FIXED: Ibanez SB7 Synth Bass Pedal

Tonight I was presented with two tasks. The first was to repair Garren (roommate a) 's  ripped backpack strap, which I did with gorilla glue and some sloppy needlework. The second task was to fix Pat (roommate b) 's synth bass pedal which had been out of operation for a few months. He claimed that the pedal worked on AC adapter power but not off of the built in battery.

Let'd do this.

And so the quest for 80's grooves began.

The initial disassembly showed some funky internal PCB circuitry which made me doubt that the battery power ever worked. The negative terminal of the 9 volt didn't go anywhere except a long line of solder-covered copper that wrapped around one edge of the main board.

Just...why?

I tested the continuity of the power port and took a moderately educated guess that the negative wire would be the pin in the middle, not the ring surrounding it. Then I desoldered the leads from the battery adapter to the board, and that's when I realized that I didn't have any solder, only a soldering iron. I'm not an EE after all...

Good ol' multimeter.

Please don't be backwards.

And so the battery adapter was "soldered" to where the wall power adapter should go in, and lo and behold, the pedal worked!

A few wire extensions later, the pedal was reassembled and some groovy music was created by our resident bass guitarist, Pat Mars. Yes, that's his real name, yes, he is from our world.