Fender TRS pedal issue

[Randall]

Here's one for you. A customer brings in the typical Fender Rev/Vib switch with the TRS plug. Says Reverb doesn't work. Owner of the shop finds the Rev wire in the pedal shorted to ground, tapes it up and charges the guy $10. Guy brings it back, saying reverb now works, but vibrato won't switch off. Curious, I measure. Tip to ground shorted no matter what the switch says. I lift the wire at the plug, still shorted. I lift the wire at the switch, still shorted. I cut back the cable a bit at the switch end, not shorted. I find the same exact problem as before on the reverb wire, the wire was separated and shorting on the sheild/ground wire. OK, re wire the pedal side (and melt the cheap switch trying to unsolder the shield wire, so the guy gets a switch upgrade).

But guess what? Still shorted! Go to the plug end, cut it back and find yet another wire separated and shorting on the shield/ground wire. It is then it occurs to me that the person making this switch box was cutting too far into the outer insulation and also cutting the inner wire insulation, causing 3 of the 4 connections to short. Makes perfect sense now, but it had me going for a while. A short on the reverb side makes it not come on by shunting the signal to ground. A short on the vibrato side makes it not shut off.

I wonder how many other switch boxes are suffering from the same problem? And how many other amp techs have chased their shadows on this one?