Off Board Wiring in Production Pedals??

[Bio77]

Been doing a lot of pedal repairs, recently. I notice most production pedals have off board wiring for pots. I was wondering if anyone knew what the cost or ease reason likely was ? Since for me PCB pots cost the same as lug and off board wiring is a PITA

 

[Harry Klippton]

I always assumed it was an outdated or misinformed fear of board mounted components

 

[finebyfine]

I'm really curious to hear from people with actual knowledge but my assumption is that the cost decision is more about the division of labor and less about the actual assembly of it. Board mounted or not, pots are where a build starts to get bulky on turnover racks and I would guess are often a separate station / step in the production process as it moves down the line. In more automated assemblies, maybe pots are hard to use with wave soldering?

 

[fontoponto]

I always assumed it was an outdated or misinformed fear of board mounted components

you mean the discussions a few years ago? baaaad smt. goood tht. but the pots are tht ;-)

 

[Harry Klippton]

I guess if your pots are wired, they can be wired without the enclosure and leave some slush for the fit whereas board mounted pots would need to be at right angles to the board, unless you're DBA

 

[Robert]

I'm rarely seeing offboard-wired pots in production pedals made in the past few years except for Catalinbread, and one of their newest releases used PCB mounted pots as well.

 

[Big Monk]

I don’t do any offboard wiring anymore. When you really get down to it, it’s a big time sink.

I have a very good process FOR doing it, but you are still prepping/tinning wires, positioning everything, etc. and that takes time.

One reason I went to a modular approach with PCB mounted I/O DC was so that I could remove the whole circuit without having to desolder.

I haven’t sold enough to have gotten any warranty repairs yet but you need to sneak that shit it between builds and I can’t be fucking around with offboard wires.