TC Electronic footswitches - easy to replace/repair?

vasselmeyer

I have a TC Electronic Spark Booster and the switch is becoming increasingly sticky. Before I open it up does anyone have any experience of repairing or replacing these?

Some questions:

Is there any kind of lubricant I could use on it that will free up the switch?

If not any experience of whether these are easy to replace for a reasonable competent wielder of the soldering iron?

In fact, is it a standard type of switch or a special TC Electronic one?

Adam_MD

I seem to remember threads where it was said the price to get them changed by tc was almost the same as buying a secondhand pedal. I'm not confident it's a diy job.

Edit - from TCs own website

Yes, of course - we have foot switches available as spare parts for these guitar pedals and the foot switches can be replaced.

However, please be aware that our pedals are extremely complicated electronic devices, squeezed into what looks like a traditional guitar pedal – with a DSP chip for processing the incoming signal as well as a USB interface, the LCD display and its associated circuitry, and all of the surface mount components inside. The entire circuit is assembled with lead-free solder on a double-sided circuit board which makes it very difficult to remove components from.

This means, repairs can be extremely complex and very time-consuming, to the point where it might be cheaper to buy a 2nd hand or new pedal.

Our recommendation would be to get a price estimate for a repair from an authorized service center before deciding.



Affected products:

Alter Ego Delay
Corona Chorus
Dark Matter Distortion
Flashback Delay
Hall of Fame Reverb
Gravy Chorus Vibrato
Mojomojo Overdrive
PolyTune
PolyTune Mini
PolyTune Noir
Rottweiler Distortion
Shaker Vibrato
Spark Booster
The Dreamscape
Transition Delay
Trinity Reverb
Vortex Flanger

4114Effects

I think the biggest barrier to replacing the footswitch would be the horrible non-standard nut they use to secure one to the pedal. Looks to me like you'd need a special tool to unscrew one.

randomhandclaps

Did DaLefty lose an arm trying to change a TC footswitch?

Adam_MD

randomhandclaps;805869" said:

Did DaLefty lose an arm trying to change a TC footswitch?

I'm not sure but I do know he bought 900 of them so he'd have spares after he changed the one he needed.

jpfamps

TC stuff is generally a pain in the backside to work on.

Plus TC don't help independent repairers, so you would have to take it to a authorized centre.

With the best will in the world, switches and pots on pedals break, so not making it economically viable to change them is daft.

randomhandclaps

Adam_MD said:

randomhandclaps;805869" said:

Did DaLefty lose an arm trying to change a TC footswitch?

I'm not sure but I do know he bought 900 of them so he'd have spares after he changed the one he needed.

Ah that was it.  Shame the OP probably needs a right-handed footswitch though.

ICBM

It's going to be a royal pain in the backside to change.

I had a Flashback recently, and I hated the feel of the footswitch, so I had a quick look to see if it would be easy to change. No.

Basically, like a lot of this sort of multi-pin component on a double-sided board, the only viable method is to carefully destroy the part leaving just the pins, then remove them one at a time. I would estimate about an hour of labour. If nothing goes wrong...

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!

vasselmeyer

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.

It'll be a shame if I can't save it. This is a the most transparent of drives and sounds wonderful into a clean channel.

ICBM

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...

steamabacus

As an alternative to Servisol (switch cleaner) and (whisper it in certain cicles) WD40 you might try some spray vaseline (don't snigger). It should work much like ICBM's WD40 idea - I'm assuming it's a mechanical 'stickiness' in the switch that needs lubricating?

I've used spray vaseline in potentiometers to good effect after reading a recommendation. If you search the forum posts, I created a thread about my trial use of it which should also include a link to the product. I think it's made by Kontakt-Chemie (a German company?)

crunchman

When I enquired about a dead Nova Delay 2 or 3 years ago, the official UK authorised repairer for TC was £65 plus VAT - in other words £78 per hour.  You would have to add the cost of posting your pedal there and back as well.

If you buy a TC pedal you have to work on the principle that you are stuffed if it goes wrong out of warranty.

Have you thought about an Xotic RC Booster instead?

jpfamps

That's daft. 

Essentially it means that TC pedals are not worth fixing.

Here's their policy on "home repairs" (which I assume includes the likes of me):

http://support.tcelectronic.com/entries/20900108

vasselmeyer

It does seem irresponsible of them. They really do some great pedals with lots of small innovations that make them desirable. They know they'll be used in live situations and stuff sometimes happens which means that they need repairs sometimes. They they put a stupid switch which is very difficult to repair.

Fortunately, a squirt of WD40 and five minutes of working the switch seem to have freed it up. I'll stick it back on the board later and try it out.

Teetonetal

Adam_MD said:

I seem to remember threads where it was said the price to get them changed by tc was almost the same as buying a secondhand pedal. I'm not confident it's a diy job.

Edit - from TCs own website

Yes, of course - we have foot switches available as spare parts for these guitar pedals and the foot switches can be replaced.

However, please be aware that our pedals are extremely complicated electronic devices, squeezed into what looks like a traditional guitar pedal – with a DSP chip for processing the incoming signal as well as a USB interface, the LCD display and its associated circuitry, and all of the surface mount components inside. The entire circuit is assembled with lead-free solder on a double-sided circuit board which makes it very difficult to remove components from.

This means, repairs can be extremely complex and very time-consuming, to the point where it might be cheaper to buy a 2nd hand or new pedal.

Our recommendation would be to get a price estimate for a repair from an authorized service center before deciding.



Affected products:

Alter Ego Delay
Corona Chorus
Dark Matter Distortion
Flashback Delay
Hall of Fame Reverb
Gravy Chorus Vibrato
Mojomojo Overdrive
PolyTune
PolyTune Mini
PolyTune Noir
Rottweiler Distortion
Shaker Vibrato
Spark Booster
The Dreamscape
Transition Delay
Trinity Reverb
Vortex Flanger

Just another reason not to buy TC electronics stuff

timmysoft

Inwould have probably used a dry oil lubricant like interflon tf, wd40 is a short term solution, in the long term it's residue will attract dust and other bits of shit making a gungey distructive mess.

crunchman

jpfamps said:

That's daft. 

Essentially it means that TC pedals are not worth fixing.

Here's their policy on "home repairs" (which I assume includes the likes of me):

http://support.tcelectronic.com/entries/20900108

It's not just "home" repairs.  When I had my Nova Delay problem I found out that the previous authorised TC people are only about 3 miles from me.  They couldn't even help me.  There are all kinds of bespoke parts and TC just don't make them available to anyone.

It wouldn't be so bad if they were reliable.  I've had a lot of problems with their stuff.  I've had two Nova Delays go bad on me - at least the first one was still in the warranty period.  I've also had major problems with the little TC Helicon mic stand mounted monitors.

I think they are living off their reputation.  In days gone by the 2290 and the SCF were quality units, but the modern stuff is built very cheaply.  If you can get a Dark Matter for £36 then you can afford to bin it if anything goes wrong.  At some point the switch will probably die and it isn't likely to be worth fixing.   I'm sure that they could build it so that you could replace the switch but it will cost more to make that way.  The build quality is probably not that different than the Joyo and Behringer stuff these days.  I bought a Dark Matter but there is no way I'd buy anything from them that cost significant money.

ICBM

Behringer now own TC (or more accurately I think, the same parent company owns both) so I could easily see the product quality being exactly the same if they're using the same Chinese subcontractors.

jpfamps

ICBM said:

Behringer now own TC (or more accurately I think, the same parent company owns both) so I could easily see the product quality being exactly the same if they're using the same Chinese subcontractors.

Behringer make a big song and dance about owning their own production facility in China, although of course that doesn't mean that everything they make is manufactured their.......

Not aiding "home repairs" without ensuring there is an affordable alternative is in my opinion a very poor effort.

£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.

For what's it's worth, unless it's a complex, high value pedal which may require more work (eg EH Memory Man), then  I have a fixed £22 + parts charge for pedal repairs, with a "no fix no fee" policy.

That way the customer knows roughly the final price (parts notwithstanding).

This seems to work out OK as it makes it economically worthwhile for the customer to get stuff fixed, whilst I can earn enough on average to stay in business, ie the quicker and easier repairs balance out the more complex involved repairs.

Even then I've had a few punters bridle at the cost........

ICBM

jpfamps said:

Behringer make a big song and dance about owning their own production facility in China, although of course that doesn't mean that everything they make is manufactured their.......

I wonder if they now also get the TC stuff made there? It would make sense economically.

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.

crunchman

ICBM said:

 Assuming the customer doesn't just decide to never buy another TC product, of course...

That's pretty much the place I've got to.

The negative publicity on places like this isn't going to help long term either.  This thread is likely to make people think twice before buying TC in the future.  I haven't searched but it wouldn't surprise me if there are similar threads on places like TGP or TDPRI as well.