Imagine DD-1 overdrive repair (HELP!)

nickjburke

New member
Hi all,
thanks for having me! I've joined to seek some advice.
My absolute favourite pedal has been murdered by a friend who plugged in a centre-negative power supply. It's a no longer available Imagine DD-1. It still powers up the LED and switches to bypass (these are separate to the board obviously). However, when switched to overdrive, the signal is incredibly quiet. The pots all still do the same jobs but to get any signal I have to max the volume and the signal/noise ratio is awful.
Currently it's useless to me, I can't buy a replacement, and no-one near me can repair it. So, I'll have a crack myself. But it's been gooped all over with epoxy.
I'd love some tips on removing the goop and any guidance as to which components to start looking at first, given how it was damaged and is now behaving.
See pics attached.
Any advice would be much appreaciated!
 

Attachments

  • 20231102_115741.jpg
    20231102_115741.jpg
    291.8 KB · Views: 55
  • 20231102_115727.jpg
    20231102_115727.jpg
    372.2 KB · Views: 55
  • 20231102_115850.jpg
    20231102_115850.jpg
    252.2 KB · Views: 55
This is the first time I have seen this discussion.
I have owned mine new since 2011, It's a great sounding pedal but it's huge like a BK Butler tube driver.

View attachment 62073
I finally figured out how to unleash this pedal after buying used and struggling to get some good sound from it. I am not sure if this is a reflection of something wrong in the pedal, still trying to sort that out, but i have found that simply providing a buffered signal at the input restores reasonable noise levels (way less than without) and expected signal levels at the output. I also sandwiched it between two buffers on the input and output (buffered pedals to be precise) and that makes it totally useable! I have always been able to goose pedals with a boost at the input, but never had a situation where the pedal was unusable without some kind of boost/buffer ahead of it. Is that Weird? I am thinking about adding a C-Buffer on the switch so that this pedal will be buffered for the rest of its life and don't need a second pedal before it forever.
 
Last edited:
Back
Top