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Rich_S
Silver Member
USA
219 Posts |
 Posted - 05/09/2007 : 05:42:25
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Here's a tricky one - how do you tell the vintage (in particular MIJ/MIT and green/black label) of pedals that have had the backs removed.
Those of you who've seen my pedalboard will understand. For years, I've been mounting pedals on a common, aluminum deck that takes the place of the normal back cover. I've accumulated a box of Boss backplates.
Now, I have a CE-3 I want to sell. I know that it's country of origin makes a difference in the price it will bring or eBay, and I also strive to be as informative and honest as possible when writing an auction. So, I'd like to make sure I get the right backplate back on this pedal, to make it "original" and to correctly identify whether it's MIJ or MIT. (I didn't really know or care about such things when I bought and installed it.)
So, any helpful hints? What do the printed numbers on the backs mean, are they serial numbers? |
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RRV-10
Silver Member
Australia
246 Posts |
Posted - 05/09/2007 : 07:09:48
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| Open the battery door. If it's Japanese there should be a serial sticker where the battery goes, or a ink serial stamped somewhere. Early Taiwanese units had a sticker inside here as well. So it will either say Product of Roland Japan or Product of Roland Taiwan. If there's just a black ink serial, its Japanese (not sure if the CE-3 was made that early though). If there's no sticker or ink stamp I would assume it to be Taiwanese. Also, with the CE-3, another indicator of origin would be the knobs. If it has black knobs with a red dash, probably Japanese. If the knobs are gray on top, it's Taiwanese. |
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bossarea
Forum Admin
United Kingdom
3652 Posts |
Posted - 05/09/2007 : 09:57:08
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| I got a huge Excel sheet where I store all serial numbers and pedal info I come across. Using this sheet I can usually determine exactly what type of label goes with any pedal provided that the serial is still intact. If you give me the serial number of yours I can look it up. |
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Rich_S
Silver Member
USA
219 Posts |
Posted - 05/09/2007 : 15:55:30
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So, the serial number is inside the battery compartment?
What's the number printed on the back label on more-modern pedals, like the "ZU 40996" shown on the Type 18 label?
Bossarea, thanks for the offer to look up my serial number. I'll take a look tonight and let you know.
I'm pretty sure my pedal is MIJ since it has black knobs, but I want to be sure, and I'd like to get the right plate back on it. |
Edited by - Rich_S on 05/09/2007 15:57:25 |
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bossarea
Forum Admin
United Kingdom
3652 Posts |
Posted - 05/09/2007 : 16:27:06
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The serial number used to be in the battery compartment up until 1989 when the new numbering scheme was introduced. In the picture ZU40996 is the serial number. U4 denotes the month while Z--0996 tells us that this is the 996th pedal made of this model.
The older serial numbers had 6 digits. The 2 first numbers tells us when the pedal was made while the meaning of the last 4 is still unknown.
As RRV mentioned, the earliest pedals had 4 digit inkstamped serial numbers. These were also located in the battery compartment. |
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Rich_S
Silver Member
USA
219 Posts |
Posted - 05/10/2007 : 06:01:40
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Sho 'nuff - the serial number on my CE-3 is inside the battery compartment: 771700 Product of Roland Japan.
So, what kind of back cover should it have?
Come to think of it, all this exploring has gotten me kind of attached to it. Maybe I'll just keep it, rather than trading "up" to a CE-2.
Onto another subject: is there somewhere to obtain replacement battery-cover-screw grommets? They always seem to be the one thing that wears out, dries up, falls off, etc, etc, etc...
Edit: I found the serial number decoder, which says it was made in April 1987. Now I have to look through my parts box and see which types of late-80's back plates I have.
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Edited by - Rich_S on 05/10/2007 06:47:17 |
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Rich_S
Silver Member
USA
219 Posts |
Posted - 05/10/2007 : 06:08:58
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quote:
Originally posted by bossarea
U4 denotes the month while Z--0996 tells us that this is the 996th pedal made of this model.
On the new-number MIT pedals, does the first letter (Z in this case) indicate the model? If so, what are the letter codes for the DS-1 and CS-3 (the most recent pedals to have their back covers unceremoniously dumped into the box.) |
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bossarea
Forum Admin
United Kingdom
3652 Posts |
Posted - 05/10/2007 : 09:27:32
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quote:
Originally posted by Rich_S
Sho 'nuff - the serial number on my CE-3 is inside the battery compartment: 771700 Product of Roland Japan.
So, what kind of back cover should it have?
It should have a green MIJ plate. They changed from black to green around serial 400000.
quote:
Originally posted by Rich_S
On the new-number MIT pedals, does the first letter (Z in this case) indicate the model?
The Z means that it's one of the first 10000 made. If the serial number was AU40996, it would be pedal number 10996. B would mean 20996 and so on. For a few pedals (CH-1, DS-1, MT-2 etc) the serial numbers have rolled over from Y to Z again meaning that there's more than 250000 made. |
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sp-1
Platinum Member
Germany
1454 Posts |
Posted - 05/14/2007 : 14:55:38
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| I just found out my mit blue label ch-1 has the serial number inside the battery compartment reading AA57116 product of roland taiwan. |
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