In the last several months, I've had to send 3 pedals back to their makers because they've stopped working. The first was my Count to 5 (which has been a real test of my patience), when the mix knob completely stopped working south of about 50% (meaning I could never mix to mostly dry). I shipped that back and about a month and a half later I got it back, but the problem hadn't been fixed. I sent it back again a few weeks ago & I'm still waiting to hear back.
Shortly after sending that in, my Smallsound/Bigsound No Memory experienced a weird flub where it wouldn't pass any wet signal through at all - only dry. This persisted in 3 locations over the course of one night, so I packed it up and resigned myself to sending it back the next day. Apparently the problem never recreated itself while it was in Brian's shop, and it's back on my board working well (although it did allow Brian to fix a pesky capacitor problem I was having, so it's not all bad).
Most recently, I discovered that my brand new (like less than 3 weeks old) Alexander Super Radical Delay was no longer allowing ANY signal to pass through from the input. I can still self-oscillate or send electrical noise through the delay circuit (by plugging the pedal in) so the pedal's working, but I think something must be messed up around the input jack. The jack is unfortunately mounted on the inaccessible side of the PCB so I think I'm going to have to mail it back today
Has anyone else had rotten luck like this? I've spent somewhere near $60 shipping pedals in the last 2-3 months now, and it's getting obnoxious. Do y'all think it's luck, or could something else be afoot?
The only thing I can think of that would cause all these pedals to crap out at once is power issues. I run power from a Walrus Audio Phoenix to my entire board. I can verify that I had both the Count to 5 and the Super Radical Delay hooked up to the 9V 300mA power outs, but I can't verify if they had been hooked to the same port, nor if the No Memory had been hooked up to one of those.
Either way, I just needed to vent that out. I'm still waiting patiently to hear from Scott or to receive a little box from Canada, and I guess I'll have to do the same for my Super Rad now.
, can't be blamed on individual pedal builders.) It's an industry wide thing. So, just more "grin and bear it" type situations. It's a relatively easy "fix" though.
