeah, it was a silly thing to do, I've since lost the original wiring harness and pickups.
Hey it's been 15 years or so. I ended up ripping out the neck pickups and just went with the bridge, which I think was a Dimarzio Jazz bass pickup, but I can't see any label now.
A couple of years ago I began the "restoration" project.
I added a cheap Seymour Duncan P Bass pickup to the neck.
Unfortunately this instrument doesn't seem to be blessed with a great sound.
The pickups are fine and the output is normal, but the volume this bass generates is low.
I installed a home made bass booster, but it really didn't have enough gain.
The volume and tone controls were pointless in this state so I removed them, and have gone back to that punk rock simplicity that got me into this pickle in the first place.
I'm currently about 1/4 the way through the mod/restoration project.
Over the years the bass has accumulated various dings and chips, as well as that horrible glow in the dark paint still hanging about the place. What I've done is get some Plasti-Bond and filled in the control holes and spent what seems an age, sanding with 400 grit wet & dry to get the body even. After spending a day on the body and neck, I applied the first coat of paint. Consider this coat as an error finder.
I used a simple white undercoat to highlight any uneven patches with thefiller, and it looks like I have my work cut out!
I have used the original paint as an undercoat, simply because I live in a flat and can't use a power sander and don't have the spare time to do the sanding by hand. That's one road I've been down and frankly not interested in doing again.
My goal in this semi restoration is to have a super simple bass with a basic finish.
Also I have a few other guitars needing attention and I figure this project is a good bit of practice.
So far it's going well, but the weather has slowed progress a lot as we've got lots of rain coming this month and it all has to be done under the stairs outside the building.
The paint is cheapo $4 a can, but I've been doing my research and I should be able to get a decent finish by sanding between coats and adding a few coats of clear laquer at the end, then buffing with my Dremel.
There wasn't much available under $1000 in my local store, so I ended up buying the cheapest bass I could get my hands on.
It was ugly, still is. But it was all I could afford, so I bought the Ibanez Soundgear SR800LE.
Also known as The Metal Head's Bass.
The bass was black, four string, with active pickups.
I totally messed this bass up.
It had active pickups, but I went through a "phase" of ripping out the wires on all my guitars and just wiring the pickup to the output. You know, for a more "pure" tone. I also painted the entire body with glow in the dark rubbish which was a nightmare to get off. The things you do as a teenager!
Yeah, it was a silly thing to do, I've since lost the original wiring harness and pickups.
Hey it's been 15 years or so. I ended up ripping out the neck pickups and just went with the bridge, which I think was a Dimarzio Jazz bass pickup, but I can't see any label now.
A couple of years ago I began the "restoration" project.
I added a cheap Seymour Duncan P Bass pickup to the neck.
Unfortunately this instrument doesn't seem to be blessed with a great sound.
The pickups are fine and the output is normal, but the volume this bass generates is low.
I installed a home made bass booster, but it really didn't have enough gain.
The volume and tone controls were pointless in this state so I removed them, and have gone back to that punk rock simplicity that got me into this pickle in the first place.
I'm currently about 1/4 the way through the mod/restoration project.Over the years the bass has accumulated various dings and chips, as well as that horrible glow in the dark paint still hanging about the place. What I've done is get some Plasti-Bond and filled in the control holes and spent what seems an age, sanding with 400 grit wet & dry to get the body even. After spending a day on the body and neck, I applied the first coat of paint. Consider this coat as an error finder.
I used a simple white undercoat to highlight any uneven patches with thefiller, and it looks like I have my work cut out!
I have used the original paint as an undercoat, simply because I live in a flat and can't use a power sander and don't have the spare time to do the sanding by hand. That's one road I've been down and frankly not interested in doing again.
My goal in this semi restoration is to have a super simple bass with a basic finish.
Also I have a few other guitars needing attention and I figure this project is a good bit of practice.
So far it's going well, but the weather has slowed progress a lot as we've got lots of rain coming this month and it all has to be done under the stairs outside the building.The paint is cheapo $4 a can, but I've been doing my research and I should be able to get a decent finish by sanding between coats and adding a few coats of clear laquer at the end, then buffing with my Dremel.
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