OK so holy sh*t.
I was deep, deep googling, desperate to find a schematic. Using image search, all sorts of key words, whatever I could think of. Some of the image hits started showing the PCB that I am now familiar with after staring at it for hours. So, I came across a random post from 2012 which I am pasting below. I was getting more and more excited as I read it because this is EXACTLY what mine is doing:
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Post by
Bernardduur » 06 Apr 2012, 12:09
Just had one in that was not working.
With the PSU the unit powers up and just responds like it should, still, no output
The input was OK; on all lines perfect sound
On the output no sound; probed and checked with an scope and the signal dissapears just before the output jack
The outputs are wired up with an opamp that is buffering, put through a 1k resistor (SMD) and through a ferrite coil then fed into the output. The signal disappeared just after the 1k resistor. Flipped the board and discovered per output 2 transistors that, when activated, pulled the signal down to ground (guess for the panning delays). Q2 and Q4 turned out to be bad and grounded the output signal.
Only markings on the transistors: XL21; no idea what kind of transistors these are. All I could get from the units on the board is that they are NPN transistors, SOT23, with an Hfe of around 600.
Replaced Q2 and Q4 with new 2SC1815 (had no SMD laying around and the 1815 fit the SOT23 layout perfectly) and now the unit functions perfect again!"
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So, having truly exhausted everything I could think of, I said F it, let me find Q2 and Q4 and get at them. They are MICRO TINY SMD chips using as the guy says SOT23 package. I found them on the underside and was able to remove them using a hot iron, liquid flux and my copper braid. These things are TINY!!!!!!!!!!! Like an ant! Once I removed them, guess what. OUTPUT! ACTUAL OUTPUT! So I am heading to eBay now to buy a 20 pack of them for $1.99 with free ship and will do some micro SMD soldering to replace Q2 and Q4. I have never dealt with components this small before. Bless this dude for t-shooting and writing about it, cuz it helped me! I will update thjis once my new ones come from eBay and I solder them in to see if the pedal goes back to normal working order.
. I use a bench magnifier with a light. You will need a fine tip on your iron. Put a blob of solder onto one of the pads on the board. Use tweezers to put the component into the correct place and melt the solder blob. Hold the component in place until the solder hardens again. make sure it truly is in the right place - when it's held with one pad only it's easy to shift if need be. Then once it is held in the right place it is easy to solder the other pads. Just don't use too much solder. Fine solder helps too. I use .7mm. Good luck
