Broken footswitch repair – MXR Carbon Copy

Broken footswitch repair

This broken footswitch repair was sent to me because the owner suspected that his pedal had the ESD problems that I’ve documented elsewhere. 

Actually, the footswitch was broken by mechanical use. This is comparatively rare – MXR use quality ‘Alpha’ parts for their footswitch.

The unit was soon fixed, and shipped back to its owner, in Dubai!

If your pedal is in need of a broken footswitch repair, please contact me.

Wrong power supply repair – MXR Carbon Copy Repair

wrong-power-supply-mxr-pedal-repair

Here’s another MXR carbon copy repair – this one had been damaged by the use of the wrong power supply. I’ve repaired quite a few of these Carbon Copy pedals – the older ones are prone to an ESD related fault that’s quite easily fixed. This is the first carbon copy I’ve seen since MXR implemented the ESD fix on their production line. They use the exact same methods that I’ve been using since first discussing the repairs with MXR in 2013.

In this case, the owner had mistakenly plugged the pedal into the wrong power supply. This pulled a very high current into the pedal and burned out some components. Fortunately I had the parts in stock and was quickly able to fix the pedal with only a small cost to the customer. Whilst I don’t recommend plugging the wrong power supply into a pedal, it’s rarely a death sentence!

If you’ve plugged the wrong power supply into your pedal, don’t panic. Just drop me a line!.

MXR Carbon Copy Repair

Carbon-copy-repair

I’ve talked elsewhere (here and here) about Carbon copy repairs and the ESD issue that causes the problem. I’m just going to take a moment to discuss the symptoms that show the problem in the carbon copy pedal.

As I understand it, this issue has been fixed in new production units so if you’re buying, don’t let it spoil your enjoyment of a great little delay unit.

The issue is with the switching circuit. Mxr use a circuit related to the millennium bypass. This is a true bypass circuit that uses clever circuitry to operateb the LED without using a chunky and unreliable 3PDT SWITCH.

If you see a carbon copy that works in bypass mode but doesn’t switch in the effect or illuminate the effect LED then the carbon copy had fallen full of the ESD problem. The modulation LED will probably still work.

I use the same method as the service engineers at MXR in the USA to fix this issue. I replace the faulty components and across each of fit a special component that blocks transient voltages such those caused by static buildup. As I see a lot of these, I’ve started to keep stock of a carbon copy ESD fix kit. The components are less than 2mm wide so it takes an experienced hand to fit them.

UPDATE: 2017

The MXR ESD repair kit is now available for sale at www.rsdsound.co.uk. If you’re an experienced repairer and skilled with SMT repairs then you can purchase this kit. If in doubt, just post it to me and I’ll sort it for you.

http://www.rsdsound.co.uk/product/mxr-carbon-copy-esd-repair-kit/

If you have a carbon copy repair for me, please get in touch. You can drop the pedal in, or post it to me.

MXR Repair – Carbon Copy

MXR-Repair

This MXR repair, a Carbon Copy, was a simple fix. ESD (static) had destroyed 3 switching transistors used in the bypass circuitry. After identifying the fault I contacted MXR to find the part numbers of the damaged items. MXR are aware of the issue and recommended a modification to significantly reduce the likelihood of a repeat problem. I’ll take this moment to thank the guys at MXR/Dunlop (partic. Derek Jones) who provide excellent tech support.

UPDATE: 2016

I’ve since repaired many of these and I now keep the parts in stock ready for the next MXR repair.

As you can see on the photo on the other delay pedal repair page , this MXR uses surface mount technology (SMT). Some find this a little fiddly to repair and many repairers won’t touch it, but I actually prefer it to through hole!

UPDATE: 2017

The MXR ESD repair kit is now available for sale at www.rsdsound.co.uk. If you’re an experienced repairer and skilled with SMT repairs then you can purchase this kit. If in doubt, just post it to me and I’ll sort it for you.

http://www.rsdsound.co.uk/product/mxr-carbon-copy-esd-repair-kit/

MXR Repair – Carbon Copy

If you have a an MXR Repair or a Dunlop Repair job that needs doing please, get in touch.