WARNING FAKE OC81D's !

[R.Kirkland]

Well it is with sad regret I have been the one to break the news. Unfortunately, I am afraid alot of folks here have been scammed on some "Mojo" !

I recently received a pedal from a repeat customer. One that he purchased from another builder, and wanted me to retune . when I received the pedal many resistor values were strange, so I "clipped" the transistors ( mullard OC81D's) out to take their readings. 2 of 3 were pretty far from usable, hence the attempt to salvage with odd resistor values. No big deal I did all the repair , threw in a set of transistors. and good to go.

I always send removed parts back with repairs I was putting the transistors in a bag and noticed that 2 of them no longer said OC81D....simply OC .....WTF? Look closer and there is a very small wad of something at the end of the transistor.. Same on the other.. The third still has the 81D . Looking closely I can see that the 81D is a rub-on-decal.. and the small wad on the other 2 are where they came up from the small amount of handling I did to remove them . I can now see when held in the light just right they were actually OC78 !!!! .. Someone took alot of time in making these rub on's look passable .My honest opinion is , there is no way a builder could build numerous pedals with these transistors and not notice this by now. So if the builder bought them like this or not, is debatable.

SO.... IF you have purchased a MKII (or any fuzz )with MULLARD OC81D printed "lengthwise" of the can . Check to see if this is the case with your purchase. The 81D will come off very easy and the rest of the printing wont budge , I promise.. Here are some pictures of what I ran into .



Notice the 81 slightly lifted



Ummm WOW




and again



Real Mullard OC81D



Real OC78 and OC78D . Notice printing orientation of the 78 vs 78D



Real OC76



Real OC84



Now everyone will start seeing these guys pop up soon . let me tell you I bought 50 of them and 27 were all together JUNK.. The rest are usable but all over the place in gain range and leakage. DO NOT spend you "mojo" money here.. If they are good then good. Problem is the sleeves come off and will look " correct " on any number of transistors that span the Globe. as the REAL Mullard OC81M does not have any printing on the actual can, it is impossible to verify they're real. There are a few characteristics that are visible of mullards, but these same manufacturing styles were used by RCA, Mullard, and NewMarket to name a few. So you have to trust your builder on these. BUT NO MOJO MONEY !!!!! Damn it !

Point in case here.






So to summarize, It really pisses me off to know that someone builder/ or supplier , doesn't matter, feels the need to pull this kinda crap on someone to make a buck . Besides that they just Mucked up an actual Mullard in the process. IF you are going to pull this shit as a builder I really feel sorry for you , and worse for the buyer. The truth WILL come out .. I promise..

I truly Apologize for the hit a few folks are about to take. Good luck !


Ryan

[jazzandmetal?]

Wow. That sucks that someone would go to those lengths just for a few extra bucks.

[moodog]

Does the same apply to all the fake NKT-275's out there?

[R.Kirkland]

Originally Posted by moodog

Does the same apply to all the fake NKT-275's out there?

How do you mean ?

I haven't seen any fake NKT275's , just different manufacturers "THE" NKT275 is the Newmarket brand. Tungsram has a 275 that is less desirable. Same goes for the AC128's They are all easy to spot though.

[SonicVI]

I could totally see this happening the first time I was able to slip one of those 81M sleeves off a bad piece (which was about a third of the ones I bought). If anybody does try to pass off something else they'll have to remove the old print which will probably leave some kind of evidence of the removal, sanding marks or something.

I've seen a few pedals on ebay with these in them already. Those builders are gonna probably gonna have to show their trannies unsleeved now.

[sfx]

Not surprizing. I've purchased "fake" MN3005 delay chips before on eBay that originated from Asia. These particular chips were actually relabelled MN3008's, which have half the delay time.

You have to be careful in only getting old parts like this stuff parts from a trusted source I guess.

[Lumpy's Tone Shop]

Oh christ I hope none of those ended up in mine... I got about 50 or so from a guy in the UK who worked on radios, most of mine were written lengthwise too. If by chance anyone has a pedal of mine with fake OC81Ds contact me please. My OC81Ms seem legit, there was a load on ebay.

[R.Kirkland]

Originally Posted by Lumpy's Tone Shop

Oh christ I hope none of those ended up in mine... I got about 50 or so from a guy in the UK who worked on radios, most of mine were written lengthwise too. If by chance anyone has a pedal of mine with fake OC81Ds contact me please. My OC81Ms seem legit, there was a load on ebay.

Who Was the Seller of the 81D's? I got my 81M's from Langrex , i assume that is where we all got those.

[Lumpy's Tone Shop]

It was just an indivdual that approached me after I made a few posts on various vintage radio forums asking for some 81Ds. I don't have his name at the moment, this was back in May or June. I never noticed anything weird with mine other than some faded lettering.

I also got a few 81Ds from mark5 in the UK, they're a supplier but I know those were legit. I bought some of those 81/81D sets that were on ebay over the summer too but those are fine too.

All of my other stuff came from langrex or a german seller on ebay.

[R.Kirkland]

Seems to be the same few I have bought from as well.I got my matched sets from applseyhill or something like that before he decided they were worth 100.00 a set. I know Mark Hines had the same trio thing going for a few minutes. Those were legit too .

I don't know about the vintage radio guy you got those ones from, but I would be crawling up his ass right about now if that is the case.

Do you have more of them to verify , or have they all been sent out ?

This whole OC81D mojo crap has gotten out of hand and destroys any desire I have to try and locate anymore .. Cant trust anyone.. Damn shame .

[SonicVI]

Mojo in general has kinda gotten outta hand. I like it as much as the next guy, as anybody who has seen my builds has seen, but when people have gotten to the point of caring as much about what's inside a pedal as much as how it sounds then something just seems wrong to me. Unfortunately it's almost a necessity if you want to sell pedals these days.
vvvvvvv

[Lumpy's Tone Shop]

Originally Posted by skinpimp

Seems to be the same few I have bought from as well.I got my matched sets from applseyhill or something like that before he decided they were worth 100.00 a set. I know Mark Hines had the same trio thing going for a few minutes. Those were legit too .

I don't know about the vintage radio guy you got those ones from, but I would be crawling up his ass right about now if that is the case.

Do you have more of them to verify , or have they all been sent out ?

This whole OC81D mojo crap has gotten out of hand and destroys any desire I have to try and locate anymore .. Cant trust anyone.. Damn shame .

I have some that were leaky I might have laying around. I'm not home now so I'll check later. I ran out of good ones about two months ago thats why grabbed those 81Ms as a substitute. Luckily I haven't cleaned out my email for months so I should have his email and name at least.

I've notice another popular tonebender clone that used the DSI 81Ds with the DSI logo scraped off... a little less deceiving than this shit though.

[zosozep7]

Hey Skinpimp and Lumpy. Thanks for watching out for us! This imformation is great to know. Especially since Ive been shopping for MKII pedals. It doesnt suprize me these days with all the counterfeit junk floating around.

[MusicMan7]

Thanks for the announcement, thats a good thing to know!

[ptdesign]

Hang em' high.