Farfisa Sferasound - Anyone else have one?

[cmbeal317]

Hey everyone,

I wanted to share my latest pedal purchase, and this one's quite interesting. I just picked up a vintage Farfisa Sferasound on Ebay(though it won't be here for a few days) and I thought I'd ask around and see if anyone here has any experience or even owns one. I know this might be kind of odd to ask here as it was originally designed for Farfisa organs, but as you'll see in the video below it sounds pretty good for guitar too. First of all I'll start with a few pictures from the listing.

So my first question is about powering it, and basically I just need to know whether or not it's okay to plug it in even though it appears to have a 2 prong cord, or should I have that replaced with a grounded 3 prong. I know your supposed to change them on vintage amplifiers, but I don't really know about effects pedals.

I don't have any plans to open the pedal up, but other than obviously unplugging the pedal, are there any other precautions I should take(especially with the large caps and transformer in the picture) if I do need to work on it?

Hopefully I'll never have to work on it though as the picture below, it appears to be quite complex.

I've gotta thank Effects Database, otherwise I probably wouldn't have even heard about this pedal, I just happened to see the link to the Ebay listing when I was looking at the new Pigtronix Rototron.

Finally, I'll leave you with a few videos I found on Youtube.




cmbeal317

 

[Gas-man]

Interesting! Had not seen this one before.

 

[ChampReverb]

Hello Catalinbread....

-bEn r.

 

[Don Rusk]

HA ! I had my finger on the button on that one too - but I got distracted .... sounds like an organ trem or something cool -- looking froward to hearing how it sounds. .....

 

[AXXA]

that sounds wonderful!

 

[cmbeal317]

Hello Catalinbread....

-bEn r.

I'm sure they'll be along sooner or later, they've commented on a few other threads I've made, though it seems there still going through a delay and reverb phase.

HA ! I had my finger on the button on that one too - but I got distracted .... sounds like an organ trem or something cool -- looking froward to hearing how it sounds. .....

Haha, I was kind of expecting the person who put in a few bids in the final minute to show up. I figured at the price I paid, it seems worth it; at least from the demos. It'll make a great conversation piece too, whenever those threads about rare and unique pedals pop up. I'll be sure to give you the first shot at it if I ever decide to sell it.

I think this should be quite an interesting pedal, and I can't wait to get my hands on it! I think my collection is starting to be come the home of misfit pedals. Earlier this year I picked up an unusual wah pedal made by UMI. Now I've bought a Sferasound, who knows what's next? Maybe one of those strange looking Russian effects pedals that show up on Ebay from time to time(like the one below).

 

[drbob1]

Pretty cool! You might want to get the 3 prong cord, and upgrade the filter caps in the power supply since they're 40 years old!

 

[cmbeal317]

Pretty cool! You might want to get the 3 prong cord, and upgrade the filter caps in the power supply since they're 40 years old!

The 3 prong cord should be pretty straight forward to add, though I'm not sure which caps are the filter caps.

I've found a thread on freestompboxes.org(link below) and it has the schematic for the pedal version in the second post in pdf form(the one in the first post is for one built into an organ and appears to uses ICs). Looking at the picture in the first post, I'd guess that it would be the large orange cap along with the greenish metallic one next to it?

Then for replacing, just use the same precautions with amplifiers? Unplug obviously, and then discharge that caps before touching anything.

http://freestompboxes.org/viewtopic.php?f=19&t=9878

Thanks,
cmbeal317

 

[THiwaTT]

that Russian pedal is sweet looking - Any more info on that?

 

[THiwaTT]

The Farfisa is super cool - Ive never seen anything like that

 

[cmbeal317]

that Russian pedal is sweet looking - Any more info on that?

Here you go, all sorts of Communist era guitars and effects pedals!

http://www.cheesyguitars.com/index.html

Also if your interested in buying any, just go to the effects pedals section on Ebay(after navigating through music instruments and the guitar sections) and type in "soviet", there's a number of the pedals from that sight listed on there.

cmbeal317