Operating Theater: DOD DFX9 digital delay

My jefe, Mauz, handed me this broken hunk of gear in the hopes I could figure out what was wrong. The DOD DFX9 digital delay was a pretty cool pedal back when it worked, he assured me. I put it in a drawer for a few months until I got around to check it out. I was dubious about taking on the repairs of some cheap-o digital pedal.

DOD DFX9

The DFX9 was DOD’s shot at BOSS, their far east competition. BOSS’s DD series of compact digital delays had become quite popular in the ’80s and was surpassing older, analog delays like the DOD FX90. Self-proclaimed as “America’s pedal,” DOD would not go down without a fight. Non-functioning and with the jacks falling out, Mauz’s DFX9 pedal was a casualty of the war that DOD lost. FYI, I got ADD about curing the DFX9 of its PTSD ASAP.

The pedal was intermittently working. With old DOD pedals, the momentary footswitch is usually the first thing to go. After checking that it was working, I dug deeper.

The potentiometers were attached to a circuit board that was itself attached perpendicularly to the main board by two sets of solid leads. When I jiggled the smaller board, the LEDs would blink on and off. I suspected there was a loose solder point in this Achille’s heel. I reinforced all the points carefully, taking note that this was a double sided PCB. The connections needed to be solid all the way through like a holiday fruitcake.

IMG_5486

The main delay was now functioning and switching correctly, but one of the pedal’s modes was still acting wonky.

The DFX9 has a 5 point rotary switch on the far right that controls the range of the delay. The last setting is for “infinite repeat.” When this is selected, the left LED will light up and delay should be audible. When the footswitch is hit, the right LED lights up and the delay repeats without fading, ad infinitum. The guitar signal passes through unaffected. This wasn’t working correctly. Both LEDs were lit, there was no delay, and the switch would only momentarily turn off the right LED.

Some online research pointed me in the right direction. Underneath the rotary switch there is a trim pot labeled P7. This has to be adjusted for the electronic switching to work correctly and engage the “infinite repeat” mode.

delay range trim pot

I adjusted this trim pot with a tiny screwdriver until the “infinite repeat” mode was working correctly. Now, when I hit the footswitch, the delays would continue forever while guitar was allowed to play over the sample. All in all, a pretty cool effect. I measured the resistance on the trim pot and it read, no joke, 6.66k Ohm. Fucking WICKED.

I replaced the 9V battery snap that had a short. Not that I would recommend using a battery: this delay sucks 43mA on average. That’ll keep you going through Duracells like Rob Halford goes through young Filipino boys.

After getting the pedal functioning correctly, I decided to play around inside it a bit. I messed about with the other two trim pots I found.

repeats and clock trim pot

The 50k trim pot labeled P2 adjusted the repeats. I dialed it up until the repeats would keep going when the “repeat” dial was turned up all the way. It wouldn’t self-oscillate, being a digital pedal, but it could now get a bit noisier.

The 10k trim pot labeled P6 adjusted the clock of the delay. I was able to extend the length of the delays from 1 second to a maximum of 1.8 seconds with no appreciable loss of sound quality. A nice, easy circuit bend for echo aficionados.

I reassembled the pedal. Some of the knobs were missing so I replaced them all in order to match. The ones in the top pic are from an irreparable MXR Double Shot Distortion. Never throw shit away! Well, throw shit away, far away if you don’t want hookworm, but hold onto old knobs and stuff. They come in handy.

The DFX9 had one problem left. The battery compartment was loose. In fact, I think only 10% of all DOD pedals existent today even have a battery door. These are cheap plastic doors that pop off and get lost. I noticed the latch had become compacted and was no longer locking into place. My remedy was to heat it up with a hairdryer and mold it back into place using a clothespin.

DOD battery door latch fix

I cooled off the battery door and had a much less acute angle on the latch. Now it’s much more augly and it locks firmly into place on the toe of the pedal.

DOD BATTERY LATCH

After some testing, I like the DFX9. It’s nice sounding for a digital pedal; much less cold and stark sounding than its BOSS equivalents in the DD series. With just one second of sample time, the “infinite repeat” mode is probably more useful for noise artists. Still, it’s fun to play along with. Many must agree, because these DFX9 are less numerous and more expensive than a lot of other similar delay pedal types available on the used market. That, or no one knows how to fix ’em.

Some more info on the DFX9 – http://www.americaspedal.net/dfx9/

15 thoughts on “Operating Theater: DOD DFX9 digital delay

  1. Great article. Do you know if there's any mods to make this pedal give off trails? (you know, so when you turn of the pedal, you still hear the "final echoes")

  2. I'm not sure it would be possible in a digital delay pedal of this sort. In an analog pedal, the effect could still be repeating in the BBD chip, but digital delays are much more complicated using computer chips. It all depends on how they're programmed.

    It might be possible if you bypassed the line for the effect out with the "bypassed" output, but I couldn't be sure without finding a schematic and trying it out. I don't own this pedal, so I can't try it out… but if I come across another one, I'll be trying it for sure! You have my curiosity piqued.

    I'm almost certain you could do a trails mod to most analog pedals, though, so long as the effect out isn't switched to ground.

  3. This lil' tweak has brought my DFX9 out from collecting dust to everyday use. THANKS!
    FYI, there seems to be a second revision of this pedal, Mine has no trim pot for range/mode. maxing out the other two pots worked great. It now absolutely self-oscillates!

    1. Thanks for sharing your success and it's good to know another piece of gear has been rescued from the bin.

  4. Could you share a photo with the connections of all cables? If you have the diagram, please share it too.

  5. I have a DOD DFX9, I see the LEDs in red when I press the button, but I can't get any sound.

  6. I have 1 of these and have never used it and trying to sell it. Are the red led lights supposed to turn on just with battery power only when you press the pedal? Or does is have to be connected to the amp etc?
    I have a new battery in and it doesnt light up when pedal is pushed. I do not want to sell a faulty unit
    Thanks

    1. There does need to be a cord plugged in the input for the LEDs to turn on.

  7. Could you share a photo with the connections of all cables? If you have the diagram, please share it too URGENT publish in my email thank you.

    1. I looked all over for my DFX9, but I can’t find it!! This blog post was from six years ago, so it’s entirely possible I lost, traded, sold, or borrowed it out. Sorry!

  8. Thank you for this Doctor Sewage! I bought one of these for £50 second hand, mainly for the Infinite Repeat function which turned out not to work, but the trim pot adjustment changed it from a Dud to a Dod. A cool pedal saved from the scrappers.

  9. Exelente post!! tuve exactamente el mismo problema y gracias a tu ayuda ahora funciona perfectamente. Gracias!!!

  10. NICE! , i have one i bought on ebay, and the infinite repeat doesn’t turn on at all? No light nothing… so i might have to try what you did here.

  11. I would mod in an external jack for the “delay” control so you could hook it into an expression pedal. Oh, man. The craziness you can get: circuit-bent Flanger / Chorus sounds. Dive-bombing explosions in the infinite repeat mode. Winding-up and unwinding leads. It turns this pedal into a soundscape monster and an instrument unto itself.

    1. long term project I have yet to get to… I have an FX90 analog delay and an empty Morley pedal case… really wanna make it a delay pedal with delay sweep!

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