NPD Arion SAD-1

jefcon1 · 10-29-2010, 08:29 AM

In a moment of unprecedented weakness I bought this little fella off ebay for $76. A fair price, but not a great price considering these things were like $30 new in the 80s. This is one of the little gems that floated through my pedal board in the day and never should have left. Of course the one I had wasn't mine in a legal sense so keeping would have been somewhat unethical. If this thing sounds as good as the one I had, I am a very happy guy. I may look into rehousing it though because I don't want this thing resting in a box somewhere out of fear of breaking it. It will be experiencing frequent stompage. It may have to replace one of the delays on my board-in-progress, probably the DD2 not the DL4 , or maybe neither. Three delay pedals isn't excessive is it?

Original box, original owner's manual, original purchase receipt dated Sept 10, 1987!

**jamforchrist123** · 10-29-2010, 10:30 AM

Congrats man! I've read a LOT of good things about those. I wish they were cheaper, as I'd totally randomly big one up

jefcon1 · 10-29-2010, 11:12 AM

Thanks! I keep hearing about the SCH-1 Chorus. If someone's not careful, I'm going to end up with one of those on the board too!

**jamforchrist123** · 10-29-2010, 01:10 PM

You might have already though about this, but if you are worried about it breaking from being frequently used, you could get a true bypass box and then send this pedal through it. You could always leave the delay on and just "turn it on and off" with the true bypass box. That way the delay will almost never really get stomped on.

jefcon1 · 10-29-2010, 01:15 PM

I am considering that too. My only hesitation is that I will likely be twisting the knobs a great deal to get the feedback effects. The pots are apparently much like trim pots and not very durable. I'll see how they feel. It would definitely be easier to put it in a loop than to re-house the whole thing.

Gaetano Paul · 11-01-2010, 08:35 AM

Hey man, nice pedal. I had one too, very sweet tones. I think the actual stomp part will hold up really well, but the pots are not so good. Anyway enjoy that little jem. I think I was watching that one to. did you get it off dixieguitar something or other ebay name?

jefcon1 · 11-01-2010, 02:20 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Gaetano Paul

Hey man, nice pedal. I had one too, very sweet tones. I think the actual stomp part will hold up really well, but the pots are not so good. Anyway enjoy that little jem. I think I was watching that one to. did you get it off dixieguitar something or other ebay name?

No, the name was bbob with some numbers after it. It seems like I was watching something from dixieguitar. Maybe one of those SCH-1 chorus pedals that sold for $130! I can't fathom them selling for that much. Then again I just paid twice the sticker price for the delay.

jefcon1 · 11-03-2010, 09:14 AM

It is in pristine condition and looks like it was hardly ever used. And yet... the Repeats pot is already flaking out. It works if you press down on it, otherwise you just get a single repeat. I'm trying to source a new potentiometer for it now. Actually I want replace all three pots with "real" pots. The shafts are so long it looks to me like I can get full size pots with short shafts and mount them to the housing and wire them back to the PCB.

Not the NPD I was expecting, but the pedal still looks and sounds awesome. Just like I remembered. Its almost crystal clear and yet has the sweetest decay of any analog delay I ever played. Some reviews make it sound like these pedals are lo-fi and the really aren't. That first repeat is pretty clear and pronounced, yet still warm like it should be. Its the following repeats that really remind me of an old tape delay with dirty heads. Its just grunges out in the most awesome way.

Major Tom · 11-03-2010, 02:33 PM

You might want to try shooting some cleaner in those pots. Rubbing alcohol (90+ %, not the 70-something %) works OK, WD-40 works even better. Sitting around all those years, the wipers probably have some oxidation... the 1/4" jacks probably do too.

Way back when, I had an Arion tremelo pedal that was like 25 bux new. I bought it because I couldn't find any other trem, I think Boss had stopped making theirs for a while maybe... Anyway, it was pretty awful sounding - it was a hard on / off type, real stuttery sounding.

jefcon1 · 11-03-2010, 02:39 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Major Tom

You might want to try shooting some cleaner in those pots. Rubbing alcohol (90+ %, not the 70-something %) works OK, WD-40 works even better. Sitting around all those years, the wipers probably have some oxidation... the 1/4" jacks probably do too.

Way back when, I had an Arion tremelo pedal that was like 25 bux new. I bought it because I couldn't find any other trem, I think Boss had stopped making theirs for a while maybe... Anyway, it was pretty awful sounding - it was a hard on / off type, real stuttery sounding.

Good idea. I have some radio shack cleaner for radio tuners, I'll give it a shot. I didn't even think about oxidation.

jefcon1 · 11-04-2010, 08:47 AM

I cleaned the pots with tuner cleaner and it didn't really help. The shaft has a bunch of vertical play in it only functions when you push down on it. I was able to get it to a setting and leave it there. So as a set-it and forget-it, it's full functional. I ordered 3 new (real) pots for it yesterday. It will probably be months before I have time to take it apart and solder them in though.

Here it is in its new home sporting some spare knobs I had in my bag.