DOD 201 *phasor* reissue VS vintage

[Kerry Maxwell]

I had picked up a reissue DOD 201 new a month or so ago and have since
been curious how they differ from the *vintage* model. Curious enough that I
picked up an old "gray w/ yellow" model on ebay. The first thing I did when
my ebay purchase arrived was to open up the back and compare it to the
reissue. The rate control on the reissue is mounted to the board, so you
need to remove the mounting nut to get at the board ( the vintage uses
flying leads). The reissue uses two LF3533N dual opamps, while the vintage
uses a single LM348N quad opamp. The reissue uses a good handful more parts
than the vintage model (resistors and a couple more electrolytic caps) and
features polystyrene caps vs. ceramic disc on the vintage. Suffice to say
the two circuits are a little different.

Now for the important comparison - sound. I spent a couple of minutes
refreshing my ears with now familiar sound of the reissue, from slow vibey
settings to fast leslie-ish. Now on to the reissue. The first thing I
noticed was the max speed on the vintage was a good bit faster than the max
on the reissue (5 o'clock max on the reissue = 3 o'clock on the vintage).
The overall effect seemed warmer and more *shimmery*. My ebay purchase came
with an alkaline battery so I now swapped that out for a carbon 9v. The
difference seemed more pronounced than the same swap on the reissue, giving
a slight musical *thickening* of the effect. Twiddling the internal trimpot
on the vintage pedal didn't seem to yield any improvement- it seemed to be
at it's optimum setting. The trim on the reissue actually gives a greater
range of effect.

Given the fact that vintage 201s are still pretty cheap on ebay ( I got
mine for @$50), I would advise against the reissue. It's not a bad little
box, but you are likely to pay more for it than you would for a vintage one.
The vintage model just sounds more *musical* overall. In a way, I was hoping
the reissue sounded just a good as the vintage model, but add this to the
long list of "they just don't make 'em like they used to" effects.

Kerry Maxwell

[Analog Mike]

Hi,

Excellent review!

Also remember that the vintage pedals are much easier to repair and modify due
to the construction - they dont have things attached to the circuit board. true
bypass, LED, etc are easy to add to a vintage pedal with a good old stomp
switch.

Regards, mike ~^v^~ aNaLoG.MaN ~^v^~

Mike "at" analogman dot com http://www.analogman.com

Check out my effects Forum: http://forums.delphiforums.com/guitareffects

[Ook]

I'm guessing that my DOD phasor/201 is a reissue, because it has two LF353N
chips and green polystyrene caps? It's in a blue metal box with white
letters on top. I never really paid much attention before, and didn't even
know it was a reissue. I like it - but it's the only phasor I've ever had :)

"Kerry Maxwell" <kma...@earthlink.net> wrote in message
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