FV1 based Reverb signal /effect works but volume is very quiet (switch makes "pop" when engaged)

[ChrsGuit]

Hey guys... This has to do with a pedal I've owned for quite some time (since new)...
I have a Matthew's Effects Astronomer... It's a hall-shimmer Reverb..Been on my board since new, probably 2016 or so...

A couple years ago it was randomly acting up... the effect would engage but severely dropped the volume.
This was never a problem before, having used this pedal countless times in the studio and live...
Used to, I could cycle the switch several times and the issue would go away... I eventually pulled it off my board in favor of other things...
I just dug it back out tonight and the same issue is going on, except it wont clear up with several cycles of the switch...

There is an audible "pop" when engaging the pedal.
Mine is an early one (serial 68) back when the company was using cheapo clunky switches (now they use no-click, zero resistance switches)

Just curious if a faulty switch is the likely culprit. Jacks are tight, and I'd never even opened up the pedal til now.... I can't see anything blatant like a loose/bad solder joint...

Any thoughts where I should look first?

 

[jwin615]

Audio probe the in and out to the pcb and jumper them and see if the issue goes away? Er go, bypass the switch with a jumper and probe. Maybe?
Gut shot wouldn't hurt.

 

[ChrsGuit]

Audio probe the in and out to the pcb and jumper them and see if the issue goes away? Er go, bypass the switch with a jumper and probe. Maybe?
Gut shot wouldn't hurt.

I'll get one posted when I get home. Like I said, pedal worked great for years, then all if a sudden it'd wirk but have a bad volume drop u til you clicked it in and off several times then it would be fine... now no amount of cycling does the trick.

My first step was going to be some deoxit in the switch and clean the jacks and work from there

 

[ChrsGuit]

Contacted Matthew's Effects, in the lucky event there was a warranty or anything involved and they agreed it sounded like a switch. In their early days they used the conventional run-of-the-mill blue switches available and once they got off the ground and progressed they went to higher quality soft switches, etc...
I'm going to do some testing when I get home and go from there.
They use a "daughter board" but fortunately I have a spare of the same type from another build I never used, so I'll swap the whole thing and not risk lifting any pads

 

[ChrsGuit]

Audio probe the in and out to the pcb and jumper them and see if the issue goes away? Er go, bypass the switch with a jumper and probe. Maybe?
Gut shot wouldn't hurt.

 

[jwin615]

Hard to see the wiring for the footswitch.I'd still try to jumper out the footswitch.
If it turns out to be the footswitch, if try contacting the OEM and get a new footswitch board. That would be easier than trying to remove that one.

 

[ChrsGuit]

Hard to see the wiring for the footswitch.I'd still try to jumper out the footswitch.
If it turns out to be the footswitch, if try contacting the OEM and get a new footswitch board. That would be easier than trying to remove that one.

Yeah... that's where I'm actually at right now... I'm obviously not going to remove the factory daughter board... not without decimating it. Best bet is for me to get a replacement daughter board from them and install a new switch that way.

 

[PJS]

The daughter board seems to just have the switch, LED and LED resistor on it. I would be tempted to just wire those components to the main board with individual wires and forget the ribbon cable and daughter board - easier to replace in the future. Solder the resistor directly to the LED and then cover it with some heatshrink and then solder the connection to the switch contact that it needs. Other end probably goes to a pad on the main board.

 

[ChrsGuit]

The daughter board seems to just have the switch, LED and LED resistor on it. I would be tempted to just wire those components to the main board with individual wires and forget the ribbon cable and daughter board - easier to replace in the future. Solder the resistor directly to the LED and then cover it with some heatshrink and then solder the connection to the switch contact that it needs. Other end probably goes to a pad on the main board.

I actually went the mechanical way first...
I took the switch apart still attached to the daughter board and replaced the guts... Works fine now...