Ibanez JD9 Replacement footswitch....a hard one to find...

[bluesholyman]

NOTE: Having issues uploading images after trying several different ways. Will try again later, for now there are placeholders


A friend of mine sent me a jd9 because the latching footswitch was no longer latching. The effect worked if you held it but turned off the moment you released it. After a bit of tinkering, I realized the locking mechanism inside the switch had broken and it needed replacement.

Given its a 9 series pedal, one would think easy fix, except most 9 series pedals use relays to switch with a momentary switch. It took me a while to hunt down the replacement because of this - its a 12-pin switch

Note: Image to be Added

Several searches over time turned up nothing - many places suggested it was the 4-pin momentary switch, but it clearly is not the same as other 9-series switches. The Red/Black wires send power to the LED board - how do I know this? I shorted the led or something on that board by reconnecting them wrong the first time gotta replace the led now, but thats ok, read on.

The original switch appears to be an ALPS FD 2x6 latching switch. From what I can tell, these were use extensively in japanese stereo systems in the 70s/80s and apparently Ibanez found a stockpile and used them on the JD9 for whatever reason - guess it needed to switch 6 separate circuits for on/off. Those switches seem all but gone, but I did locate a replacement shown here:

Note: Image to be Added

The specs on that switch are 2x6 self-latching 10mmx14mm 12 pin switch. After measuring the one in the pedal, seemed like the one above would be a good replacement, even though when it showed up, it seemed slightly larger in physical form:

Note: Image to be Added

The one on the left is the newly purchased switch and the one on the right is the old one from the pedal - clearly different manufacturers but close enough? Only one way to tell...

After a few minutes of careful soldering and making sure I got the led wires to the correct pins, the pedal worked as before, but now with the switch staying on until next stomp. This is in fact a viable replacement switch.

Now the kicker - the switch cost me $9 when I ordered it, plus another $9 for shipping. So $18 to my door and it only took a week from the supplier in china. Yep, some store on AliExpress is the only place I could find this switch and based on the price, they seem to know what they have.

At the time of this post, they have about 6K of them available and it seems they are going to charge nicely for everyone. Since ordering 2 weeks ago, the switch is now $11 before shipping.

If anyone is interested, here is the item: https://www.aliexpress.us/item/2251832732543665.html

I hope this helps someone who needs to repair a JD9.

 

[Mr_C_]

Sweet!

 

[bluesholyman]

Dude the 9 series switches they are just very basic tact switches

You get them in old Akai samplers for every button

Just build the top plastic part out of tissue and glue if you have too, or cut it off and rescue it to another tact switch

When I can get the pictures uploaded (2 different browsers won't do it - tdpri must be having issues) you will understand that the JD9 (JetDriver) does not use the same switch as other 9 series pedals - that is what this whole post is about. I have been in the belly of this beast, and it is not the land of 4-pin momentary milk and honey.

 

[bluesholyman]

Seems today I can post pictures but can't edit the original post anymore....

Here are two of them, the first one above (omitted) being more or less a duplicate. You can see the 12 pins of the switch in the first one and the new and old switch in the second.

So if you ever see an ibanez pedal with the 12-pin latching switch configuration, this could be a viable replacement - works for the JD9

And one last photo of the updated pedal with a different LED (cause I burned out the original):

 

[Caffiend]

Because I'm lazy and haven't opened it, I suppose you don't know if the same switch is good for a TS10 do you? Mine is starting to get a little picky about what angle you press the switch at...

 

[bluesholyman]

Because I'm lazy and haven't opened it, I suppose you don't know if the same switch is good for a TS10 do you? Mine is starting to get a little picky about what angle you press the switch at...

I think this it the only Ibanez pedal I am aware of that uses this ridiculous switch. Pretty sure the TS10 uses something else that is more readily available. A google search should turn it up without too much trouble.