Ragged Trousers wrote:And Devi said that's how it's supposed to sound? Pfffssst ffs

Yeah... no.
I mean I guess she gets a lot of 'this pedal sounds broken' but unless removing the tape has let out the complete shit mojo then she either didn't listen to that clip or should really try it without the tape causing an issue, it sounds much better.
Anyway, the tape is not conductive unless there's some loose solder or something stuck on it somewhere but it may have a) been squeezing on one of the components/wire and putting strain on the joint (it was pretty tight) or b) there's a poor solder joint it pressed on or squeezed a component out of good connection... I can spot a few that a reflow wouldn't hurt but I wouldn't say it's
badly soldered... although some of the component leads have been snipped
on and including the solder joint which is not good practice for structural integrity.
At the end of the day though... it is only $60 for a hand made fuzz so at large volume the odd dud is to be expected, but some better QC or not passing off noise complaints might be an idea, busy or not.
I think i'll skip the tape and just stick it down secure with some industrial double sided foam tape so it's not floating.