Russian smallstone about to be "fixed"

[Vinnie500]

I have a friends Russian EHX small stone I would guess it is 70ish.
The foot switch is a bit broken and you have to wiggle it to get it to work. I was thinking I would swap it out with a 3pdt cause that's all I have, and I was guessing I would be able to wire it up true bypass while I was at it.
Before I check out the circuity on how to do this does anyone have any objections right off the bat. i.e. is this a silly thing to be doing?

[Mark Hammer]

Nothing special about that unit, apart from lots of room to install additional toggles and pots.  I modded one a few years ago, including a stompswitch upgrade, variable resonance, vibrato switch, and phase-filter switch.

[nocentelli]

I thought the Russian Sovtek pedals were from the '90s, not the '70s, before Mike Matthews won back the EHX name? I have a "Green tank" Soviet small stone, the bypass was screwy and gave a gentle swoosh in the background. If it's the same type, the large hole drilled for the massive chrome-dome DPDT switch needs to somehow be filled to allow you to put in a standard 3PDT footswitch. Also, if you go true bypass, there is a volume drop between effect and bypass that may need to be addressed.

[Mark Hammer]

Here is a snippet of information about fixing the volume drop:  http://www.generalguitargadgets.com/wp-content/uploads/smallvlp.txt

[thermionix]

I thought the Russian Sovtek pedals were from the '90s, not the '70s

You are correct.  I had one of the green ones in the 90s too.  The sound was very 70s though, I don't know what phaser is all over the Rolling Stones Some Girls record, but that's what my Russian Small Stone sounded like.