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phostenix
Gold Member
USA
754 Posts |
 Posted - 01/02/2006 : 20:08:12
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It has been the common theory that in the 6 digit Boss serial number, the first number is the year of manufacture. The meaning of the rest of the number is unknown.
The information I received from a source inside Boss is that the current 2 letter, 5 number S/N started in March of 1989.
That has all worked out well until Lightburst posted this pic of his MIT DS-1:
This Made in Taiwan pedal has a S/N that starts with 0. It couldn't be a 1980, since production didn't move to Taiwan until about 1986. It is possible that it is a 1990 model with the old style S/N.
In looking at some of my paper sticker S/N's, I notice that there are different font styles used on the different pedals.
I'm posting pix of what I have and am asking others with paper sticker S/N pedals to do the same so that we can compare them.
Here's a MIJ DS-1:
Notice that the MIJ DS-1 has a Sans Seriff style font, whereas Lightburst's MIT has a Seriff style font. The MIJ CE-3 is the only other pedal I'm seeing with this Sans Seriff font. Does anyone else have a pedal with this font? I wonder if the DS-1 was produced separately form the other pedals and had its own S/N stickers. (?)
Here's a MIJ DS-1 from an ebay auction:
This one also has the Sans Seriff style font.
Here's a MIJ DF-2:
Seriff Font.
Here's a MIJ DSD-2:
Seriff again.
Here's a MIJ CE-2:
Here's a MIJ CE-2:
Here's a Silver Screw MIJ CE-2:
The bottom plate says "use a coin to open..." and the jacks are the SS kind, but this pedal has a plastic screw. One of the pots has been replaced, and this pedal's a beater, so I don't know if the screw was replaced or if this is one of the "transition" 1980 pedals that has the SS bottom label with a plastic screw.
Here's a MIT CE-2:
This serial number decodes to August 1989. The letters AA appear to be sans seriff, but the numbers have seriffs.
Here's another MIT CE-2:
This serial number decodes to November 1989. The letters BA appear to be sans seriff, but the numbers have seriffs.
Here's a MIJ CE-3:
There's that Sans Seriff font again.
Here's an early analog CH-1 (all CH-1's were MIT):
This serial number decodes to March 1989, unit number 2539. Now the letters and the numbers have the Seriff font.
Anyone else got some S/N's they're willing to post?
Grace and peace,
Steve
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Sunburst
Silver Member
427 Posts |
Posted - 01/03/2006 : 08:25:17
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| One of my DC-3 pedals has a six digit serial, starting with the letter "A". I will check its complete serialnumber and post it tonight. It seems like it is an oddball between the two serialnumber systems... |
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visserman
Platinum Member
1072 Posts |
Posted - 01/03/2006 : 12:05:07
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Steve, you are a star I have to say this before I mention anything else. The kind of details and info you come up with here is unbelievable. Great.
Not really sure if I understand the Sans Seriff and the Seriff terms.
Is it like this??
Sans Seriff: without any letters at the front, for example 680600
Seriff: Does contain letters infront of the numbers,
for example BA 81736
Will check for you later what I have here in my pedals regarding these paperlabeled Serial Numbers. |
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phostenix
Gold Member
USA
754 Posts |
Posted - 01/03/2006 : 16:38:57
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In looking for the name of the Mac sans serif font, I see that I've been mis-spelling serif....
Sans Serif, or "without serif" is a font like Arial or Helvetica on the Mac that has no embellishments to the characters. Just simple straight lines. If you look at the Sans Serif fonts in the pix, they are simple, thin lines. The Serif fonts are wavy and have added lines to parts of the characters. If you look at the sevens, you'll see how the top part is not a simple line. You'll also notice as you look at the different S/N's that the MIT 7 is different than the MIJ 7. So is the 5. When you look at the CH-1 S/N, the Z and the A are not simple sraight lines.
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lightburst
Silver Member
Germany
158 Posts |
Posted - 01/03/2006 : 18:18:59
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This is a serif font (Courier New)
and
this is a sans serif font (Verdana) 
btw: i�ll take some pictures of my s/n sticker tomorow and post them here... |
Edited by - lightburst on 01/03/2006 18:19:22 |
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Sunburst
Silver Member
427 Posts |
Posted - 01/03/2006 : 19:37:08
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| The serial of my DC-3 is A950316. The letter "A" is Serif and the numbers are Sans Serif. |
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phostenix
Gold Member
USA
754 Posts |
Posted - 01/03/2006 : 20:29:44
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Why don't we have a question mark smilie?
I've never seen a Boss S/N with 1 letter and 6 numbers before. Got any pics of that one?
Grace and peace,
Steve
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visserman
Platinum Member
1072 Posts |
Posted - 01/03/2006 : 21:24:58
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Okay guys so we are talking different lettertypes, that will be fun for me to report since I cannot do pictures. Anyway I will do my best and let you know as soon as I can what I have found here.
Cheers. |
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Sunburst
Silver Member
427 Posts |
Posted - 01/03/2006 : 21:33:18
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quote:
Originally posted by phostenix
Why don't we have a question mark smilie?
I've never seen a Boss S/N with 1 letter and 6 numbers before. Got any pics of that one?
Grace and peace,
Steve
I cannot do pics at the moment myself, but trust me Im not fooling you. 
Its a regular sticker serial in the battery compartment.
I havent seen another serial like this myself, which makes me think it might perhaps be some kind of transitional serial. If we can pinpoint the change of serial number system to March of 1989, this unit may have been manufactured in the earlier months of 1989.
I guess we will have to keep our eyes opened for other pedals with the same type of transitional serial. |
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visserman
Platinum Member
1072 Posts |
Posted - 01/04/2006 : 14:38:48
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Checked all my paperlabel pedals, while I was doing this I felt I could see NO differences, and coming back here, reading the whole thread again I see what we are looking for.
So I can tell you that all my paperserialnumbered pedals are of the Serif style. I have no pedals which do have any letters and numbers, all of them are numbers and they are all of the Serif style lettertype.
Now that we are on the subject of the paperlabeled pedals, has anyone of you done an A/B test between a Silverscrew DS-1 and a paperlabeled, blackscrew DS-1?
Cheers. |
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lightburst
Silver Member
Germany
158 Posts |
Posted - 01/04/2006 : 17:43:43
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Here are my s/n:
MIJ SD-1, bought 1984
OD-1 (ET-23D),8-pin version, op-amp date code says 1981
Long dash between "OD" and "1", black thumb screw and bottom plate says "Use a coin to open battery compartment..."
MIJ CS-2, bought used on Ebay
MIJ CE-3, bought used, op-amp date code says 1982
MIT DS-1 allready mentioned above
MIT HM-2, bought used
MIJ RV-2, bought used and unfortunatly destroid with a bad power supply 
The only s/n I have with sans serif font
cheers |
Edited by - lightburst on 01/04/2006 17:45:52 |
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visserman
Platinum Member
1072 Posts |
Posted - 01/05/2006 : 12:11:39
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Hi Lightburst, what happened to your RV-2? You did mention someone used wrong powersupply..................
So did the pedal not work at all when you bought it or.......?
I have one too, and I have noticed something with it recently. Also bought it second hand, so do not know what kind of powersupply it has been used with previously.
The funny thing I noticed is like this: Using pedal in any of mode 1, 2 or 3, change the time knob and I can hear a funny noise, it is ever so slight, when I tweak it carefully I can even get a slight whistle tone. When you just dial in the settings quickly you do not get this, so you really need to go for it to achieve this kind of noise.
To me it sounds like it is the sound of a delay, similar digital noise you get when you change the timeknob. With the RV-2 being an early digital pedal I tend to believe it is just one of those things. On the RV-5 you do not get this, so Boss did get it right there.
However that is just my assumption, but now coming here and reading your post about the RV-2 it made me think again: Could it be that a wrong powersupply has caused this noise, or is it just something which is part of the makeup of this pedal?
Anyone any ideas about this?
Cheers, |
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lightburst
Silver Member
Germany
158 Posts |
Posted - 01/05/2006 : 14:33:40
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I bought the RV-2 used in a good working condition. It was quite a while in my closet when I wanted to use it again. So I connected it with one of those damm  power supplies where you can choose the voltage between 1.5 to 12 volts. But it happend that this very ps had a bad error and dilivered a voltage a little above 30 volts 
Before I had a chance to disconnect my RV-2 began to smoke and from that on it was dead quiet  .
I have some experience in repairing and building effect units but I think the digital chip has got to much current and can�t be fixed. So I put out all the guts and will use the case for a selfmade Orange Squeezer clone trying to rebuild the FET switching of Boss because I don�t believe in the true bypass hype and like some good buffered signals better |
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visserman
Platinum Member
1072 Posts |
Posted - 01/05/2006 : 17:38:09
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Gosh, sad news about your RV-2.
I used to think that a pedal will only take as much current as it needs, so use a 18 volt adaptor for a 9 volt pedal, and pedal would still only take 9 volts, but from your story it seems that this theory is not correct, or perhaps there was another matter going on with your RV-2? |
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lightburst
Silver Member
Germany
158 Posts |
Posted - 01/05/2006 : 18:42:49
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CAUTION! Voltage is NOT current!!!
So this theory isn�t true.
You would not connect your 9 volt stomp box with your plug socket in your romm�s wall expecting the stomper takes only the needed 9 volt from the 120 volts, would you?
Only current, messured in Amp�re will flow in the needed amount (if everything is ok with your unit)!
Cheers |
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bossarea
Forum Admin
United Kingdom
3652 Posts |
Posted - 01/05/2006 : 23:54:20
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Here's another batch.
DM-3
CE-2
LM-2
DD-2
NF-1
DM-2
TW-1
CS-2
VB-2
DF-2
OC-2
OD-2
OD-1
BF-2B
DD-3
DC-3
HM-2
DC-2
PSM-5
CE-3
MZ-2
DSD-2... whoops, nasty case of battery leak.
I have a feeling they used rubber stamps with rotating numbers for these. There might have been a handful of people stamping, all using a different stamp. Some with a serif font, some with a sans serif font. |
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Topic |
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Evolution of White Paper Sticker S/N
