I got of those "fix it" pedals from eBay, in this case a Tech 21 XXL bass pedal for $26 with shipping.
It worked great for 5 minutes then started making some awkward buzzing noises, even when off. This is what was described in the auction, by the way. To me, it sounded like a capacitor either toast or not soldered right.
Opening the box was easy, I can tell you I was the first one to do this after it had been assembled. Tech 21 stuff is really really clean and they use really nice components. There are no wires inside, as the pots have long contact prongs, except for the 9v battery snap connector. Everything is soldered on the board directly and the Neutrik 1/4" jacks are obviously soldered last and need to be unsoldered to remove the board.
Now, when Tech 21 claims on their Web site that their pedals are handbuilt, it gives you the impression (voluntarily of not), looking at their site, that everything is soldered by hand. Uh, no, absolutely no. Many surface mount resistors, obviously soldered in the factory, and their semi-conductors at the heart of the sound (whether it be transistors or an IC) are hidden behind a black box, obviously soldered at the factory.
Other components, like the capacitors, the jacks, the pots and the LED are obviously soldered by hand, except one capacitor, which had a bad solder, obviously machine-made. The Neutrik jacks are also soldered by hand, last obviously.
I fixed the issue by soldering the capacitor properly, I put the pedal together and voila... works great.
My theory is that they subcontract the board manufacturing, and that one they have put the pedal together, they don't bother finding out the issue and they sell it for schmuks like me who like to fart around with a soldering pencil.
Tech 21 may be saving on QA and decided that trashing some pedals may make up for the lack of real QA.
If you have a bit of eletronics knowledge, you may want to join the fun as well, who knows, you may just as lucky as me.
On a side note, I am not too much of a fan of the pedal, I may trade or sell. I got it as a challenge.
