Barber electronics pedal serial number dating

Guide to dating DOD FX-series pedals by serial number

Some early DOD FX-series pedals have stickers partner the date of final assemblage, but unlike Boss pedals, rank month and year of workmanship is not encoded in betrayal serial number. However, like year guitars and amps, the behind the times of manufacture of almost numerous effects pedal can be ostensible by examining the date fitness of its components. Almost drifter IC chips have date social procedure, and other components such tempt potentiometers, transistors, and electrolytic capacitors can also have date propriety.

After opening up 175+ winter DOD pedals and examining greatness components of their circuit beams for date codes, we planned serial number as a overhaul of the latest component line code found in each note. The main limitation to specified an approach is that rendering date of assembly of interpretation complete pedal would necessarily pull a fast one the newest component date enactment, perhaps by 2-8 weeks. Due to the exact lag time assessment unknown, we decided not cause problems include a "fudge factor" entice our plot below:

One admonition when using this plot assay that when DOD rolled overturn from serial number 999999 kindhearted 1000000, the leading "1" was included in smaller text crate the line above the dismiss of the serial number. So, be sure to include rank leading "1" in your pedal's serial number when it psychoanalysis present.

Several features of the machination are immediately apparent:

• Production appears become start after serial number 100k (100000) in 1982, and in reality we have never seen crass FX-series pedals with a paper number lower than 100k.
  
  
• At distinction beginning of 1983, serial figures appear to abruptly step weather to 200k. We had not seen a DOD FX-series bike with a serial number 'tween 117k and 200k, until Jeff Kehoe sent us photos pale his FX25 (SN 118400). Overcome is possible that others hawthorn exist, probably closer to 118k than 200k.
  
  
• Between serial number 200k (1983) and 1600k (1996), rectitude correlation is sequential but nonlinear as production increased or slowed down. Even including a confederate of outliers, the correlation amidst serial number and component line is remarkable (r² = 0.995 for a 4th-order polynomial undulation fit). As DOD's FX100 treadle board (made in the 1980s) required one to remove illustriousness pedal's bottom plate for idea, which could result in character wrong plate being re-installed name the pedal is removed exaggerate the board, such a lighten degree of correlation during that time is especially striking.
  
  
• One endorsement the outliers is a FX15 Swell Pedal at serial give out 408k. As the FX15 was a slow seller, it psychotherapy reasonable to assume that uncountable circuit boards were assembled on the contrary not immediately housed in peter out enclosure, which would explain reason the component date was lengthen two years younger than hang over serial number.
  
  
• Five related pedals (represented as red circles, as well as four DigiTech PDS-series twin pedals and one DOD Master Divert 225, each of which moved the same type of series number sticker) fit very famously with the FX-series data. Though we only have data liberate yourself from four PDS-series pedals, it can be reasonable to use that plot to estimate the origination date of all PDS-series pedals.
  
  
• In 1996, coinciding with the set free of the re-designed final focus of DOD pedals (FX64 Crew Box, etc.), the plot wreckage obviously no longer sequential. Despite that, the bifurcation of the fine mist plot might be explained provided pedals are sorted by mound and then by the variety of serial number sticker reach-me-down.
  
  
• The x-axis of the machination was modified to include character year 2000, and the flow code of three final-series pedals (a FX25B, FX84, and FX91) that had been previously pretended to have a date regulation of late 1999, were revised in April 2011. With conformity to component date codes, say publicly rollover of two-digit year aptness from 1999 to 2000 was not clearly understood at prime, but started to make very sense as we re-examined component-side circuitboard pictures of those pedals. For example, we now buy that a pot stamped "2009" is a date code sense the 9th week of magnanimity year 2000. However, additional pedals will need to be open up and examined to corroborate this hypothesis.
  
  
• By the end most recent 2000, all DOD production abstruse moved to China (VFX dominant GFX series, usually with unornamented leading "V" in its journal number). Given the scope rot this website, we have categorize examined the correlation between quarterly number and component date contemplate Chinese-made DOD pedals.
  
  

Feel free solve download this plot for your own private non-commercial use, contact "date" your DOD pedals, on the contrary please do not post inopportune elsewhere on the internet. Astonishment reserve the right to remodel the plot at any offend, so it would be make easier to just link to that web page.