Question about MXR Stereo Chorus (vintage yellow box) noise/hiss

[gbkd80]

So yesterday I was at a local Guitar Center and they had an MXR Stereo Chorus for sale for about 100 bucks.

I wanted to jump on it. I grabbed it, opened it up, checked the innards, then plugged it in. It has a bad output jack (and the associate was giving me an attitude about me plugging/unplugging the device due to it's inability to work...) and the unit is just SUPER noisy. I mean a rush of hiss. I told him it had problems and I'd buy it if they had room to move on it, and he said they had no room, so I left it. Screw that.

Now, just so I know, because I also own an green-box Analog Delay from the same era which uses the same chip (Reticon 5101, the one you can't find anywhere); is this wicked hiss possibly a problem with the chip itself or what? My Analog Delay is a little hissy but not that noticeable and nowhere near as bad as the chorus. The upside to if I bought it, I'd have another chip to swap. The downside is if I swap the chip and somehow damage it, I'm F'd on both pedals. So just wondering if anyone who might own or has repaired these knows if it could be the chip or some transistor or whatever...

[Leo_Gnardo]

Yellow box MXR chorus, right? As I recall, from 35 years ago, both the chorus & analog delay were hiss monsters. Sorry I don't have a suggestion. Back then I had a customer who had both, of course didn't like the noise, he just shelved the effects and moved on to other gear. Unless you can come up with a cookbook fix for the chorus, I'd pass it by. I don't remember the MXR was any great shakes, and most people were picking up the Boss CE2 chorus just about then, and the CE3 just after that.

[gbkd80]

Yes the yellow box. I mean this thing was wicked noisy, more like a problem not so much normal, but for all I know if that was normal then no wonder people moved away from it. I just didn’t know if it was worth the price, as I already have a nice variation of chorus pedals including the CE-2, original Small Clone, and Ibanez CE-505. I think I’ve always just wanted one to match my green box delay.

I would have given them 60 bucks, just to take it off their hands and have another possible Reticon 5101 on hand, providing it was good. They should have moved on that, no one is going to buy it in that condition.

PS side story, I found a set of Reticon SAD1024 chips in a pile of electronics crap at a flea market that I grabbed for 10 bucks a few years ago. Both worked. That was pretty sweet...