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Morley PDW

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  • #1

    Morley PDW

    I've been taking a look at a Morley PDW pedal that's been sitting around needing attention. Board marked PDW, made in 1992. PRobably not as good as my old silver one that got fried years ago, I'd have to completely replace the circuit board to fix that one...

    Anyway it was working but really weak, I replaced the 4 electrolytic capacitors, pretty old so why not get decent ones in there. Also replaced LED's L3 and L4. According to the Morley site L4 is for the Wah function, it doesn't say what L3 is for, L2 is for volume. Each has a LDR to go with it. Light Dependent Resistor.

    It still basically works, but is still pretty weak. Volume lower than it should be, wah only goes halfway through mids and no highs at all, and not much sweep. I've tried their adjustments, moving LED and LDR closer to each other, almost no difference at all.

    I'm wondering if I need high intensity LEDs for this thing. Or if something else is wrong.. I replace the LEDs 3 or 4 years ago, was getting ready to move back to Texas and put it away, not sure now just what LEDs I got. Both are red, same as it has before, both also in the same positions. Since everything is weak and this thing operates on light, it seems to make sense that it might need high intensity, but thought I would ask here and see if someone knows for sure.

    Not sure how this will work, Morley has the schematic posted here. Should just show up as a link...

    http://www.morleypedals.com/pdwes.pdf
    Why do I drive way out here to view the wildlife when all the animals live in town?

    My Photography - http://billy-griffis-jr.artistwebsites.com/
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  • #2
    The bypass path looks like a tone sucker for a straight guitar signal.
    Some loss of volume is not surprising.
    You can assess what is happening with your LDRs with a resistance check. Desolder one and check the light/dark readings. If you turn off the lights and use the pedal's LEDs as the light source, you can figure out if your current LEDs are sufficient. I'll bet that the strength of the LED is not your problem.
    More likely you need to find LDRs that give you the right resistances.

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    • #3
      OK do the LDRs drift over time or from heating and cooling like standard resistors sometimes do? These are the factory ones, and should be the right values unless they drift the same as regular resistors.

      The schematic says for L2/LDR2 400-850. Is that the resistance I'm looking for? I'm not good at reading those things.

      From what I've heard about these pedals I'm not sure if I want to put a lot of time or money into it, seems they are not generally considered as good as the old silver one I had that now has a fried circuit board. That one was excellent, I don't know much about this one. I'll see if I can get some kind of readings on the LDRs, I have to completely remove the board, soldering is on the back side. Not too hard to do though...
      Why do I drive way out here to view the wildlife when all the animals live in town?

      My Photography - http://billy-griffis-jr.artistwebsites.com/

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      • #4
        The "L ON" numbers are probably what the resistance should be when the LED is fully exposed to the LDR.
        I don't know the physics or failure modes of LDRs, but I have definitely replaced bad or dead ones in Morley pedals. Fortunately, they are pretty easy to test.

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