Yeah and warranties kind of suck when you have to pay mere mortal shipping costs.
2 Likes
yes, pays for the cost of a soldering iron and time to fix if you can do it quickly.
3 Likes
Personally, I’m not minded to buy another EHX pedal now. I’ve sent back two of the three I’ve ordered, and that’s enough of a warning for me
4 Likes
Yeah I don’t blame you at all, terrible product experience for you.
3 Likes
Poor soldering seems to be an issue across the board with bass products especially leads.
I am disappointed to hear about EHX as I really love my Soul Food but I do wonder if they are using a less skilled labour pool to cut costs? Something that just may bite them in the ass.
On a side note I have recently been burnt twice ordering from companies based on the USA according to their websites only to find that the items ( a Harley race carb and an expensive riding jacket with an American flag stitched into it as the label) had arrived from China 
3 Likes
Ouch, damn Merican capitalist pigs
2 Likes
My faith in humanity has been restored a little this morning. I fired up the wife’s hairdryer, removed the Velcro, re-attached the rubber feet, boxed up the Soul Food, and started the return on eBay. I was a little nervous because now I see that the seller doesn’t accept returns… gulp… my bad!
Within 20 mins I I had a reply from the seller saying… “Sorry the pedal didn’t work for you. I will refund you. You do not have to send it back.”. WOW!!! ok then… this is a GREAT seller! I’ll confirm this when I see $$$ hit my account.
I asked him if he wanted me mark it as shipped to move the eBay process along and he said yes. It required me to enter a tracking number. Not having one I re-used the one he sent it to me with…BANG!!! like magic it says the return was delivered and I should have my refund within 2 days. As an eBay seller myself this seems like a bug they should fix, but it seems to work in my favor currently so I’m not complaining.
Now… do I want to try another Soul Food? Or move on to the Bass Big Muff? Nano or Deluxe I’m still up in the air about. I like the Nano for the size, but the Deluxe for the options. If the Nano had a blend knob instead of a switch I’d be all in. Decisions decisions… 
Chris
5 Likes
I wonder if, since you have the pedal now, if it would be worth checking to see if it is a simple fix? If you don’t have a soldering iron, you can get one for less then the fraction of the cost of another pedal.
1 Like
I haven’t received the refund yet because he had to transfer funds into his PayPal account first so it could take a few days… Or so the story goes anyway 
. So for now it’s boxed up and ready to ship in case this goes south, which I’m kind of expecting.
3 Likes
Well, I hope it stays north, and everything works itself out. Hoping that you don’t have to ship it, and then maybe you can try and fix it
2 Likes
@Tokyo_Rat I kept meaning to come back to this question but I had forgotten where it was.
As long as one of your pedals is buffered bypass, as opposed to true bypass, signal loss won’t be an problem.
1 Like
Yep, including active EQ on the bass itself. But this is a good reason to put a buffered tuner or compressor first on your board.
1 Like
In light of all this talk about problems with EHX…
I went to a local guitar store, Ken Stanton Music, and they had just received a Deluxe Big Muff. I said I wanted to try it and they let me choose a bass, set me up with an amp, and me and the guy helping me sat on the floor together playing with all the settings. The best trip to a guitar store ever.
The downside… it was broken straight out of the box and we spent a lot of that time trouble shooting cables, connector, and pots. Playing around with it to see what we could get to work. When it wasn’t cutting out it sounded pretty damn good. Better than any other Big Muff I’ve heard or played with.
3 Likes
Well, if this thread has taught us anything it’s WTF EHX?
4 Likes
Yeah this is just weird. I wonder if it is recent.
4 Likes
Love mine.
Best upgrade so far, selling the Bass Big Muff and getting the Deluxe.
fortunately, I have not been bitten in the ass by the EHX quality bug like so many have.
If you can get one that works out of the box, I recommend it for sure, I would just get it from a place that would accept returns for 30 days so if it duds in a week, it is an easy swap.
3 Likes
Couldn’t put it better myself. Maybe we should send EHX a link to this forum and they can have a read 
2 Likes
Ok, I’m impressed!!! The refund was issued last night and I’m just waiting on PayPal to put it in my checking account. So it looks like I will get to try my hand at pedal repair.
I’ve got 2 or 3 soldering irons kicking around. But I think I may start by taking it apart and looking for anything obvious then spraying the snot out of the pot I suspect with something like CRC quick-dry electronic cleaner. I’m open to any suggestions on what to do or use as well.
My soldering skills are ok, and I did take an electronics class back in highschool where we built circuit boards from scratch. But that was a very long time ago.
Chris
3 Likes
I opened it up, and tested the resistance on the pot. It tests where I’d expect it to on a 5k resistor, from side to side (about 4800) and sides to the middle (about 2400).
So here is my plan. First I’m going to get some contact cleaner and blast the inside of the blend pots innards (large red arrow) to see if it makes a difference as this is the pot I touch to fix it when it drops out. If that fails, I’ll get a new pot (from somewhere???) and solder it in. I was thinking of just cutting the old one out (at the red X’s in this pic) as I have yet to find the exact same pot and the 5K ones I have found would solder there much easier than the other side of the board because none of them have the same style long connecting points.
I examined the other side where it is currently soldered in and I can’t see any issues here.
I am a little worried that the pot may not be the issue. As it doesn’t seem to happen as soon as I turn the pedal on, but rather once it’s been on for 15 mins or so. But it does only seem to happen when the pot is in the 10 to 1 o’clock position so I’m hopeful that the contact cleaner will solve the issue.
I’m open to any advice on any of this too 
Chris
3 Likes
You might try just vigorously twisting the pot back and forth for a bit. Like you would with the contact cleaner, but dry. Sometimes that’s enough to fix dirty pots.
Sounds like you have it covered well though; contact cleaner was going to be my suggestion to try first.
1 Like