WOW!! Calling Vintage MXR Phase 90 experts for help

[cyberpunk409]

All i can say is I have no idea what i just bought!!!

I bought what seemingly appears to be a BLOCK logo Phase 90 pedal off ebay... the seller claimed it was a '79 model, BUT, i just got it and opened it up AND...

POT CODE 1 = 1377547
POT CODE 2 = MXR9479

I'm assuming the 1377547 means "137"=CTS, "75"=Made in 1975, "47"=47th week.
This indicates it was made in November of 1975... right???


As you may know, BLOCK logo's didn't exist then!!!

Here's my board (YEAR TO BE DETERMINED i guess):

HERE'S A VERIFIED 1977 SCRIPT BOARD (close but not exact):

And Just for Reference, HERE'S A VERIFIED 1974 SCRIPT BOARD:

All of these are quite different than the BLOCK logo boards...
HERE'S A VERIFIED 1979 BLOCK BOARD:

So what on earth have I got myself? The casing looks quite new, a little too new to be vintage 1975. Definately BLOCK logo, i'm not stupid, i know what a SCRIPT looks like, lol. The back plate is missing so can't state whether it had a BUD box or script lettering or anything like that.

Any help is appreciated guys

 

[KeyOfG]

Re: WOW!! Calling Vintage MXR Phase 90 experts for help

It's most likely a '79 Block going by the latest date code of the two potientiometers.

What most likely happened in it's case (no, ha ha, not the box) is when it was produced, a left over potientiometer was in the parts bin (never truly getting used up, as each time the box was low a person just refilled the container with new stock where hundreds more were put on top of 5-10 still in the bin.) Whenever the person at their console stuck their hand in to pull out a few, a couple of older ones remained until they were eventually scooped up and used. My guess was that it wasn't a priority to make sure that the parts bins were completely empty prior to replinishing them because there was no "expiration dates" to be concerned with. I've used this example before with older mxr pedals too. Like if you work for a pizzeria and you're refilling the tub of shredded cheese from stock in the back refridgerator, if you mix up cheese with a batch from a different date, somebody is bound to get sick. So your manager busts your arse to "make sure the bin is empty and clean before refilling it!" Well of course a potientiometer can drift, but not go bad like the cheese could.

Make sense?

Actually similar stories have been used to describe why, let's say, a '64 Jazz Bass has all of the corresponding dates for it to be a Winter of '64 Bass, but for some reason it has a Volume pot dated the 32nd week of '63... What gives? All of the joints are untouched, has this been tampered with? Well most likely no, and the explanation can be as simple as what was given above. It's still an unmolested '64 Jazz Bass, for example.

Yeah in your case it's a few years, but quite simply a box wasn't rotated fully empty whether it was on the workstation table in the production room, or back in the stock room on the shelf. No big deal until many years later when people begin collecting, or seeking out certain years, or circuits, and it throws them for a loop. If the soldering has been touched, maybe an older potientiometer was used as a replacement later on. The one date code suggests "Script" and the other date code suggests "Block," as does all other indications of the unit.

 

[cyberpunk409]

Re: WOW!! Calling Vintage MXR Phase 90 experts for help

well i'm starting to think that the CASE was replaced, and all the 'guts' of a '75 pedal put into that.

My board and the '79 board i posted a clearly different... WHILST, the '77 Script board I posted turns out to be indentical to mine (i did a component by component examination) except for a replaced resistor in the bottom left hand corner.

That's what threw me off when i was comparing pics, but turns out the bottom-left-hand-corner resistor has been REPLACED at some time on mine, for whatever reason.

Apart from this ONE resistor, my board and the '77 Script board are identical, including all the words and letters and numbers on the individual components.

I've got pictures of verified '78 BLOCK and '79 BLOCK boards and the only 2 components which are bright red and fairly big (1 of them = bottom right hand corner) on the SCRIPT '74, '77 and MY board are BLUE in both the '78 and '79 boards.

Additionally, BLOCK boards have 2 of those see-through tubes with resistors running across the board, SCRIPTS have 1.

Couldn't it be that the original case was completely stuffed up that it was replaced at some stage... maybe before SCRIPTS became vintage and whilst LED-less BLOCK versions were still cheap, sometime in the 80's ???

 

[Nuts]

Re: WOW!! Calling Vintage MXR Phase 90 experts for help

Looks just like mine


But I also don't know what model is it, since it's inside a Phase 45 script box.
What's up with al that box changing in Phasers ? :dunno:

 

[ErikH]

Re: WOW!! Calling Vintage MXR Phase 90 experts for help

I said this in your last post about this Phaser. You have an early block logo with a script board. They came that way for a short time. Chances are that the board used in the one you just got was unused stock from prior years. Back then they didn't keep track of that stuff very much. They just stuffed them and built them so the chances of a '77 board ending up in a '79 block logo is not all that far fetched.

Bottom line, block logo with script board.

 

[cyberpunk409]

Re: WOW!! Calling Vintage MXR Phase 90 experts for help

i dunno... a '77 board, '75 pot, and '78-'79 case? all seems fishy to me.

i'm yet to see another BLOCK logo board that looks like mine... usually the early BLOCK logo boards look similar to the late SCRIPT boards, but never IDENTICAL.

I will continue doing daily ebay searches in the hope that i find another BLOCK logo phase 90 that shares my board... til then im just gonna keep scratching my head.

thanks for your help guys

 

[cyberpunk409]

Re: WOW!! Calling Vintage MXR Phase 90 experts for help

ok, now i've seen it all and i'll believe anything was possible in the crazy unpredictable times of the late 70's-early 80's...

Here's an auction for a SCRIPT logo Phase 90, in a highly sought after BUD box... and it's CLEARLY an 80's BLOCK logo board:
http://cgi.ebay.com.au/MXR-PHASE-90...ryZ22669QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

i guess that MXR just wacked whatever components with whatever other components, there was no hard and fast rule. This means they must've had a stash of empty SCRIPT shells that they came across some time in the 80's and decided to use them...

I guess they did the same with mine, except the other way around (found unused SCRIPT boards that they used in BLOCK cases).

Now the million dollar question, what would be worth more to a collector in the future (since i did sort of buy this as an investment piece - never been a huge fan of phase effect),

1. A SCRIPT board in BLOCK case (like mine),
OR
2. A BLOCK board in a SCRIPT case (as seen in the auction i just posted)

???

 

[ErikH]

Re: WOW!! Calling Vintage MXR Phase 90 experts for help

Depends on which one there are less quantities of and which one has a higher demand. In short, whatever someone is willing to pay for either one.