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So I recently got this pedal off of Craigslist and just noticed the other day that it is making a kind of a feedback almost humming noise when engaged. It's driving me fucking nuts and I have no idea why it's going on. I opened the back up (I don't know why, because I really don't know what I'm looking for) and noticed a piece of plastic back there. Kind of odd. So I removed the plastic piece and tried it out. Without the piece it seems to work kind of spotty when the back is on.
I really wish I had a way of recording clips but I don't, so maybe some pics will help?

Teh pedal


Teh plastic piece!


Teh plastic piece in the pedal



HELPS!!

Oh and the footswitch is kind of sticky too.

For teh footswitch, you might need to replace that little rubber black thing near teh screw that hold the footswitch in place. I've got one and I've never had problems with it. I'd talk to the guy you bought it from first, and if he is no help then you might want to ship it off to one of our resident pedal doctors.

The4455 wrote:For teh footswitch, you might need to replace that little rubber black thing near teh screw that hold the footswitch in place. I've got one and I've never had problems with it. I'd talk to the guy you bought it from first, and if he is no help then you might want to ship it off to one of our resident pedal doctors.

Ok I'll check the rubber black thing out! I definitely would be up for sending to a pedal doc if I can't fix it (probably can't lol).

That piece of plastic is in every Boss pedal I own, which isn't much, a ps-2 and an oc-2.. So that's good I guess..

the plastic is to stop the board touching the back plate and shorting

jwar wrote:noticed a piece of plastic back there. Kind of odd. So I removed the plastic piece and tried it out. Without the piece it seems to work kind of spotty when the back is on.

Put the plastic back in there -- it's shorting out on the case otherwise, which is why you're having problems without it. All my old Boss pedals have had one of those in there.

devnulljp wrote:

jwar wrote:noticed a piece of plastic back there. Kind of odd. So I removed the plastic piece and tried it out. Without the piece it seems to work kind of spotty when the back is on.

Put the plastic back in there -- it's shorting out on the case otherwise, which is why you're having problems without it. All my old Boss pedals have had one of those in there.

I actually took it out for like 2 minutes and put it back in. It still makes a weird noise after playing a note. No feedback when not playing, only after I play. It's almost a thumping noise. God I wish I was better at describing thing.

How's it powered? IIRC at least some OC-2s were ACA, so need 12VDC unless sharing ground with other PSA pedals. Can you run it with a battery, with nothing else in the chain and see if that changes things? Is there a sticker on the power supply jack that says ACA or PSA?

EDIT: http://www.bossarea.com/other/aca.asp

You want to put that plastic sheet back in because it insulates the solder side of the board from grounding out all the connections to the bottom plate. Definitely try it on it's own with a brand new battery to see if it's misbehaving under low voltage from either the wrong kind of adapter or a daisy chain. Also try it out with nothing else in the chain... guitar --> OC-2 --> amp. However unlikely, perhaps you have a pedal that just does not get along well with the OC-2. Does it pass dry signal in bypass, or does it always misbehave? Does the "wrong" kind of sound come out all the time or only when you are playing the guitar?

I have a few ideas already about what might be wrong, especially after doing some research, but those questions can help me narrow it down a lot.

nbabmf wrote:You want to put that plastic sheet back in because it insulates the solder side of the board from grounding out all the connections to the bottom plate. Definitely try it on it's own with a brand new battery to see if it's misbehaving under low voltage from either the wrong kind of adapter or a daisy chain. Also try it out with nothing else in the chain... guitar --> OC-2 --> amp. However unlikely, perhaps you have a pedal that just does not get along well with the OC-2. Does it pass dry signal in bypass, or does it always misbehave? Does the "wrong" kind of sound come out all the time or only when you are playing the guitar?

I have a few ideas already about what might be wrong, especially after doing some research, but those questions can help me narrow it down a lot.

It bypasses just fine. I actually pulled it out of the chain and tried it alone as well because I thought it might have been something screwy with my pedal order. It only acts up when I'm playing.

I'm going to double check my power adapter. I have a Boss adapter but I'm not certain it's a 12v.

Possible a stupid question, but why would it run ok on a 9v battery but not on a 9v adapter?

devnulljp wrote:How's it powered? IIRC at least some OC-2s were ACA, so need 12VDC unless sharing ground with other PSA pedals. Can you run it with a battery, with nothing else in the chain and see if that changes things? Is there a sticker on the power supply jack that says ACA or PSA?

EDIT: http://www.bossarea.com/other/aca.asp

Ok! I just looked on the back of the pedal and it says ACA but the adapter is PSA. So perhaps that's the issue, although I did just try it with a battery and it's still acting weird.

Now for full disclosure reason I feel I should mention I using this pedal on a bass and not guitar, but I've heard it used many time on bass and that shouldn't be an issue.

One more thing to note it is making is almost an echo sound. Very weird. Like the note vibrates.

jwar wrote:Ok! I just looked on the back of the pedal and it says ACA but the adapter is PSA. So perhaps that's the issue, although I did just try it with a battery and it's still acting weird.

Now for full disclosure reason I feel I should mention I using this pedal on a bass and not guitar, but I've heard it used many time on bass and that shouldn't be an issue.

Can you daisy chain it with another PSA pedal? That way you'll have a common ground so you'll bypass the the diode resistor circuit that regulates the 12VDC down to 9.something V.

FWIW, I used to run one of these on bass -- a lot of guys use em on bass, so no wories there. Tracking's not great, but it does the job.
Tracking's usually better further up the neck ... does it do it on high notes?
The tracking does slip a lot ... not a regular echo-like noise, but it generally doesn't run 100% true, esp on bass. ou should expect some warble.

The tracking indeed sucks like a pornstar most of the times, but that's just something cool right?