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A couple of buddies came over to the house over the weekend, and brought an assortment of pedals, so we could compare and contrast. One of them had a Klon clone whose footswitch was driving him nuts, due to its unpredictable action (sometimes on, sometimes not). The other fellow had an original Colorsound Overdrive whose gain pot was erratic and would go from modest gain to full tilt with a few degrees of rotation, plus an Ibanez Auto-Filter that howled.
Using my Spidey-senses, I pried the tabs of the footswitch in the Klon clone and disassembled the switch. Luckily, there was enough slack in the connecting wires that no unsoldering was necessary to get in there. Sure enough, like so many DIY pedals, the rocker contacts inside had conducted heat during soldering, liquified the damping grease inside the switch, causing it to flow and impede electrical contact. I took the rocker contacts out, wiped them dry and shiny with a paper towel, put a dab of Stabilant on each end, and re-seated them back inside. Put the other half of the switch on, squeezed the tabs shut, and screwed it back into place. Lo and behold, 10 minutes later, he had a fully functional pedal that had sound when bypassed and sound when engaged...every single time.
The Overdrive gain pot was likely filthy inside, but I had to completely disassemble the pedal and unsolder the pot from the board to get at it. I did so, and saw the resistive strip had all sorts of crap on it. I cleaned it up with a Q-tip, applied some Stabilant, reassembled it, and soldered it back into place. Fifteen minutes after commencing, he had a properly functioning Overdrive.
The Auto-Filter was an interesting case. I found that wiggling the "Peak" slider pot would make the howling go away. Since infinite resonance makes filters break out into oscillation, I figured it was that pot not making contact. Again, pulled the board assembly out, unsoldered the slider pot, disassembled it, cleaned off all the grime and residue that had accumulating on the resistive strip over 25 years, applied some Stabilant to fill in the gaps, and reassembled the pot. Put the pedal back together, and it works like a charm.
Remarkable how many (though certainly not all) problems with gear can ultimately be attributed to things not making proper contact because some sort of extraneous material is in the way.
Using my Spidey-senses, I pried the tabs of the footswitch in the Klon clone and disassembled the switch. Luckily, there was enough slack in the connecting wires that no unsoldering was necessary to get in there. Sure enough, like so many DIY pedals, the rocker contacts inside had conducted heat during soldering, liquified the damping grease inside the switch, causing it to flow and impede electrical contact. I took the rocker contacts out, wiped them dry and shiny with a paper towel, put a dab of Stabilant on each end, and re-seated them back inside. Put the other half of the switch on, squeezed the tabs shut, and screwed it back into place. Lo and behold, 10 minutes later, he had a fully functional pedal that had sound when bypassed and sound when engaged...every single time.
The Overdrive gain pot was likely filthy inside, but I had to completely disassemble the pedal and unsolder the pot from the board to get at it. I did so, and saw the resistive strip had all sorts of crap on it. I cleaned it up with a Q-tip, applied some Stabilant, reassembled it, and soldered it back into place. Fifteen minutes after commencing, he had a properly functioning Overdrive.
The Auto-Filter was an interesting case. I found that wiggling the "Peak" slider pot would make the howling go away. Since infinite resonance makes filters break out into oscillation, I figured it was that pot not making contact. Again, pulled the board assembly out, unsoldered the slider pot, disassembled it, cleaned off all the grime and residue that had accumulating on the resistive strip over 25 years, applied some Stabilant to fill in the gaps, and reassembled the pot. Put the pedal back together, and it works like a charm.
Remarkable how many (though certainly not all) problems with gear can ultimately be attributed to things not making proper contact because some sort of extraneous material is in the way.
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