My new (used) pedal is cutting out.

[oniman7]

Long story short, I made a trip today to a local small guitar shop. He had a bunch of pedals and one caught my eye. It was a DOD FX55-B Distortion. I'm pretty sure the B means its designed for bass, which is something the owner had originally missed. Anyways, we had compared it with another in the line (the FX57, probably guitar version) and decided to buy the 55. It came to $45. I get it home and plug it up, and at first I'm surprised how light the distortion is, even on full setting. But that was how it sounded when I tried it out at the store, so I figure it's just not a very powerful version. I don't need a lot anyways, so I keep playing. So I'm playing around with it for 20 minutes when all of a sudden the gain picks up and it's suddenly driving this crazy Slipknot style distortion. I figured one of the cords wasn't in all the way originally (the output jack was a little loose when I got it) and had been knocked into place. But as I played it, I noticed it cut out and got quiet again. It would pick back up, mostly when I was playing loud (plucking hard/ slapping mostly).

I really love the sound of the pedal, and it's a great buy for $45. However, with it cutting in and out like this, I think I need to do something. Could it be a simple problem that I could easily fix without soldering/rewiring? He made it clear I could return it if I found it didn't sound right, so I could no doubt return it to him. Should I see if he'll fix it?

[CliftonBonney]

Return it and buy a functioning one over the internet. I came across some for $19.

http://cgi.ebay.com/Vintage-DOD-FX55...7#ht_500wt_920

An internet search shows that it's a guitar distortion. It appears to be from the early 1990s or late 80s.

[chicago_mike]

Your supra distortion is not a bass model, just a revision, hence the B.

Okay now to trouble shoot:

Are the pots scratchy? Does moving a pot dramtically change things? more than you think it should?

Plug the cords into the pedal and move the plug around..see if you get any funky noise.

new battery or power supply...see if anything changes after that too.

The circuit is simple enough, 4 clipping doides, 2 in a feedback loop...blah blah blah..

You might just have some funky traces or bad / cold solder joints. Can you post piccies?

http://www.effectsdatabase.com/model/dod/fx/fx55b

[t3ch]

I've had a lot of DOD pedals go bad and need the jacks replaced or be resoldered.

Take a peak at the inside.

[oniman7]

That's a shame. It definitely sounded good on my bass, although I guess it did clip a tiny bit of the low end. I'd prefer a dedicated bass pedal, but I've been told a lot of bassists use guitar effects with good results.

As far as trouble shooting, I don't know what a pot is. I have limited experience with anything electrical. I'll take it back and see if he can fix it. If not, I'll likely get my money back and do some internet shopping.

Also, I don't think I'll open it up. If I open it up, he could reasonably find reason not to replace it.

[t3ch]

You want to know if it's something you can fix (even though you don't know anything about pedal electronics) and don't want to open it up to see what the problem may be...

What exactly are we sposed to be helping with?

[oniman7]

I was curious to see if it was something like a loose input/output that I could screw with. I asked the question knowing it would be hard to find an answer, but hoping someone could tell me. Any other fix I would request to be done by the person I bought it from. I was also wondering if this was possible.

[Wren and Cuff]

As someone said, crack it open and take a look. You don't have to be proficient in electronics to look for obvious problems. I've been given pedals that friends were trashing because they were "broken", only to open it up and find a wire came loose.

Here's a good method (we'll call this "my pedal is being weird, I don't know anything about this junk, but I'd like to fix it" 101:

• open the batt hatch, take some rubbing alchol and a q-tip, clean the batt connection (where it meets the battery) then take some plyers and squeeze the female (positive) batt socket so it grips the batt firmly.
• Put in a fresh batt. If that doesn't do it:
• Get any old soldering iron if you've got one (fry's has the really crappy one's for $4), open it up, anything obvious? a wire that looks like it obviously goes somewhere?
• If yes, strip the wire end (if you can figure it out) , heat the place it should be and the wire at the same time (both surfaces! very important), shove enough solder in there to get it melting, then try the pedal.
• Still nothing?
• Take the solder iron and heat up any connections you see enough to melt the existing solder. Just heating it up again then letting it cool can often fix a faulty connection.
• Try again. Still not working?
• Unbeknownst to most people, an old DOD can make a wonderful paper-weight...

[Wren and Cuff]

BTW "pot" Technical name = Little shaft sticking out of the pedal that the knob thingy sticks onto...

[cheapbasslovin]

I'm all for digging into the pedal and trying to figure out how it works, but you probably overpaid for that pedal if it were working right. Used DOD's are astoundingly inexpensive. I suggest returning it if that is an option.

[Bassmike62]

Originally Posted by t3ch

I've had a lot of DOD pedals go bad and need the jacks replaced or be resoldered.

Same for my FX25. DOD pedals are infamous for this, at least the older models.