Boss PD-1

I was looking for something on my shelf and notice I have this so I guess another bass repair entry postpone. I thought I give it some scrubbing plus I think it would a great post in its own right, maybe it would help shoot up the used price a bit. I'm not in any way a collector but if my bench could gain from the flip then why not. From my recollection, I bought this Boss PD-1 foot stool as is sometime in 2000. The unit was already in dilapidated condition. It's also missing two indicator on the foot plate (I just found that out today as there was no google back in Y2K). It's was the last time I had a peek inside as well. I did evoked how impatient I was to get home and plug it after I paid for it.

Young yustech was disenchanted back then. I thought it'll sound heavier than MT-2. No it didn't. That's what happen when you buy pedal with your eyes instead of ears. I couldn't figure out how the foot pedal operate. I thought it would have some mechanical resemblance to Jim Dunlop Wah. I thought of making it as Wah but No it does not cater for that at all.

It appear to have a switch at each end of the foot plate. Tipping it to the front gives more gain boost. Easing it to the heel lessen it a bit. By how much more or less precisely? I do not know.

Inside the pedal presents previous battery mod. Some idiot thought a 9V PP3 would last longer than C cells. Honestly I don't know if it does. Internet engineers, please keep to your seats. That was just my illiterate guess. Anyway I will revert it back to default.

Construction wise, the structure presented future multi-role prospect. Unfortunately for BOSS, the Rocker series didn’t take off to expectation. For obvious reason of course. The guts consist of 4 PCB's (Father, mother, son and daughter board). The father board attached to the pots. The mother board populates the most components. The son board is the DC step up converter attached to the DC Jack and the daughter board is mounted vertical, it has what I believe is an optocoupler to take a peek at your balls? I like to know what this technically does other than what said but I can't. There's a Japanese description about it on the leaflet but my guess is as good as yours.

Is there any problem with this PD-1? Gladly yes, this pedal do not disengage. It just turns on as soon as the jack is inserted. I've check the heel switch it seems to be good. There isn't a Boss PD-1 service manual FREELY available after 41 years. With information at your fingertips, I never thought my search would turned blank. I was kind of looking forward to square the calibration while at the same time fixing it. Let’s hope the service notes will be available by 2050. I know you engineers out there are giggling at this idiot for needing a schematic for this. In case you don't know, I LOVE SERVICE MANUAL and I collect them too. PDF format favoured please.

The ON/OFF switch at the heel is link to a Logic NAND gate IC. Since I don't see the typical Boss switching transistor present, that makes the TC4011BP high on my suspicious list. I don’t have the part yet so I hope there will a part II to this balls peeper PD-1.

Come to think of it now, it doesn’t sound that bad at all especially to this ageing pair of lobes. It’s indeed thicker than the DS-1 without over doing it. I can appreciate the practicality of quick boost and return. The size undeniably has no place in today’s mini to micro pedal trends. I don't see guitarist using this shield armour on the road unless he likes it that much and don't mind explaining its operation to every joker who ask about it.

Thank you 

yustech