Second EBS pedal broken this month...

[triviani]

Both used the same new switches. I received a used Microbass3 and in a week the drive switch stopped working. Luckily the shop had a warranty for it so it's back for repair, but who knows how long it will take.

I just received today a used Sheehan Ultimate, and it has arrived with both switches not working. It will be returned but come on!

The pedal works, but the switches don't -the pedal is always on, with no boost-. I opened it and saw it has the same new switches. And then a couple of very small magnet bars dropped off the pedal.

I remember the old EBS pedals not aging well. But these are their latest pedals. From now on I'm not buying anything EBS that doesn't come with warranty.

 

[Krisfield]

I had the EBS Billy Sheehan Deluxe which stopped working. Great sounding pedal but build quality wasn't great.

 

[Zooberwerx]

This is really bumming me out as the EBS MB3 was one of my top fly-rig picks.

Riis

 

[Relsom]

Don't jinx me. I have 2 MB3s that I haven't had any trouble with. Both bought used over a year ago. One stays on my studio countertop so it never receives foot pressure to the switches. The other goes with me to rehearsals.

 

[Yonni]

I’ve had a EBS chorus for years with no issue. I’ve had the MB3 about 8 months and all good so far. I’m hoping you’ve just been unlucky as I like both and would hate to have to replace them. If I did, I’d probably get the Ampeg SGT DI instead of the MB3 as it is supposed to be well built.

 

[gregmon79]

Not trying to bad mouth or pile on EBS. Just sharing my exp with them. I've had a couple of their pedals over the years. They also did not age well for me either. One of them the input jack wore out/came out after a handful of months use and the battery clip fell off the other. I did use 9v's once upon a time. It only took a couple replacements of the battery before the leads came off. I haven't been back to EBS since.

I think they make some wonderful designs. But their quality/build quality control has always been a concern for me and it's always steered me away from them. Just my exp. Although I have used a handful of their pancake patch cables for a while and....oh wait....I've had a few of those arrive DOA too. Jeez. Yeah, sorry EBS. Again, they design some great stuff. I'm going to stop there though.

 

[DuluthDank]

Just to add my anecdotal experience to the pile, I have used EBS pedals on my board for years and have never had a issue. To me their current designs seem to be the most solidly built yet.

 

[burgerdj]

I had two EBS pedals break within a few uses - the button broke and stuck in the “on” position. I was able to send them back. Shame, because they really sounded fabulous. Suspect a single weak component.

 

[Azari]

I have an EBS multicomp v2 and it has never let me down… feels solid too. I guess we’ll see how long it lasts me…

 

[leonard]

I have the orange sheehan pedal. Second model I guess. I use it all the time. At some point it quit working. I reflowed all the normal sized solder joints and cleaned all contacts. It has worked so far but I guess it's on borrowed time. A shame. I like the sound. Very usable.

 

[Goatrope]

Man, I had no idea they'd gone downhill. I've got an Octave pedal of theirs and had it for many years. That sucker is bullet-proof. New stuff must have changed up many of the components to save costs.

 

[triviani]

It looks like the new switches use a magnet to make "contact", so the switch doesn't really touch anything in the board. My guess is that both pedals had an issue with this magnet thing. There were two small magnets inside the Sheehan, probably dropped from their position. However the pedal is not that easy to open and I'd rather send it back than to try to figure out where the magnets go.

Found a pic from a newer Octa:

Invalid Link Removed

 

[Deleted member 271037]

That's not good! EBS really need to improve their quality control. They make fantastic sounding products (the ValveDrive is probably my favorite bass pedal EVER) but they have a poor reputation for reliability, and deservedly so.

Like others have said, older EBS pedals didn't age well either, but with many of those it was often just a matter of re-flowing the soldering connections to the footswitch. These connections tend to go bad on some older EBS pedals, probably caused by mechanical stress, due to the way the footswitch is mounted on the circuit board. I have "resurrected" my old MultiComp and MultiDrive this way, and they haven't failed again since. Fingers crossed...

 

[hensonbass]

I also owned a Microbass 3 preamp and the drive channel stopped working. I will never buy any of their products again.

 

[Silbag]

Just bought the latest Chorus Pedal from EBS on Thomann. Brand new and the foot switch was defective out of the box. LED was fluctuating and it took 4-5 presses to operate the pedal. I've sent it back to Thomann for a replacement but I'm so disappointed as EBS has such a great reputation for their amps but there clearly appears to be an issue with the quality control if their new pedals.

 

[EmaTheMirror]

Man, I had no idea they'd gone downhill. I've got an Octave pedal of theirs and had it for many years. That sucker is bullet-proof. New stuff must have changed up many of the components to save costs.

A few years ago I got their very first version of the Octabass - two knobs, no switch, the one with the wonderfully inverted in-out position, for the joy of all pedalboards.

I think it tended to introduce some noise, and IIRC the switch was a bit iffy.
I now use a SubNup. The two octaves, tracking and toneprint capabilities are useful, but the isolated lower octave is an ectoplasm compared to the EBS, even in "analog" emulation mode, useful for finely-tuned thickening of the dry signal via toneprint X-overs but it has no body at all by itself. The EBS packs some punch in the effected octave.

 

[GTHintz]

Never played the microbass 3 but the microbass 2 has been reliable. I think those were still built in Sweden though. Scandinavian quality is on point. Can’t say the same about the offshored Chinese factories unfortunately.