The Electra Forums

I just had one of these delivered today. I haven't tried it out yet but I did open it up to see what kind of chip it had. I'm happy but not surprised to say it is the JRC 4558D chip - same as in most Ibanez TS 808 Tubescreamers. I'm not surprised because there were about a KAJILLION of these chips produced and I'm almost certain that Maxon made the Electra and Ibanez pedals way back when. FWIW, I have a TS 808 spec and a TS 9 tube screamer the 4558D in 808 beats up on the chip in the TS 9 (I forget what chip that is - Toshiba maybe). Re-issue TS 9's do have the 4558's in them. Also, there were at least 2 kinds of 4558's one, a Texas Instruments (RC4558P) was made in Malaysia, and the Japan Radio Corp (JRC4558D) made in Japan.

I suspect we may have another classic example of Electra branded, top quality goods at a fraction of the price of name brands.
The old Ibanez TS 808's go for as much as $600. Suffice to say the Electra pedal was well under 1/10th that price and it came with power supply and the extra cool Electra storage case.

Nice score on the 600D. I'd like to hear one sometime. I have a 500D and it's pretty cool.

I'm also not surprised that the 4558 op amp is in there-- it was as common and as cheap as dirt, pretty much, and price point was the driving factor in products like this. So it was used in many contemporary designs.

Regarding the comparison between that chip and other common op amps-- I recently came into possession of an interesting pedal that may make such comparisons easier. The Biyang X-Drive OD-8 is an overdrive in the TS style, with a few tweaks including a tone mode switch (TS/Warm/Bright) and the op amp is socketed and accessible through a door on the back of the box. This allows you to swap in different op amps to see how they respond differently in the circuit. The pedal I received was supplied with a 4558 installed, but includes a TLO71 and an NE5532.

http://www.amazon.com/Biyang-OD-8-Chang ... B001TGLNHS

The socket installed on the board is a really nice feature. Plus three chips sort of makes the Biyang a Binow.

The overdrive/distortion switch on the 600D is nice and can probably be tweaked if I was REALLY bored. It seems it should be 2 pedals in 1. Gain and Fuzz I guess. I'll try to plug it in this weekend. Here's a schematic I found,
http://www.mudpods.com/Electra_600D.html

These are indeed very versatile and very nice pedals. I use mine quite often when I can get it away from my son. He puts it to good use at his gigs. This thing is as most electra stuff a real tank and a working musicians dream. Great sound, reasonable price, sturdy, dependable, and easy to use. It seems that the old Simple is better fits this one just perfect. For the Electrafest attendees My Electra pedals will also be available to try out also. I will have pics in the Electrafest Sneak Peek series. Great stuff and info. Nice to have a ref for schematic also. Thanks for all the great info.
mortatman120gang11c

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Always give thanks for everyday, It may be your last so Rock On Semper Fi!!

At first glance the switch might be thought of as 1. Tube Screamer and 2. Rat.

Basic circuit is an op amp overdrive with tone control, like a Tube Screamer. The switch adds back to back diode clippers, not so much like a fuzz, but more similar to the classic Rat style circuit. I'd have to look more closely to see if the rest of the circuit resembles either of those two.

Probably a cool sounding pedal!

My first thought was Rat and tube screamer as well. Not too far off either. This pedal emulates my 808 modded ts5 very well. It has a nice overdrive and the EQ pot seems a little better than the tone pot on the TS. Both the ts 9 and 5 are much more quiet than the Electra pedal. The noise isn't too bad and below 12 on the pots it pretty much disappears. You don't hear it when playing anyway but it is noticable when first switched on. The distortion side gets pretty crunchy but not as industrial as the Rat and thats fine because the full out Rat is unusable to me.

Even though the ts5 and Electra have the same op amp chip the ts seems smoother. I'd say there's more tone modification from the Ibanez - but it's a warm mod - and nice. I was able to get the Electra very close to that sound but not quite there. The TS9 is a much different animal than either. Cleaner and with less gain at comparable settings. The Ibanez pedals together produce some very nice harmonic feedback that doesn't happen in any combination with the Electra pedal. I stuck an Electra compressor pedal in the chain and had some pretty good results with that.

The Electra pedal is a keeper for sure. The Rat will go to ebay - probably the ts9 as well.

I'm wondering if any of you electronic minded gurus out there have any tips on making the Electra pedal a bit more quiet. Would a true bypass mod help it or is it in the resistors? I figure it's not the pots - but really I'm just guessing here - no clue.

I would recommend this pedal to anyone. It's solid for both OD and distortion. Not great at either but better than average at both IMO.