Originally posted: 24 June 2010
Maxon OD 808 Repair
I bought a Maxon OD808 overdrive on ebay for $22.50 (+$10 shipping). It was listed as not working, but because these pedals sell for $150 new and $60-$90ish used, I thought it was worth a shot.
Based on the seller mentioning a burning smell after the pedal stopped working, I assumed that he had used the wrong power supply.
I was correct. The diode that protects against reverse polarity (D5), had been thoroughly burnt, along with the adjacent DC jack and the circuit board. I read a post by someone who ruined a pedal by using a 2-amp power supply; most pedals this size use about one-tenth of that (200 mA for the math-impaired).
So it was clear that I needed to at least replace the burnt diode, so I started there. A few months ago, I disassembled a broken CF bulb to see what it looked like inside, and I ended up salvaging some parts from it. Among those parts was the diode I used to replace the fried one in this pedal (1N4001).
So, after an investment of $32.50 + 20 minutes + $0 in parts, I have a $150 pedal, which sounds awesome.
