Having a frustrating time with pedals lately

[Chankgeez]

I had a brand new pedal arrive from the builder with not one, but two loose jacks. I tightened them myself. When a different issue arose with said pedal, I sent it to someone other than the builder to get fixed.

[Inconuucl]

No Memory is finicky as hell with power, get a cheap pp2+, beats dealing with dirty outlets.

[lordgalvar]

No Memory is pt2399, correct? If so, those will reset/have to be reset, have weird problems, or get more distorted from time to time (and kill themselves rarely...$5 fix though). Usually power cycling works with them in my experience.

Bad jacks and switches have been a problem for a long long time. I've got a few around to fix. My friend got a new pedal that was pretty dang bad on jacks new out of the box (wouldn't even hold them).

I did have 3 jacks on a maxon pedal shatter from weather changes (came from really cold to really hot weather...at least that is the only thing we could think of when it definitely was fine when it left Maine or something and got here with the plastic jacks cracked).

In LA, I've found that things only sound good when everyone is at work and my voltage drops when everyone gets home around 5-7pm which makes everything sound terrible.

[crochambeau]

Yeah I've been kicking around sending pedals back to a builder to be fixed, due to bad jacks. My one big concern though is that, since it was the builder who put those jacks in there in the first place, if I'd just be getting back a ticking time bomb with the same unpredictably short fuse!

I think a lot of small fry builders (like myself) will often bend over fucking backwards to rectify this sort of thing, obviously there are some who won't. They will die off. If you rely on selling stuff for survival, a string of negative reviews can easily do you in. Furthermore, there's the issue of supply chain. I have a growing list of specific parts/suppliers/manufacturers that I will not under any circumstances buy any more, due to observed failures (one of which made it to the customer and resulted in my living up to the RMA aspect of my name).

Here's the thing though: a lot of shit can (and will) get by you, especially if it's not filtered through third party QC - and ESPECIALLY when it's a failure mode that happens after a couple hundred or thousand operations. I feel that any builder worth a shit NEEDS and WANTS to hear about this so we can correct the issue at the source. Sometimes it's that 5% or whatever fallout the electronics industry seems to just accept, other times it's possible to rectify that and move forward into a better tomorrow. If they blow you off, let 'em rot.

Based on the range of tests it sounds like the OP got a genuine bad draw, though honestly - if this keeps happening you have a wonderful skill (erosive/destructive test) that can be a huge benefit if utilized correctly.

[rfurtkamp]

Definitely an odd set; I'd look hard at your power supply.

Do you have any other digital pedals in the rig that *are* ok?

[Jwar]

Is there a power issue in your actual home? Could the source of the issue be coming from a bad outlet or your breaker being old? It's worth investigating if you've only test them that way.

Another way to test them is to get a 9v adapter that takes a battery. They come with the Pedal Power supplies, not sure if they do with Walrus. You can hook the pedal straight up to a 9v battery and that will tell you if it's the power source. Batteries are highly unlikely to fail and give you more power than any adapter will.

It could also be bad luck.

[baremountain]

Dallas No Memory bros! I'm pretty sure we met at Pariah last year.

Oh shit yeah, I remember that! The B L A C K I E show, yeah? Cool running into you here!

Do you have any other digital pedals in the rig that *are* ok?

Yeah! My Pitchfactor and DL4 have been fine.

I checked all the leads from my Phoenix with a voltmeter and everything is putting out the proper amount of voltage. I'm going with the working assumption it was a string of bad coincidences. The power at my house is a little unreliable, but I've lived here for 2 years and not had any serious problems (other than ground hum) until the last couple of months.

[Jwar]

Do you have an old ass house without a circuit breaker that has fuses? Does your wiring in your home have a ground at all outlets?

I know that seems like a funny question but it's not because I've lived in older homes that had this kind of shit and lots of power issues.

[rfurtkamp]

Yea, if the other digital stuff is fine, then not sure what to say other than bad luck.

[baremountain]

Do you have an old ass house without a circuit breaker that has fuses? Does your wiring in your home have a ground at all outlets?

I know that seems like a funny question but it's not because I've lived in older homes that had this kind of shit and lots of power issues.

My circuit breaker has fuses I think, but most of the outlets in the house don't have ground. I try and only plug into grounded outlets though. I'll be moving in the next month, so hopefully the new place has some cleaner power.

[rustywire]

Good call jwar

[Jwar]

Yea, if the other digital stuff is fine, then not sure what to say other than bad luck.

Well the power filtering could be better on the digital stuff depending on what it is and perhaps it can handle ma spikes better.

When I lived in my first home it was 80 years old and had all kinds of fucked up issues with power. I only ran into with some stuff though. The wiring in those suckers are bad when they are that old and probably aren't even shielded right from years of degenerating. I had a ton of it rewired. Royal pain in the ass. It can fry shit though for sure.

I'd say try some of your finicky stuff at a friends house if you can. Something that has solid power. It sucks that shit like this can happen, but it can. I had my PC and my entire fucking HVAC system go to shit from bad wiring, so if it can destroy that...you know.

[D.o.S.]

#BatteryMasterRace

[goroth]

Well the ss/BS problem showed up in three locations, apparently, so unless all of the spots were equally shit...

If one of those locations is shit, though, it could make the pedals unreliable at any location. I had stuff stop working at shows or at home a lot because of how bad the band room was.

My no memory did all sorts of shit like this.
But it was intermittent and therefore hard to diagnose.
Tbh I think the no Mem was a brilliant but flawed design.

My Ct5 also did this with the mix knob when i accidentally had it plugged into the 100mA outlet instead of my 200mA. Which is weird because the mix control is analogue. But it sorted itself out as soon as it got the correct juice.

[smallsnd/bigsnd]

My no memory did all sorts of shit like this.
But it was intermittent and therefore hard to diagnose.
Tbh I think the no Mem was a brilliant but flawed design.

i talked to evan about this and explained that there were a few folks who had similar issues. power cycling would generally fix it. very difficult to diagnose for sure, which is why i've been very slow with the rework of the circuit and want it to be rock solid before it comes out again. like i've said, i'll swap out anyones older one for a newer one if they're having the same issue. it's still perplexing to me as i had a version running for like a month on different power supplies, etc. without any issues whatsoever...