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Help with pedals not working

Discussion in 'Pedal/Effects Owners Clubs' started by Jerichoharris, Nov 30, 2020.

  1. Nov 30, 2020 #1
    Jerichoharris

    Jerichoharris NEW MEMBER!

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    I have a pedalboard that I haven’t used in a couple of months so got it out again. It didn’t work. I have a few boss, some true bypass, and a Hudson broadcast. Trying to find the cause I took everything apart to isolate and test. The Hudson worked as normal using all the different isolated outputs on my power supply (mxr) and a power supply direct to the mains, so I know my cables are ok and I feel confident the power supply is ok.

    When I individually tried the buffered boss pedals, both with the mxr supply and direct, I got no sound either when they were off or on. When I try the true bypass pedals in the same way I get sound from the amp when they are off but nothing when I switch them on. All the LEDs work and the boss rc1 looper even does its spinning LED thing as normal - just without sound.

    is it possible I’ve blown something in all the pedals with the exception of the Broadcast or am I missing something?

    any help would be appreciated.
     
  2. Nov 30, 2020 #2
    kbold

    kbold Tele-Afflicted

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    That's comforting, but rather vague.
    Do you have a multimeter to check things?

    Oh .... and welcome.
     
  3. Nov 30, 2020 #3
    jondanger

    jondanger Poster Extraordinaire Silver Supporter

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    First step to me would be to get some 9 volt batteries and see how the pedals behave with those.
     
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  4. Nov 30, 2020 #4
    -Hawk-

    -Hawk- Friend of Leo's

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    Do you have the cables in/out of the Boss pedals correctly? I actually just had a moment of confusion the other day until I realized I was plugged into an expression pedal jack instead of the input.
     
  5. Nov 30, 2020 #5
    dogmeat

    dogmeat Friend of Leo's

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    2x on the batteries. I've had pedals that will not work if the battery is dead. even when plugged in to a wall wart supply. some pedals are always "on" when they have a cord in the jack.
     
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  6. Nov 30, 2020 #6
    ReverendRevolver

    ReverendRevolver Tele-Afflicted

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    Try batteries. If that's not it, small chance something went wrong internally. I would carefully open one of the true bypass pedals, simpler is better, and look for damage.
     
  7. Nov 30, 2020 #7
    kbold

    kbold Tele-Afflicted

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    Another thing to check: the pin of the power supply plug comes in different diameters ... check power plug and socket are compatible.
    Large socket with a small pin is a bad combination, and at best give intermittent power loss.
    This comes back to checking power to the PCB with a multimeter.
     
  8. Dec 1, 2020 #8
    Jerichoharris

    Jerichoharris NEW MEMBER!

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    Thanks everyone.

    I didn’t mention it but I did try the boss pedals with a new 9v battery to see if it was a power supply issue. Still nothing. The others are power supply only. I used the direct supply plug that came in the box with one of the pedals and the other power leads to the mxr were ones I’d used before and worked with the Hudson. It could have been a bad battery so I could try some others. I’m not ruling out a power supply issue completely it just seems less likely given that the Hudson works ok.

    I tried swapping the guitar leads between pedal input and outputs just to make sure I wasn’t being completely daft but definitely had them in the right way. It really was a case of taking everything off the board and testing them all one by one.

    I opened up one of the boss pedals (ge7) and couldn’t see anything obvious but then I really wouldn’t know what I’m looking at. I couldn’t see any loose wires at all.

    I probably need to do some internal testing. Or at least try and get them to someone who knows how to do that.

    thanks again for the replies.
     
  9. Dec 2, 2020 #9
    soundchaser59

    soundchaser59 Tele-Afflicted

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    Just to confirm, are you saying each pedal individually works ok? Or the Boss pedals do not work correctly by themselves, but the others are ok?
    I always remove the batteries. I never run pedals on a power supply that still have batteries in them. I would start by removing all the batteries and then testing each pedal by itself.
     
  10. Dec 2, 2020 #10
    Peegoo

    Peegoo Poster Extraordinaire

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    Sounds like it's a signal issue and not a power issue.

    Test each and every jumper cable in your chain.

    Another approach is the Inevitability of Gradualism approach: everything works until it doesn't. What I mean is to break things down into individual components and then rebuild the system one brick at a time. Here's how.

    Plug your guitar directly into your amp. Got sound? Good. Now add one pedal into the chain. Got sound? Good. Add another pedal.

    And continue step by step, one pedal and jumper lead at a time. When the problem pedal or jumper lead is introduced and things stop working, you've found the problem.
     
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