Most old pedals on eBay are what the seller says they are. The trouble comes from three places. Some reissues look very much like the originals, a pedal's parts get changed over forty years, and plenty of pedals have been modified. None of that has to be bad. A modded pedal can sound great and a reissue can be the smarter buy. The problem is paying collector money for something that isn't what the listing says. These are the patterns to know, with the tells for each.
Reissues that pass for originals
Manufacturers have gotten very good at recreating their own classics, and a few reissues are close enough to fool a quick look.
- MXR '74 Vintage Phase 90. Dunlop's Custom Shop copy of a 1974 pedal has the script logo, no LED and battery power only. From the outside that's how a real 1970s script Phase 90 looks. Ask for a photo of the board and the bottom.
- Ibanez TS9 reissue. Analog Man calls the 1990s reissue just about identical to the last original TS9s, and Ibanez even packed it with a manual dated 1981. Use the label color, the serial number and the CE mark to sort them. Our Tube Screamer guide has the details.
- The narrow TS-808. Ibanez reissued the rare narrow-box 1979 pedal as the 35th Anniversary TS-808 in 2014.
- Big Muff reissues. Electro-Harmonix has reissued the Triangle, Ram's Head, Op-Amp and Green Russian Muffs. These come in a small nano-size box and are true bypass, which the originals never were.
- NYC Big Muff. The NYC Big Muff made since 2000 shares the red and black graphics of the late-1970s Muffs. Kit Rae says it's often confused with them. The vintage ones have no LED and have a slider switch on the back.
The quick check is the same for all of them. Know which features the original never had, such as an LED, a standard 9V jack or a true-bypass switch, and look for them in the photos.
Swapped and counterfeit chips
Chip stories sell pedals, so they're where the confusion collects. The original ProCo RAT used an LM308 op-amp, and later RAT2s switched to an OP07. The sources don't agree on when, with dates from the mid-1990s to around 2005, so a RAT2's year alone won't tell you which chip it has. Ask for a photo of the board instead.
Be careful with any pedal that has had its chip replaced, too. JHS Pedals' RAT history warns that supposed new-old-stock LM308 chips on the parts market are very often counterfeit. A RAT with a "replaced with NOS LM308" note may not have a real one. The same goes for Tube Screamers, where sellers trade on the JRC4558D. Original TS9s were built with several different chips, and some later originals left the factory with a TA75558 or a JRC2043DD.
It also helps to know how much the chip really matters. JHS calls the OP07 a perfect replacement for the LM308. Guitar World adds that component tolerances make a bigger difference between two RATs than the chip does. And Wikipedia notes that a Tube Screamer's sound comes mostly from its clipping diodes. So check that the chip is genuine, but don't pay extra for a chip by itself.
Mods sold as stock, and stock sold as modded
The Boss DS-1 and the Ibanez Tube Screamer are two of the most modified pedals ever made, and builders like Analog Man and Robert Keeley are known for their mods. A good mod can make a better pedal, but it isn't original, and it shouldn't be sold as stock.
The reverse happens too, where a stock pedal is listed as carrying a famous mod. Analog Man's own limits make a useful check. Its PRO mod only fits Taiwan-made DS-1s from the 1980s to 2016 with the power jack on the board. It can't mod the 2017 and newer surface-mount DS-1 at all. A listing claiming that mod on a surface-mount pedal doesn't add up. The DS-1 dating guide shows how to read the board.
Dates that don't add up
Many vintage pedals can be dated from parts inside, but every method has limits.
- Pot codes. Vintage American Big Muffs carry pot date codes. Kit Rae warns that Electro-Harmonix bought pots in bulk, so the code only tells you the pedal wasn't built earlier. Some Triangle Muffs have pots dated 1966, before the company existed.
- Capacitor codes and labels. On a Tube Screamer, capacitor codes and the label color help place the pedal. Analog Man notes that a silver-label TS9 with a serial starting with 2 has to be opened to date it.
- Logos. MXR changed its logo from script to block in the mid-1970s. Dunlop and Wikipedia both note that some boxes from the changeover hold the other circuit, so the logo alone doesn't settle which Phase 90 you have.
Added jacks, missing parts and builder myths
Many early pedals ran on batteries only, and owners have been adding power jacks ever since. Kit Rae lists the Triangle, Ram's Head and Civil War Big Muffs as battery-only, and MXR pedals made before 1981 had no LED or power jack. A modern jack on one of those means it's been modified. That's fine on a player's pedal, but a collector should take it into account.
Some missing parts are normal. Kit Rae says most 1990s Russian Big Muffs have lost their plastic battery door, and the Ibanez TS10's board-mounted jacks and pots often break. Then there are the myths. Each ProCo builder had a quality-control sticker with a name on it, and one builder nicknamed Woodcutter turns up on a lot of vintage RATs. JHS calls the claim that his pedals sound better unverifiable, so don't pay extra for the sticker.
Photos and questions
A seller with the real thing can usually show it. These are the requests to make before you buy.
- Ask for the seller's own photos of the top, the sides and the bottom label, not stock pictures.
- Ask for a photo of the circuit board with the bottom plate or battery cover off.
- Ask whether any parts have been replaced, including the chip, jacks, pots, switch or knobs.
- Ask whether it has been modded, and by whom.
- Ask for a short video of the pedal working, switched on and off, with every knob turned.
A seller who answers plainly and notes a replaced jack or a reissue in the listing is giving you what you need. One who only posts stock photos or won't open the pedal is giving you less to go on, so look at another listing. For model-by-model detail, see the Big Muff versions guide and the Phase 90 script vs block guide, or check the LM308 RAT, TS9, Ram's Head Big Muff and Japan DS-1 pages. Or browse all pedals.
