Trying to fix reverb pedal

Squaysh · March 29th, 2008, 10:20 AM

Greetings all,

I currently have a non-working VanAmps Reverbmate. Before forking over the cash to have it repaired by VanAmps I'd much rather try to fix it myself first.

Here's the issue.

About a year ago the pedal stopped working much like it doesn't work now. I would click the engage switch and hear a bassy pop but no reverb would be heard. However, the unit would pass guitar signal with the switch in both positions. I would not hear a change in tone when I hit the switch but would hear the pop. Bummer. After that I let the pedal sit around and collect dust. I eventually tried to use it again about a month later and low and behold, it worked perfectly. It worked fine for the past year and now the exact same problem is happening. I'm led to believe it's not a fried component because the unit would have never started working again, and there are no lose solder connections. I thought that it might be a bad switch, but I tested the swtich's continuity and it seems to be ok. Might anybody know what the problem could be or how I could go about testing it?

I'm very much trying to avoid sending it back to VanAmps. Any suggestions would be nice.

Thanx,
-wes

Magic Bean · March 29th, 2008, 08:20 PM

Hi, been lurking here forever but I couldn't keep quiet about this

I just bought a Solemate and experienced similar problems to your own, except in my case the both wet and dry signal were cut out during operation.

I returned it and Tim couldn't recreate the problem, it was baffling. After receiving it back, it did indeed work perfectly.

Then I took a good look at my cables. Some are twisted pair, some are braided sheilding. Guess what,

turns out that the Solemate doesn't drive twisted pair cable well, or at all. So now I make sure to use braided cable and also put another pedal between it and the amp to make sure. Works great.

Hope that helps you.

March 29th, 2008, 10:20 AM	#1 (permalink)
Squaysh TDPRI Member Join Date: Aug 2006 Location: Land of the Sky, NC Posts: 17	Trying to fix reverb pedal Greetings all, I currently have a non-working VanAmps Reverbmate. Before forking over the cash to have it repaired by VanAmps I'd much rather try to fix it myself first. Here's the issue. About a year ago the pedal stopped working much like it doesn't work now. I would click the engage switch and hear a bassy pop but no reverb would be heard. However, the unit would pass guitar signal with the switch in both positions. I would not hear a change in tone when I hit the switch but would hear the pop. Bummer. After that I let the pedal sit around and collect dust. I eventually tried to use it again about a month later and low and behold, it worked perfectly. It worked fine for the past year and now the exact same problem is happening. I'm led to believe it's not a fried component because the unit would have never started working again, and there are no lose solder connections. I thought that it might be a bad switch, but I tested the swtich's continuity and it seems to be ok. Might anybody know what the problem could be or how I could go about testing it? I'm very much trying to avoid sending it back to VanAmps. Any suggestions would be nice. Thanx, -wes

March 29th, 2008, 08:20 PM	#2 (permalink)
Magic Bean TDPRI Member Join Date: Mar 2008 Location: Ontario Age: 32 Posts: 40	Hi, been lurking here forever but I couldn't keep quiet about this I just bought a Solemate and experienced similar problems to your own, except in my case the both wet and dry signal were cut out during operation. I returned it and Tim couldn't recreate the problem, it was baffling. After receiving it back, it did indeed work perfectly. Then I took a good look at my cables. Some are twisted pair, some are braided sheilding. Guess what, turns out that the Solemate doesn't drive twisted pair cable well, or at all. So now I make sure to use braided cable and also put another pedal between it and the amp to make sure. Works great. Hope that helps you.