Danelectro EQ bodge

andyg_prs

I have a confession.  I like the Danelecto Fish n Chips EQ pedals,  I had two of them secondhand, but I didn't like the weird on off footswitch - and found it awkward to use with confidence, so I modified them with some much nicer footswitches.

I had to drill out some of the case to make room for the new switch....it worked perfectly for one pedal, but for the other, intermittently I'd lose all audio....I'd wiggle the EQ sliders and it'd come back....I tried cleaning the pedal as best I could but I couldn't fix it....so it came off my board.

I know want to use it again and was wondering about solutions.

Would a bit of the drilled flakes of plastic on the EQ tracks cause this do you think?

If so, what is the best way to clean it up......buy a compressed aerosol, and if so which exact one would you recommend?

And / or is there any kind of cleaner that I could try to achieve the same thing?

Any ideas would be most welcome because these pedals that used to go for £20-£30 secondhand are now up at the £70+ mark for some reason.....and they still have the on/off footswitches that I don't like.

Thanks,
Andy

ICBM

Not the plastic flakes - they're non-conductive. It's more likely you've disturbed the connector between the boards, or pulled a wire and either broken it internally or cracked a solder joint.

If you're concerned about the plastic bits just blow them out or use a vacuum cleaner.

andyg_prs

It's strange because the switch work was on this totally separate PCB, but it worked before I messed with it, so I must have done something...I'' open it up and investigate again....

andyg_prs

I just got it out the cupboard, plugged it in, and had the same issue, which seems intermittent / when the sliders haven't been moved for a while.....no sound when the EQ is engaged...moved the volume slider and it went on and off a couple of times and then was back.  I can't say if moving any of the other sliders would have had the same effect.  Anyhow, I completely dismantled and puffed as hard as I could into each of the open 'channels' of the resistive sliders.

It seems to be working and I've put it back together.....will check again later / in the morning.

If I have the same issue, first I'll try moving a different slider.  Hopefully only moving the volume slider will resolve the issue....in that case my next thing is to reflow the solder onto the connectors from that slider....

If that doesn't work, I'll see if it's possible to source one of those little sliders and replace it....

The work I did was basically to wire a different momentary switch to the mini pcb in the previous image.  The light always follows the press of the switch, so I don't think it's anything there...

Seem logical?

ICBM

Yes, it's definitely in the audio path not the switching - the switch is entirely isolated from the audio path, as it should be to avoid switch issues - true-bypass snobs take note .

Actually, it is possible that a tiny bit of plastic could have got into the slider, if there's a gap between the casing and the tops of the pot casings. That would stop it working if it lifted the contact slightly, exactly because the plastic is non-conductive.