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Hey y'all, so I've been having some weird issues lately, and I was wondering if I could get some feedback.
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.

well, the obvious question is: did you try using another power supply with any of those pedals?

These don't sound like power issues to me, though. Just bad luck. Maybe if you lurked less and posted more you would receive working ILF-approved pedals?

Seems like you've been having some bad luck lately.

Most of the problems I've had with newer pedals have been faulty footswitches. (That, unfortunately/fortunately , 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.

Hopefully your pedal luck will improve.

Are you using any instruments with active electronics or line-level output? Grounding issues?
What about the power...do you use any line conditioner/voltage regulator and are able to tell what voltage is being drawn from the outlet/mains?

baremountain wrote:...
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

On the bright side [they] re-popularized this awful design and manufacturing practice

I apologize for that...couldn't resist such a ripe low-hanging fruit. Best lucky vibes sent your way

D.o.S. wrote:well, the obvious question is: did you try using another power supply with any of those pedals?

These don't sound like power issues to me, though. Just bad luck. Maybe if you lurked less and posted more you would receive working ILF-approved pedals?

Hey! I tried using a One-Spot on all of them, to no avail.
Also I'm pretty new 'round these parts so I'm trying to get that post to lurk ratio up haha

rustywire wrote:Are you using any instruments with active electronics or line-level output? Grounding issues?
What about the power...do you use any line conditioner/voltage regulator and are able to tell what voltage is being drawn from the outlet/mains?

Hmm I use several different instruments. Mainly guitar, but I also run mic, Organelle, saxophone (passive contact mic), and sometimes drum machines through. My house doesn't have the best electricity, but I'd say by and large everything else works just fine.
I've never used a conditioner/voltage regulator before. Is that kind of thing necessary when you've got a clean, isolated power supply?

Second stupid question: did you try running the pedals alone, rather than as part of your pedalboard?

I'm still sticking with my guess of a run of bad luck, btw.

Re: is [it] necessary with an isolated psu
The most accurate answer I can offer is "it depends"

Personally I find every bit of electronic gear I own to run better/cooler/longer behind such devices. YMMV
Where I live (fringes of a major metropolitan area) power can fluctuate +/-10v over the course of a day. Especially on hot ones.

What is your practice area like? I used to have problems like this all the time when the band I was in was practicing in a dusty, unfinished commercial rental.

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

That sucks.
Time to go back to Boss.

I bet there is some sort of probability theory about this. Same theory would apply to why you give in to apathy and watch some lame syndicated show on the tv, and it happens to be the same episode you saw last time you gave in to the drivel of the Big Bang Theory. (Don't judge me. My in laws like it and sometimes I want to spent time with my family haha).

That is a huge bummer though. I've only ever had to send back two pedals to get fixed and both times it was really lame, although they did find the problems and fix them.

D.o.S. wrote: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.

D.o.S. wrote:Second stupid question: did you try running the pedals alone, rather than as part of your pedalboard?

Yeah, that's always a go-to.

wfs1234 wrote:What is your practice area like? I used to have problems like this all the time when the band I was in was practicing in a dusty, unfinished commercial rental.

We have a home studio at my house, so it's (fairly) clean. A little dusty, but not too bad. I clean up my pedals every time I rearrange my board too (about once every month or two).

The good news is once the Super Rad and the Ct5 are back, I'll be pretty much set. The only other thing I'm eyeing is a Dwarfcraft Happiness, but I'm not worrying about that till the fall.

Dallas No Memory bros! I'm pretty sure we met at Pariah last year.
Sucks to hear about the problems. My No Memory actually did that one time but when I unplugged everything and plugged it back in it started working and hasn't happened since.
May be time to hit a botanica and get that bad luck lifted

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!