The most unobtanium pedal part ever

[lars]

Well, Mojotone was very excited to send out an email for the latest pedal in the Lerxst line, the ATWAS. It is a faithful replica of the original Morley Power Wah, just in a much more pedalboard friendly size. BUT...there is a very important thing missing:  the awesome sub-miniature pilot light jewel that all those old Morley pedals had. Those lamp jewels have proven to be the most impossible guitar pedal part to source in history. Tons of manufactures would be using them today, no doubt, but they are non-existent. Who made them back then? Where did they come from? How has nobody ever found a single NOS one in a little bag somewhere? The only way to get one is to cannibalize it off an old Morley pedal, but many of those are far too valuable to do that.
It doesn't look right without it.

[jessenator]

Maybe a trick of the light, but are these two different parts? 

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I'm not terribly familiar, but it does seem odd to go to all that trouble for a recreation and not make at least a partial effort for the light jewel. I mean, even one of these would be "effort" https://www.taydaelectronics.com/5mm-led-red-plastiic.html and Amplified parts has an even better looking one.

Might just be there hasn't been demand. Most amp places have the standard bulbous bouffant jewels. Something about the cut jewel pattern in red though. Maybe cause it looks like a ruby? Maybe cause it looks like classic pizza hut glasses.

Definitely has the look of something from the '60s. Maybe they were using whatever they had at the time and it just got replaced o
In ither industries at large with a different part over time.

[lars]

No, that's no trick of the light. Those are two different jewels. It's possible Morley sourced some different jewels back then. More likely though is that the odd-looking one in the bottom picture was an early replacement part someone was able to source from the nether. The top picture looks like the correct part I've always seen on old Morley pedals, and that's the one that seems to have no equal. So at least for a time way back in the day, it seems there were good options to get sub-miniature light jewels. Both look great, so I wouldn't care finding either one nowadays.

It just surprises me that no manufacturer has bothered to make these again. Clearly companies like Spaceman, and all the companies that have copied their look since, like the effect of the "Fender-style" amp jewel. It does look way better than just a raw LED or most of the bezel options out there today. Using a standard-size amp jewel is just too cumbersome on a pedal. It always looks out of proportion unless the pedal is a monster. Those original Morley jewels were the perfect size. And after having owned two of those pedals, I can say it's by far the best-looking indicator light ever on a pedal.

[lars]

Now that I looked at the pictures more, that oddball indicator on the bottom picture is most definitely a replacement part, which it's not hard to find 1/4" led indicators that look very similar. It's probably just an older one with a slightly different bezel than these here:
1/4" LED indicators
The original Morley indicators are always the faceted jewel type with a knurled bezel.

[jessenator]

You probably looked, but I didn't see anything outside of the 12-16mm even on aliexpress...

I mean, Hammond has been amenable to custom work. I'm sure a place like Daier or similar might do it. My non-engineer brain thinks taking a bog standard red (not water clear) 5-8mm LED and forming it in a heated metal mold—that faceted shape, only shallower than what we see on amps and such.