A Blast from the Past - Custom Flanger

[Chuck D. Bones]

I built this in 1976 or 1977. It's basically an Electric Mistress with two more knobs. My brother found this in his garage. It's period-correct Electric Mistress right down to the Reticon SAD1024A BBD. Check the date code.







Chips are (L-R):
RCA CA339 quad comparator
National Semi CD4013B
Reticon SAD1024A BBD
National Semi LM1458N dual opamp

I'll post a schematic after I trace this one because the original hand-drawn schematic is long gone.

I have three other goodies that he gave back to me...
Roland AP-2 Phase II with an added DEPTH knob
Modd'ed Fender Blender
An original design two-knob opamp BMP using a rare (these days) Siliconix L144 triple micropower opamp.

 

[giovanni]

I built this in 1976 or 1977. It's basically an Electric Mistress with two more knobs. My brother found this in his garage. It's period-correct Electric Mistress right down to the Reticon SAD1024A BBD. Check the date code.

View attachment 122506

View attachment 122507

View attachment 122508

Chips are (L-R):
RCA CA339 quad comparator
National Semi CD4013B
Reticon SAD1024A BBD
National Semi LM1458N dual opamp

I'll post a schematic after I trace this one because the original hand-drawn schematic is long gone.

I have three other goodies that he gave me back...
Roland AP-2 Phase II with an added DEPTH knob
Modd'ed Fender Blender
An original design two-knob opamp BMP using a rare (these days) Siliconix L144 triple micropower opamp.

The flanger looks much better than some professional builds I have seen from that period! Looks beautiful! Does it still work fine? Care to demo it? Cool stuff.

 

[HamishR]

Outstanding and very authentic looking relic job!

 

[drgonzo1969]

I built this in 1976 or 1977. It's basically an Electric Mistress with two more knobs. My brother found this in his garage. It's period-correct Electric Mistress right down to the Reticon SAD1024A BBD. Check the date code.

View attachment 122506

View attachment 122507

View attachment 122508

Chips are (L-R):
RCA CA339 quad comparator
National Semi CD4013B
Reticon SAD1024A BBD
National Semi LM1458N dual opamp

I'll post a schematic after I trace this one because the original hand-drawn schematic is long gone.

I have three other goodies that he gave me back...
Roland AP-2 Phase II with an added DEPTH knob
Modd'ed Fender Blender
An original design two-knob opamp BMP using a rare (these days) Siliconix L144 triple micropower opamp.

So rad!

 

[Chuck D. Bones]

Outstanding and very authentic looking relic job!

I photo'ed it dirty just for you.

The flanger looks much better than some professional builds I have seen from that period! Looks beautiful! Does it still work fine? Care to demo it? Cool stuff.

I plan to power it up tonight.

 

[cooder]

Vintage Chuck! Amazing!

What did I do in 1976.... heck...

 

[Chuck D. Bones]

Last night I checked out the wiring and power. I had made a 15VDC regulated power supply for it. Back in paleozoic, we ran everything on batteries. The 15V is then regulated down to 12V inside the unit, just like the EM. At some point, I'll probably replace the power jack with the standard 5.5mm negative center jack and run it on 18V. Today I plugged a guitar into it and it works! The taper is wrong on the SPEED pot and the CENTER pot has too much range. Easily fixed. Sounds just like an Electric Mistress.

 

[spi]

Very cool. How come other Electric Mistress clones I see have way more ICs and parts? Are there more than one electric mistress circuits?

 

[Chuck D. Bones]

Oh yeah, EHX made several revisions over the years. Here are a couple of their early versions. The unit pictured above is based on the 2nd schematic. Take a look at the Madbean Current Lover and 'Lectric Mama for EM circuits with a higher parts count.

 

[bluedmc777]

Now that’s bad ass!

 

[neiltheseal]

So cool!

What does the Center pot do? What in the schematic is being adjusted?