The Electra Forums

Say, guys, what the heck is a phaser module supposed to sound like ?? I've had 3 or 4, one didn't work at all, the others were very one dimensional with no real sweep, kinda like it was stuck on one speed.....have I just had bad ones or ?? Also, I am now a certified Electra owner !! I decided to keep the X185 I was trying to sell, it just plays so darn good !!! One of the best necks ever.....

I know what they are supposed to sound like but the one have sounds more like the tank tone, a fixed wah sound that changes a little with the color switch but not at all with the speed knob?

Pretty close to a vintage Small Stone.

exactly - very much like a vintage small stone - big sweeps and not one dimensional at all. A really good sounding phaser. Maybe you guys have problems with yours.

Make sure your contacts are clean. If anything goes out, it usually would be the capacitors. There is one larger one in there and several tantalum (tear drop shaped) caps. Don't know the values off hand. The tantalums will usually be a color code if they are not burnt, and the axial one will say on the side of the metal body.

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Thorny

cool, I know what a small stone sounds like --- guess I've never had a good module !! Thanks !!

Not much help but gives a general idea of the sound from the old Electra website
http://www.rivercityamps.com/electra/mpc1.php

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

Thanks much for the help but inclined to think its an IC low voltage caps usually dont go bad and I tried another one in place of the large silver one and no change.

On the contrary... electrolytic caps can easily go bad after several years, if they've been used or not. I revived a phaser module by replacing the large V+ filter cap, and I've found countless dozens of bad caps in audio circuits over the years. But, if you've replaced that cap, and still have problems you're correct, it may be an IC. Easy to make sure you're getting V+ to the chips, though. That would eliminate some issues.

Good luck.

I used a 50mf 70v cap that was pulled from a working amp, do you think thats too far off to work? I tested the input of the cap and im getting 7.5 volts with a 9.4v battery, Thanks for any info

Tried removing the caps and no signal all cap seam to have power as well as the ic's

There are many things that could be the cause of the problem in this case. One or more bad chips is very possible. If you're not familiar with component level troubleshooting, you've probably already done as much as you can.