The RUSSIANS RIGGED this Guitar Pedal - Electro-Harmonix Sovtek Small Stone Phaser Reissue Repair 

Other Phase pedals I've demonstrated in the past: 1980s DOD FX20B Stereo Phasor ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-6hZn4PFMU6g.html 1976 Ibanez PT-707 Phase Tone II: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-wAPu-4PwNTg.html 1974 Musitronics Mu-Tron Phasor: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-0lhObJWvHPQ.html

Love your channel man. That's cool you've been able to set up a business combining your obvious love for guitar with electronics knowledge.

Made in Russia = Looks like 1950's farm equipment.

Great video Brad! I just got a lot of pedals in with a black-case, basket-case small stone. Jacks were missing nuts and the threads were "jacked-up" like they were glued before torn apart.

My son bought me one of the Small Stone for x -mass once but it was in a black case bigger one than they sell now. it came in a wooden box it's pretty good phaser I wanted a MXR Phase 90 - my 1st petal as a kid. But he picked that one. Never seen the green Small Stone. Love your videos Brad. I miss him lost em at 20 yrs old.

I'm looking forward to the Pi. Enjoyed the vid.

unbelievable! I think I learned more electronic trouble shooting right there than I ever did! Wish I still had my early 80's small stone!

Dang it! Starting about 19:04 you brought back memories of every bad movie made in the late 1960's that tried to use similar effects to represent bad trips on hallucinogenics. Enjoyed your fixing this one up, so thumbs definitely up.

I've been hesitant to open up my green Small Stone, because I heard they're tough to work on. Mine works fine, but the rate knob spins all the way around, been wanting to change it. Your video really helped by letting me see what's in there. Great pedal, except for those thin signal traces on the board. To anyone wishing they still had an original 70's-80's NYC Small Stone, IMHO, the green ones are better. Those old ones have a NASTY volume drop, many people modify them to boost the volume back to unity gain. The green have only a slight volume drop, and sound just as good as the old NYC ones. I've owned a late 70's orange letter one, and two of the more common black/red 79-81 ones. Sold my last black/red one after using the green one for a few weeks. I like the big old switch on the green ones too, they seem pretty tough. I wish I had your metal box for it, mine has almost no green paint left. Friends who aren't musicians often think it's some kind of weird Army gadget. Cool video

I've had a few 'Stones' in the past, thanks for bringing back up! Everyone goes for the MXR 90, but the Stone has much more range, especially when worked

you might have just saved my big muff and worm with that contact cleaning idea. thanks for all your knowledge!

The only proper way to test a 9v is touching it to your toung.

Again its the simple fix...amazing something so basic. Well done again Brad. 👍

Man this is great, I was shouting DC jack from the start haha! My one had the exact same problem! Great vid as always Brad, you should do more pedal videos! Greetings from the UK D

Man I love these vids, since I just busted out my old case of pedals and started working on those =)

Sounds a lot sweeter than my phase 90, which has a sharper top end, you can't beat the musicality of these analogue circuits, another Fab video thanks.

These are the first pedals I ever tried. Taking lessons in a music store in '75 if I remember correctly. Bought the Big Muff. I regret not getting the Small Stone instead. That pedal was awesome. The muff broke down a few times, mostly bad soldering problems and I finally sold it to the other guitarist. He had this tiny tube amp, not sure what brand. I wish I could have traded him. Real tube distortion that made the muff sound sick in comparison.

Nice video man! Good camera work as well. Feel like it's a loosing battle filming something like this

Hi dude just want to say thanks for your video mentioning franlab shango ect never heard of them before but got loads of quality watching to do good work mate

I've had one of each of these over the years. Both were eventually misplaced or stolen. So hard to find nowadays. Small Stone is my favourite phaser circuit. Simple and has a good colour for guitar and rhodes. They usually need a trim pot volume mod for better unity gain. The newer nano ones I think corrected that volume drop, but they don't look near as nice as the old big box versions.

My friends band had both of those models. They are a little noisy but sound great! EHX just did a revamp of the big muff and JHS offers an awesome mod for it. You should check it out!

That's a great find there. I've never seen a Sovtek Small Stone.

great video , man ! what a great phaser sound those old russian E.H had

Good tip on taping the 9V batteries. I might also suggest you keep them on the opposite side of the bench away from the steel wool. Don't ask me how I know that.

Actually does not sound too bad once you got it sorted bro. I bought a Boss flanger back in the 80s but think that sounds far better. ATB

I like the sound of this puppy. Thanks for the video.

Soldering iron also from 90's Russia? Great video man. Thanks for sharing.

That's so weird! I just like 4 hours ago ran across Fran's channel and subbed! What are the odds.

Beautiful pedal. Sounds full all through the shift.

I still have a Small Stone in its original box. It still works perfectly!

Hi @The Guitologist. I have a Small Stone exactly like this, but accidentally plugged it with the DC negative to center and it doesn't work anymore. Do you have any info about how to repair this? Thanks in advance

Love these Russian Sovteks! It was fun to see, that i'm not the only one having problems with those jacks. After many tries, i could never get them of my big muff....i wonder if they indeed glued them haha

Is there a link or anything to that in bloom cover at the end of the vid? I was really digging it!

Nice job with the forensics. I've trashed some pedals that maybe I should've really ripped apart. And I do know how to solder.

Classic.

Do you use that huge soldering iron on older solder joints because it capable of heating to a higher temp or something? ...or the old solder is tougher to reflow?

I tried a bunch of Phasers, this 1 is my fav (theres a lot i havent tried tho). Tends to have a slight volume drop but thats really a live performance issue. + its not too hard to compensate vol. somehow, or get the pedal modded for no vol drop.

I love the feel of older Russian Equipment. I have some vintage Russian Cameras that I think were built from surplus tank parts!

I really wish that American resistors had the values printed on them like the Russian.

Great video!

Do you know if there was asbestos in hammond tone cabinets. I got one sometime back and every time I get around it I start itching and my nose stops up and I get short of breath. It also looks like there is a fine dust on it. Even the amps have that dust all in them. Thanks for any help.That pedal sounds cool.

hi, why do you wrap the battery poles by a tape? does that extend their charged life? 2:29

really cool sounds on the switch down position

Those soviet metal film resistors (the ones painted brown with the value printed out as a number on them) are freaking good. I tested a random batch of 20 once and they were 0.5% from the nominal... And dirt cheap at that. Used them in some DIY stuff I made.

I have the exact same issue with my green small stone. All I need to do is replace the Rate pot but I can't get the soft plastic nuts off the In and Out jacks.

Like the D Lab touch at the end

When I was in an active band, I always tested 9 volts with my tongue. I got good enough where I could estimate the voltage within 2 volts or so.

Nice. I have a couple EH pedals from the early 70s that was passed down to me from an uncle. The sound was reverent at one time. I’m just not a pedal man. I don’t think I have ever used a fluke to check a 9v battery. I check it with my tongue. LOL I’m sure there are a legion of people out there that do the same.

Underwater guitar? Is it flooding in Louisville? Pretty slick repair, Brad...

I bought both of these when they came out. The muff still works and is my main drive when I play bass, the small stone has been dead for years.

The best pedal I ever owned was a Morley Wah -fuzz you could power it by plugging it into standard us wall socket or the back of your amp if it had the plug

Not sure what it is about these videos but they really chill me the f*ck out. Thanks.

i have a problem with my electric mistress v2 from 1976. and i was wondering if you knew how to fix i could send you a video and pictures of the insides if you think you could help

Brad, not sure if you knew but Fran has re-issued two of her famous pedals from the 90's. The Frantone Cream Puff and the Brooklyn Overdrive. Well know pedals back in the day.

EH makes some cool stuff, I'd love to try a super pulsar

You win the internet today with that video title.

Does it have a stun setting?

Молодец, товарищ.

If you come across a jack, that has been glued etc, just use heat from your soldering iron to help melt the glue, before trying to loosen the nut.

Sounds good

I am impressed!, and kick my ass for not following my electronic ambitions. I won't tell you what I've thrown away since '73. I think I'll get drunk and cry now. lol. Peace Out Man!!

I had one from the 70's that belonged to my brother. it had the exact same problem..I had the local shop go over it and they got it working again. I gave it back to my brother. It still had the 79.00 price tag on it from Mack and Daves in Huntington Wv. LOL They are out of business now. Great blast from the past. Now ,, about that Pi........

I build a lot of pedals, and I was positive the problem would have been the footswitch, but alas, it was not! Good vid, dude!

Man my small stone was sitting for some time and i plugged it in and it didn't work, I think this vid points me in the right direction

Found a SMALL STONE in an Austin pawn shop. It was GIVEN to me cuz the salesman thought that it was for lights...due to color switch. He said he didn't understand that and he didn't want to show it to another customer. Plus I was purchasing a stereo RIC bass ('74).....

Thanks for the lesson on batteries. Not really needed.

Now that is a real man's iron lol. Brad I keep meaning to ask about your tele.. Is that a magnatron in the neck? I have a semi hollow Farida tele with a hum sized p90 neck route per factory and it's always been very unbalanced I've been looking at putting in something filtertron-esque to try and even things out. I got given the guitar as part payment for doing demos for the company and it had some particularly nice wood thrown at it as the prototype/review piece. I had a pair of custom wound p90 derivatives in it but after falling in love with a really sweet duncan in the bridge the neck p90 just wipes it out. Unfortunately TV Jones stuff is pretty rare in the UK so it's a dangerous new purchase if I go that route. Hedging my bets! Appreciate any thoughts you have. Cheers bud

I would be inclined to try a box wrench to undue those nuts on the guitar jacks. If I needed more torque, I would add a pipe to extend out the lever length. But you probably already knew that.

Brad, you don't store your 9v batteries with steel wool?

I was under the impression Fran from Frantone redesigned the 1999 2000 NYC Big Muff

make sure you don't bring those in the airport

Definitely looks like CCCP army issue. Big buttons to stomp with your army boots or the butt of your Kalashnikov (AK-47)...

I want a reissue muff pie. I love the look of these ..the ammo can look is awsome... If I was rich I'd make some of green with yellow military style wrinting..good info about the bayerys bulging ...that's y I love you. Smart bastard u are. Rare bird ..🖤🖤👍👍😷

RIP Carvin. Still got my x-100b. Never forget.

9:20 Just throwing it out there as a suggestion. Maybe a crescent wrench would work better if you don't have the exact size.

Wait, Fran was behind the Russian Muff circuit? I gotta check out some of her pedals lol.

The Russia over-engineering comment was classic. I was on an aeroflought jet many years ago. It had 8 jet engines that were needed for all its weight. I remember seeing welds in the steel framed seats - no aluminum.

I always wanted to see Rick Dalton review pedals

There is the lovely off centre hump that I miss from all the new stones. To me that's what made it stand apart you could get it to sound like a rotating speaker fantastic why did they kill it. Now you can say you have worked on old Russian military technology lol

wot? no link to fran's channel in the description?

Ha! Had to check out this video, as I saw both of my Sovtek/EHX pedals! They're f'ugly, but do the trick nicely. The Small Stone as a volume dip problem, but so did the older Small Stones. The 'Muff π is the most awesome fuzz I ever played or heard - hands down.

I'm at 14:05 and the broken trace for the jack looks pre solder (looks like original flow of the board and not reflowed) engineering change to me, perhaps to break ground for the power when input plug is pulled? Those are definitely sleeve contacts... And I know each pair for tip, ring, and sleeve, are switched where one side is the plug terminal and the other side is the breakout terminal when the plug is inserted. Also you mentioned the DC jack being in series and it should be an alternate parallel branch that switches out the battery when a plug is inserted. Getting back to broken traces, the one at 6 minutes looks like braided wick tracks across all the pads an a few nearby traces. I would say that jack was replaced. At 06: 42 I see the broken trace from the -buss as well as an intentional break between the sleeve terminals and the tab from a wire terminal looped over the jack barrel threads grounding the chassis. The break between the sleeve terminals and the break in the buss trace were made at the same time. you can see the gouge through the sleeve trace extend through the buss trace.

I love the fast forward stuff.. Makes me laugh everytime.

Fascinating. I wish I knew electronics.

nice repair and sweet pair of strippers at the end ;-)

Fran is too cool. So are you.

Can you still buy the small stone?

Denatured alcohol and a metric wrench?

Brad you are good

HEY GUITOLOGIST! i bet the owner was very happy sound really nice!

Just watched Frans Sputnik video... pretty cool stuff... but the guts of the satellite was certainly not a work of genius. Really just an oscillating beeper with an amp and transmitter.

What causes a battery to swell?

Love the stripper pole.

I bought the Big Muff like that one for $49.99 at George’s Music back in ‘97. Fran Blance had nothing to do with either of those pedals.

Sovtek made some cool amps. Have a sound weekend when it rolls around Brad man. Almost Friday here...bring on the fucking weekend! Lol. No way! I got onto Fran a couple of weeks back purely by chance but she is super cool & knows her shit! What she knows about vinyl & electronics could fill a book of biblical proportions! This just gets better......time for a drink I reckon? ;)

I'm pretty sure Fran- also of Frantone! - designed the 2000s NYC Big Muff. The first few links I saw online agree with my memory: www.kitrae.net/music/big_muff_history3.html

My dad had a 9volt in his pocket one time. It contacted some change and burned a hole in his pocket.

U CAN USE YOUR SOLDERING IRON AND PUT HEAT ON A GLUED METAL OBJECT AND LOOSEN IT UP - EYE TROUBLE I USE CAPS

Awesome pedals. Not much else to say!

Its great but i like a vibe.