Daphon E10FL Flanger

A forum devoted to mod, tips and suggestions for upgrading and rehousing your VERY CHEAP commercial stompbox to near boutique excellence.
Post Reply
User avatar
astrobass
Cap Cooler
Information
Posts: 548
Joined: 02 Mar 2013, 01:30
Has thanked: 42 times
Been thanked: 74 times

Post by astrobass »

Hi!

Here's another cheap flanger to monkey with. Through hole construction, attractive mauve plastic potato bug enclosure, 3 trimmers on the board, what's not to love for a $20 flanger?

Obviously I'm going to play with the trimmers. DUH. But what else can we do with this thing? What is it based on?

NOTE:
The board is pretty brittle. I chipped off a part of it (you can see in the photos) and will have to scrape away the green and run jumper wire. This happened because those knobs are ON there. Super stubborn.
E10FL-1.jpg
E10FL-2.jpg

User avatar
astrobass
Cap Cooler
Information
Posts: 548
Joined: 02 Mar 2013, 01:30
Has thanked: 42 times
Been thanked: 74 times

Post by astrobass »

Upon looking at guts of the Boss BF-2, this has the same assortment of ICs (JRC instead of NEC or TI, 4558D vs 4558C and 022D vs 022CP) and the same number of trimmers of the same values. Willing to bet that's exactly what it is.

User avatar
astrobass
Cap Cooler
Information
Posts: 548
Joined: 02 Mar 2013, 01:30
Has thanked: 42 times
Been thanked: 74 times

Post by astrobass »

Okay one last post. C7 and C8 in this pedal = C27 and C28 in the BF-2. Looks like they probably just re-numbered things by counting backwards but I'm WAY too lazy to figure out. The trim pots also do the same thing they do in the Boss pedal and I'm willing to bet C33 & C34 in this pedal = C6 & C7 in the BF-2.

This thing actually sounds really nice, too. Really not noisy at all.

User avatar
astrobass
Cap Cooler
Information
Posts: 548
Joined: 02 Mar 2013, 01:30
Has thanked: 42 times
Been thanked: 74 times

Post by astrobass »

I lied. C1 and C2 = C27 and C28. C7 and C8 are innocent. I should restore them to what they were. Shit. I'll post demos tomorrow maybe to make up for this horrendous lie.

User avatar
Dirk_Hendrik
Old Solderhand
Information
Posts: 4193
Joined: 03 Jul 2007, 08:44
Location: Old Amsterdam
Has thanked: 232 times
Been thanked: 887 times
Contact:

Post by Dirk_Hendrik »

Considering the suspected history of Daphon as manufacturer of the Ibanez Soundtanks I'd give the Ibanez FL5 as very serious contestant too.
Sorry. Plain out of planes.

http://www.dirk-hendrik.com

User avatar
astrobass
Cap Cooler
Information
Posts: 548
Joined: 02 Mar 2013, 01:30
Has thanked: 42 times
Been thanked: 74 times

Post by astrobass »

Dirk_Hendrik wrote:Considering the suspected history of Daphon as manufacturer of the Ibanez Soundtanks I'd give the Ibanez FL5 as very serious contestant too.
Lot of component similarities there too. Does it have the 2x 33uF caps back to back to form the non-polarized 16.5 uF cap though?

User avatar
wildschwein
Breadboard Brother
Information
Posts: 76
Joined: 31 Jul 2008, 11:38
Has thanked: 15 times
Been thanked: 2 times

Post by wildschwein »

What do the trimmers control? I have the metal-cased Daphon Flanger and would be interested in messing around with it.

User avatar
lolbou
Old Solderhand
Information
Posts: 2617
Joined: 18 Nov 2008, 21:38
Has thanked: 308 times
Been thanked: 225 times

Post by lolbou »

wildschwein wrote:What do the trimmers control?
One's for the clock frequency. One other for the BBD bias adjustment. And the third one is likely to be for feedback (regeneration).
wildschwein wrote:I have the metal-cased Daphon Flanger and would be interested in messing around with it.
:roll: Be sure to be able to tweak it backwards to normal operation... :wink:
- Are you a mod or a rocker?
- Uh, no, I'm a mocker.

User avatar
Dirk_Hendrik
Old Solderhand
Information
Posts: 4193
Joined: 03 Jul 2007, 08:44
Location: Old Amsterdam
Has thanked: 232 times
Been thanked: 887 times
Contact:

Post by Dirk_Hendrik »

wildschwein wrote:What do the trimmers control? I have the metal-cased Daphon Flanger and would be interested in messing around with it.
The trimmers give the manufacturer the possibility to adjust a few settings that may differ with the components used. Contrary to what many people think, the operators in the production facility are really good at setting these trimmers for the best performance. They usually do have the proper equipment to do so too.

This in turn means that any change of these settings will cause disfunctioning of your effect or a degradation in sonic quality. Some acclaim this degradation is "better". Usually becuase they're proud the managed to achieve a change and, since they consider emselves very "musical any change is to be considered better than what the manufacturer did. What can a manufacturer of musical equipment possibly know about music.

Is short, leave em alone :secret:
Sorry. Plain out of planes.

http://www.dirk-hendrik.com

User avatar
astrobass
Cap Cooler
Information
Posts: 548
Joined: 02 Mar 2013, 01:30
Has thanked: 42 times
Been thanked: 74 times

Post by astrobass »

The one that controls Res level is the only one that's really all that interesting to play with. It's set for a "normal" use case. I like having it high enough that maxing out the Res control and hitting it with hard notes at a high rate settings can cause oscillation. With the rate setting mod (switching the 2x33uF caps for 2x4.7uF caps), you can then back it off just a hint, and it's like having a synth backing you up. I don't know. I like the weird stuff you get out of flangers at higher rate settings.

Here's some samples I did up on guitar with it post-mod:


And here's it on bass:


In both cases it was recorded on line in, no amp or cab sim. So put on headphones or it'll have no bass whatsoever. Or play it back through your amp. Either way, you can't do that stuff without fiddling with the Res/Regen control to allow it to ring a liiiiiiittle bit more than you'd usually want. If you dial back the Res control it's still capable of sounding mostly normal. The Rate control is no longer capable of providing jumbo jet swoops though, and the minimum Rate yo-yos pretty hard. It depends on what you want it to do. I'll agree that flanger mods don't necessarily make the flanger "better" in a general sense, but they do unlock alternate functionality, and some of that stuff is in my opinion, a lot cooler than a normal flanger. But you might get the impression from those samples that my tastes tend to lean away from normal, and that wouldn't be necessarily an incorrect impression to have.

User avatar
juice2
Information
Posts: 25
Joined: 15 Oct 2007, 07:17
Location: Ukraine
Has thanked: 71 times
Been thanked: 6 times

Post by juice2 »

I have E20 version and I can definitely say that it is very similar to Boss BF-2. I compared two pedals and as for tone they are almost identical. Though Daphon doesn't have MANUAL control and distorts a signal a little bit on peaks, also RATE control of the Boss pedal is smoother.
So I'm pretty sure that Daphon E20 Flanger is a clone of Boss BF-2. And in my opinion it's a good value for money. If anyone interested in E20 gutshots, let me know.

User avatar
Dirk_Hendrik
Old Solderhand
Information
Posts: 4193
Joined: 03 Jul 2007, 08:44
Location: Old Amsterdam
Has thanked: 232 times
Been thanked: 887 times
Contact:

Post by Dirk_Hendrik »

juice2 wrote:. If anyone interested in E20 gutshots, let me know.
yes please!
Sorry. Plain out of planes.

http://www.dirk-hendrik.com

User avatar
juice2
Information
Posts: 25
Joined: 15 Oct 2007, 07:17
Location: Ukraine
Has thanked: 71 times
Been thanked: 6 times

Post by juice2 »

Ok, here we go.
IMG_2169.JPG
IMG_2170.JPG
IMG_2171.JPG
IMG_2172.JPG
IMG_2173.JPG
IMG_2174.JPG
Attachments
IMG_2177.JPG

User avatar
Dirk_Hendrik
Old Solderhand
Information
Posts: 4193
Joined: 03 Jul 2007, 08:44
Location: Old Amsterdam
Has thanked: 232 times
Been thanked: 887 times
Contact:

Post by Dirk_Hendrik »

Thanks!
Sorry. Plain out of planes.

http://www.dirk-hendrik.com

User avatar
wildschwein
Breadboard Brother
Information
Posts: 76
Joined: 31 Jul 2008, 11:38
Has thanked: 15 times
Been thanked: 2 times

Post by wildschwein »

Dirk_Hendrik wrote: 09 Jan 2014, 15:53
wildschwein wrote:What do the trimmers control? I have the metal-cased Daphon Flanger and would be interested in messing around with it.
The trimmers give the manufacturer the possibility to adjust a few settings that may differ with the components used. Contrary to what many people think, the operators in the production facility are really good at setting these trimmers for the best performance. They usually do have the proper equipment to do so too.

This in turn means that any change of these settings will cause disfunctioning of your effect or a degradation in sonic quality. Some acclaim this degradation is "better". Usually becuase they're proud the managed to achieve a change and, since they consider emselves very "musical any change is to be considered better than what the manufacturer did. What can a manufacturer of musical equipment possibly know about music.

Is short, leave em alone :secret:
Thanks I can report all these years later that I never messed with them.

Post Reply