TC Electronic footswitches - easy to replace/repair?

jpfamps

ICBM said:

jpfamps said:

£65 + VAT would make most pedal repairs of ANY BRAND uneconomic, even before you've posted it to them. I can't believe at that price they get much pedal work.

My guess is they don't want it. Why would they when it's cheaper and more profitable for them to just sell you a new pedal? Assuming the customer doesn't just decide to never buy another TC product, of course...

To be fair, they're not the only ones EH are as bad, and their failure rate must be at least as high as TC.

A real problem is that they way a lot of modern pedals are designed and built both reduces the production cost and increases the difficulty and cost of a repair, so it's doubly likely to make repair work uneconomical. Unfortunately you just have to treat products like this as throwaway in many cases.

The "authorized" repairers are a 3rd party, so presumably they aren't making any money from new pedal sales.

The EH service centre is run by EH, but I don't know how much they charge. 

Of course postage charges don't help here, nor indeed does EH's reliability......

EH don't sell spares either, and many of there pedals have very hard to find parts in them (try finding a preset / push control for a Stereo Memory Man).

Fortunately I've managed to accumulate enough dead units to be able to find most parts to effect a fix.

Danny1969

This is the current view from my bench, can you see the small IC, I have put a 1 pence piece by it 

This little fellow is used to control the AC charging of the battery, detect the charger type  and various other DC to DC stuff. It's got 32 pins and the grid spacing is so small I can only solder it using the eye glass. You can still fix stuff, it just gets harder

thomasross20

Bugger, most of my pedalboard uses TC pedals!

Adam_MD

thomasross20;808040" said:

Bugger, most of my pedalboard uses TC pedals!

Ive got 3 and 2 of them id just buy secondhand if they broke again despite the knowledge I couldn't easily fix them. The spark mini and the polytune 2.

vasselmeyer

I've had plenty or TC pedals. This is the first that has had any problem. It seems the WD40 has freed up the switch. I suspect there some kind of grit or grunge from a disgusting pub carpet in it.

It still pisses me off that they put such proprietary switches in but I love the pedal and will keep it as long as it still works.

thomasross20

I use the Flasback, the Spark Mini and the Dreamscape. 

Dreamscape is good but has different chorus setting for distorted or clean..

TBH I use the same setting for these - the SPark as a clean boost... I could get so much more out of them... I think in future I'll stick to really simple and small pedals. I don't need a million options. 

Dave_Mc

crunchman said:

If you can get a Dark Matter for £36 then you can afford to bin it if anything goes wrong... I bought a Dark Matter but there is no way I'd buy anything from them that cost significant money.

Ditto, and agreed. I knew about the fact that they're essentially disposable when I bought the dark matter, but for £36 I can live with that. For much more money, though, not so much.

jpfamps

Danny1969 said:

This is the current view from my bench, can you see the small IC, I have put a 1 pence piece by it 

This little fellow is used to control the AC charging of the battery, detect the charger type  and various other DC to DC stuff. It's got 32 pins and the grid spacing is so small I can only solder it using the eye glass. You can still fix stuff, it just gets harder

I assume that the second hand value of the fixed  item isn't £50.or less.

Gassage

ICBM said:

vasselmeyer said:

Thanks @ICBM. For some reason i was under the impression that one shouldn't use WD40 on electronics. However, I will give the footswitch a shot and see what happens.

There's a lot of conflicting opinion.

I've never had any trouble with it, but there are some things which it seems to be very definitely Not Recommended for, including the pots in Line 6 amps and guitars. (Not sure why you'd want to, they're digital encoders and so can't crackle anyway.)

I would not use it as a first option - proper contact cleaner or some other application-specific product is what you want. But if all else has failed and you have nothing to lose, give it a go...

Wish I'd have read the second post before I showered my 2290 in WD40.

It smells like a chicken dupiaza now.

ecc83

Don't wish to crow but "we" gave up on the integrated pedal switch after a long battle with them.

The original switch was VERY chunky and of excellent quality. In ordinary use it could go 100, 000s of operations and no amount of stamping by even the biggest people could break it. Despite these tests, they failed. I shall not give the reason, why help bastards like BorrowitBellringer? No, the solution was a different mechanical regime whereby the switch is now a small, good quality type similar to that found in computer keyboards. Being small and having a low thermal mass they would be fairly easy to replace (easier than a chip) but how often do PC keys fail?

The old switch WAS a PITA to change. I made up a solder iron tool from brass block but you need a decent drill press and a piece of scrap PCB to make one. Even so tooled up the job still needed careful timing to melt the solder enough but not burn the print (used a 48W Weller with a #9 tip, 'king hot!). I got about 98% success rate but then I had a LOT of scrap boards to play with!

I have great sympathy for the Small Electronics Repair Man, many of my mates were such but the businesses have all but gone now due to things being so cheap but also customers even cheaper!

I blame the Government (any colour!) It is blatantly Un-Green and unsustainable to go on making stuff and not repairing it and putting it in landfill. Yes, there IS a certain amount of re-cycling but you can never get back the ENERGY you used to make a pedal! THE best form of re-cycling is mending/refurbing and good luck to Flog It, Drew Pritchard and Wheeler Dealers! We need a similar program about amps and stuff!

Dave.

littlethoughts

ICBM said:

Before you give up on it, try WD-40 - let it wick down into the switch from the outside round the plunger. It may not do any good, but you never know - it's pretty much always worth trying as a last resort, and sometimes it works wonders!

living up to your signature @ICBM

jpfamps

ecc83 said:

Don't wish to crow but "we" gave up on the integrated pedal switch after a long battle with them.

The original switch was VERY chunky and of excellent quality. In ordinary use it could go 100, 000s of operations and no amount of stamping by even the biggest people could break it. Despite these tests, they failed. I shall not give the reason, why help bastards like BorrowitBellringer? No, the solution was a different mechanical regime whereby the switch is now a small, good quality type similar to that found in computer keyboards. Being small and having a low thermal mass they would be fairly easy to replace (easier than a chip) but how often do PC keys fail?

The old switch WAS a PITA to change. I made up a solder iron tool from brass block but you need a decent drill press and a piece of scrap PCB to make one. Even so tooled up the job still needed careful timing to melt the solder enough but not burn the print (used a 48W Weller with a #9 tip, 'king hot!). I got about 98% success rate but then I had a LOT of scrap boards to play with!

I have great sympathy for the Small Electronics Repair Man, many of my mates were such but the businesses have all but gone now due to things being so cheap but also customers even cheaper!

I blame the Government (any colour!) It is blatantly Un-Green and unsustainable to go on making stuff and not repairing it and putting it in landfill. Yes, there IS a certain amount of re-cycling but you can never get back the ENERGY you used to make a pedal! THE best form of re-cycling is mending/refurbing and good luck to Flog It, Drew Pritchard and Wheeler Dealers! We need a similar program about amps and stuff!

Dave.

Obviously you'd expect Blackstar to have done it better.

The WEEE directive was aimed at reducing electrical goods waste, although whether it has had any benefit it's difficult to assess.

ecc83

"Obviously you'd expect Blackstar to have done it better."

Of course!

Dave.

ClaudioKiari

Hi....
The solution I found for a Polytune Mini bad function switch was to replace the original switch for a SPST Momentary Switch. Here's the video: 

Octafish

Just catching up on this thread. I'll try and repair/mend anything, but the stuff about TC Electronics (and I know it's not just them) puts me off wanting to buy any of their pedals again.

I had a similar problem to the OP (sticky switch and not always engaging) with a just bought Flashback x 4. I was in the position to return the pedal, but thought I'd try a bit of servisol (personally I'd avoid WD40, too sticky and can cause more problems in the furture) and it did the trick and I've never had the probelm since. Maybe TC's switch type are prone to dirt/dust getting in them?

@ClaudioKairi - nice fix there, good to see there are ways round dodgy switchs.

eldarvanyar

I know from many HiFi forums not to use WD40 on potentiometers as it will gunge up. Servicsol seems to be the most recommended but is expensive. About £20 for a small can.

On another note, what about the reliability of TC nova Pedals? I have bnib Distortion and Delay Pedals I have never used. Not even opend the box's. Should I keep them or look to sell them on do you think? 

ICBM

eldarvanyar said:

I know from many HiFi forums not to use WD40 on potentiometers as it will gunge up. Servicsol seems to be the most recommended but is expensive. About £20 for a small can.

Servisol is £5 for a standard 200ml can even in Maplins.

Don't tell me there are hi-fi rip-off places charging £20...

Octafish

ICBM said:

eldarvanyar said:

I know from many HiFi forums not to use WD40 on potentiometers as it will gunge up. Servicsol seems to be the most recommended but is expensive. About £20 for a small can.

Servisol is £5 for a standard 200ml can even in Maplins.

Don't tell me there are hi-fi rip-off places charging £20...

...yeah, I paid £2.99 for some at Rapid Electronics about a year ago. Can just imagine hi-fi dealers selling it for £20 though...