Boss ME-50B Footswitch Problem

tombaker · #1 08-20-2009, 05:21 AM

Hey,

Ive been a proud owner of a Boss ME-50B for over 2 years now. Its a great multi effect board but i have a problem with the footswitch.
Whenever i turn on the compressor/limiter with my footswitch, i have to press it twice to activate it on or off. this is the same with scrolling up banks. its the same with the other footswitch with tap tempo and scrolling down banks.
Iv'e tryed resetting the unit to its factory settings and that didnt work. I have a Boss FS-FL footswitch and a Leem FS-2 footswitch (for both latching and unlatching) and both have to be pressed 2 to do what theyre spose to do.

any help would be much apreciated

cheers,

tom

heavyfunkmachin · #2 08-20-2009, 05:36 AM

i believe the problem could be your external footswitch: momentary lapse vs on/off ones... ones are...

well, i cant really explain it, but ones are for swithcing on /off things, other are momentary lapse, you need one of the secon ones. or, if you're handy, open the pedal and clip off the little spring thing that holds it down.... so when you step on it it's just a momentary laps and it doesnt stay "down" untill you press it again...

cheapbasslovin · #3 08-20-2009, 07:00 AM

+1 to HFM.

The footswitch on the ME50B is set up so that every time the switch closes (makes electrical contact) it performs an action. If you have a momentary switch, the switch is closed only when it is pressed. If you have a latching switch, the switch closes when you press it, then stays closed until you press it again. When you press it again, it opens.

So what is likely happening is you press the latching switch, and it closes, turning on your compressor. Then you press the switch again, opening the circuit, but opening the circuit doesn't command any action. Then when you press it again, it closes again, turning off your compressor.

With a momentary switch (sometimes called non-latching switch), it closes when you step on it, opens when you release it. Instead of having to stomp twice to get the close-open action, you only need to stomp once. If you have a homemade job, you need to replace the switch with a momentary contact or non latching footswitch. If yours is a store-bought number, you may want to look into this or this.

tombaker · #4 08-29-2009, 05:53 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by heavyfunkmachin

i believe the problem could be your external footswitch: momentary lapse vs on/off ones... ones are...

well, i cant really explain it, but ones are for swithcing on /off things, other are momentary lapse, you need one of the secon ones. or, if you're handy, open the pedal and clip off the little spring thing that holds it down.... so when you step on it it's just a momentary laps and it doesnt stay "down" untill you press it again...

im not sure what you mean by the spring. I opened up both the ME-50B and Leem Footswitch and couldnt find a spring

cheapbasslovin · #5 08-29-2009, 08:36 AM

I went to this site and all the Leem footswitches here were latching. Latching switches are used for a bunch of amp footswitches, but they are no good for your Boss pedal (even though it says 'Boss' in big letters on the product page

).

If you're handy with a soldering iron you could probably replace your switch with one of these. It is a pretty easy swap out and reasonably cheap.

heavyfunkmachin · #6 08-29-2009, 10:11 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by cheapbasslovin

I went to this site and all the Leem footswitches here were latching. Latching switches are used for a bunch of amp footswitches, but they are no good for your Boss pedal (even though it says 'Boss' in big letters on the product page

).

If you're handy with a soldering iron you could probably replace your switch with one of these. It is a pretty easy swap out and reasonably cheap.

+1 to that

the spring i meant is inside the switch pedal, you would have to open the pedal, and then open the switch, but its kind of tricky, so just replace the switch inside the pedal...

tombaker · #7 08-29-2009, 07:15 PM

ah i think i get ya now... stupid guy at the music store said that the leem would work for my boss me-50b.
i have the black boss footswitch. is that for an amp aswell? maybe i should just the white boss footswitch..

cheapbasslovin · #8 08-30-2009, 11:02 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by tombaker

ah i think i get ya now... stupid guy at the music store said that the leem would work for my boss me-50b.
i have the black boss footswitch. is that for an amp aswell? maybe i should just the white boss footswitch..

The FS-5L is a latching (

), the FS-5U is momentary (

). I think the white one is the one you need.