Frustration with homemade pedals

[Rodgre]

I've been building pedals for almost 20 years.

Over the years I've definitely gotten better at making neat wiring jobs. When I started, everything was a rat's nest. There's no wonder they rarely worked.

But now I'm taking special care to make solid and reliable pedals for some me and friends to use. No matter what I do, I still have awful problems with switching not working. I've used Fulltone (several batches) and now I bunch of the blue switches from Small Bear, and I still have intermittent issues with the pedals going dead when switched and having to be switched in and out a few times until they work.

It's entirely possible that it's not the switch and maybe a bad solder joint somewhere, but I know that I've had problems with Fulltone switches (we know how cheap those aren't!) failing on me. I still think the issue is the switch itself.

I recall once putting 1m resistors from the switch lugs to ground to help with popping, but is this necessary every time to get switches to work all the time? I wish I could figure out what the problem is, or like the other poster, I'm getting just frustrated enough to give up.

Roger

[petemoore59]

I just spent an hour+ redrafting a post about ckt Trolls and how to defeat them and I got: "Invalid Session"...gouge...what's that mean????Anything I should know about, or any suggestions about how to avoid or get around that that [very undesireable] "I.S." Page and get the current draft which was' available by clicking 'back' at that' time to get it posted?
 Bummer, instead you get this 5 min rant.

[Aharon]

I had only one problem with the DPDT stomp switches and it wasn't a cheap one,I applied too much heat on a lug while doing a rebuild of a pedal and the sw went microphonic on me,don't ask how or why but everytime I stomped on it it would pop and also if i hit the case it would sound just like a cheap microphone.
Back off with the heat setting of your iron to 30W and just hit and run when it comes to soldering,don't linger too much and transfer too much heat to the part.
Not one of my DIY pedals pop and i got 30 of them non of the switches failed except for that one mentioned and that was my fault.
Hope it helps
Aharon

[Parade]

So are the switches from small bear any good?

[axr]

that's the reason i'm going to use relay, there are popless compare with the dpdt switchs.

[Mike Nichting]

yes~!!! the switches from Small Bear are great~!! I have never had one problem with any switches that I have bought from Small bear~!!! Not once. I'm not saying that the switch itself won;t funk up sometimes but thats the nature of the beast. Every once in a while you will get a switch that is bad and it doesn't matter who you buy it from, it's the company that makes them.

try Small bear for Carlings and the 3PDT switches, I don't think you will be disappointed.

Mike nichting

[Jered]

Like the man said, just hit it and run. Heat sink it if possible, hemostats work great.  Small Bear does sell really good switches and some that are made for less active stompers. You can't go wrong with Steve at Small Bear, honest, ships fast, and great prices.
 Jered