Recently I got this pedal in for an issue: the speed control worked but only could change the speed between fast and really fast. This was not before! Let’s fix it!

The Danelectro Cool Cat line was introduced in 2008 and offered a lot of different pedals. The Vibe unit was also introduced in 2008; the model was upgraded with a volume trimpot on a later date.

The circuit

This pedal is housed in a beautiful blue metal enclosure. Three knobs controls the speed of the effect, the intensity of the effect and the mix between the unaffected signal and the vibe-d signal. In the battery compartment a trimpot can be found to control the output volume of the effect.

Opened up shows a PCB with SMD components. You can clearly see the heart of the pedal: a lightbulb and four LDR (Light Dependent Resistors) to control the effect. Turning on the pedal makes the lightbulb shine and throb at a specific rate.

The fix

This pedal came in with a speed issue. Suddenly the speed range increased from normal to super-speed. On the lowest speed knob setting the speed of the effect was quite fast. Turning it up only increased the speed of the effect.

I traced a portion portion of the effect. Sources claim it suppose to be a Danelectro Chicken Salad with a different LFO.

As I traced the LFO I noticed two SMD electrolyte caps in series. As this is a very common way to construct a large non-polar cap value that can be used to control the speed of an LFO. To my best guess these caps were bad.

I removed these two SMD electrolyte caps (just twist the SMD cap off). Underneath these caps were holes to use bigger through-hole components. I simply replaced the removed SMD caps with two new through-hole 33u electrolyte caps.

The result: the speed came back to normal! A quick and easy fix!!