I thought I would start a thread to put all in one place issues people see in their gear. @eric.kiser, no idea if possbile to move some of the posts here from other places or not.
Or, folks can just repost their issues here.
Might be good for everyone to review issues before making purchase decisions.
Just had to exchange my Gamechanger Light Pedal.
Issue: on power up, the pedal does not allow the signal chain to pass through. A cycling of the footswitch remedies this, but, not correct operation. Gamechanger thought it was a supply power issue (not enough current) but happened with a singluar One-Spot powering as well so deemed defective.
Gamechanger was really great with many emails to troubleshoot the problem.
Called Sweetwater and a replacement was out within hours.
They had me simply send them a copy of the email thread with Gamechanger vs. going through their tech support troubleshooting protocol.
Great support from both Gamechanger and Sweetwater.
UPDATE: pedal #2 does the same thing, awaiting Gamechangerās reply. My hunch is they are all built that way and its a design flaw, but we shall see.
That is something Josh would have to do. I donāt think it would be very practical though. Some of those threads like the recent one about the Fender Jaguar has gotten pretty long and an older one about troubles with Electro-Harmonix pedals got to be pretty long too.
I think this is a good idea. Having a general thread for QC issues.
One thing I would like to point out is that all companies have lemons. What I find most important is how well the company takes care of the issue.
I got a 1 Spot power supply and one of the mounting brackets had rust on it causing the paint to start flaking off. Not a big deal but I was curious how they would handle it
I sent TrueTone an email explaining the situation and offered pictures. They said that wouldnāt be necessary and said it should have never happened. She then asked for my address and sent out a new mounting pack the same day. I was impressed.
It sounds like Gamechanger Audio also handled the issue pretty well.
As mentioned in other threads, had an issue with the Fender Rumble Studio 40.
Bluetooth would not connect most of the time with my phone, speaker sounded wonky, etc.
Fender was very suprised as they had little to no issues reported of this kind (lucky me).
Fender was able to put aside one of these for Empire Music (where I bought it) so they could do the exchange as Empire had no more and it was showing backordered to Empire from Fender. So kudos to Fender for working that through the system vs. me having to wait in the backorder line.
Wow! That is surprising. Iām so used to hearing complaints about Fender. Thatās pretty cool to see.
I know this is going to hurt some feeling but Iām going to take issue with Darkglass.
Hereās my experienceā¦
I really like the concept behind the Darkglass Element. It really is an amazing product with great support from the company butā¦ So far I have owned three Darkglass Element pedals and none of them have worked correctly.
The first Element came from Amazon. Iām pretty sure it was a return even though I bought it as new. The cab sim selector button didnāt work very well and I returned it. Everybody thought I was off on this since the cab selector switch has had complaints from many people about the sensitivity, even after adjusting the sensitivity in the software.
The second Element I got, new, from Guitar Center. Everything about it worked very well and the cab selector button worked much better. The problem I ran into was after upgrading the firmware it stopped communicating with the computer. Guitar Center recommended returning it since I was still within the return window.
The third Element, I bought, new, a few days ago. It also came from Guitar Center. The cab selector button seems to work even better than the last one. This one is not recognized by the Darkglass Suite software. At this point itās either the Element or the USB cable that came with it that is the problem and Iām not willing to go out and spend an additional $12-$15 for a replacement cable to verify which piece is causing the problem.
Iām going to take this as a sign that Iām not supposed to own an Element and this one will go back to Guitar Center tomorrow.
This sucks.
I wish companies owned up to issues with plans to resolve. Iād hold that pretty high on the respect scale but they are scared to do this. This I know.
@John_E Iām not even sure there is a significant problem with the Elements or at Darkglass. I havenāt read about anybody else thatās had these issues. Iām prone to believe Iāve just had a run of bad luck with their product.
It was kind of funny when somebody suggested I must be doing something wrong but weāre talking about a really simple process. Literally, download Darkglass Suite software and connect the Element with the included USB cable. Then the Darkglass Suite either detects the Element or it doesnāt.
The only thing on my end which could have been a problem would have been the USB port on my computer and I checked both ports for data transfer with a USB drive to make sure they were working.
Cāest la vie. I still have a Motu M2 DAI on order that will get the job done.
Was that me Eric? I just read my last sentence in the DG topic. What I meant was that the problem could be software related which is a very common problem with hardware ā software connection (especially on windows). I didnāt meant to put you on the spot. If that came over wrong my apologies.
@Paul Itās all good. I had to go look it up on that thread. It wasnāt you. It may have been someone on talkbass. I thought I had responded to your post. Iāll go do that now.
LOL. Sounds like a typical reaction from there. Not surprised 
Just curious.
Is there a way to DETACH one element before you connect another?
I wonder if it didnāt recognize the new one, because it was still looking for the old one (or two you had).
Or, I wonder if uninstalling the DG Suite and re-installing it fresh, then trying to recognize the new element would be successful?
If you have already done all this, NVM, but if you have not, and you have not taken the latest one back to GC yet, you may want to give it a try
No, thereās no user manipulatable parameter in the software for doing something like that.
I was an engineer by trade and more than a bit obsessive about proper troubleshooting procedures. I un-installed the software and reinstalled it multiple times with each of them.
I still have the last one. I havenāt had a chance to go by Guitar Center to do the return. Tonight, I went ahead and downloaded the Darkglass App to my phone. I was able to get a Bluetooth connection but the app doesnāt let you update the firmware. You have to connect over a USB connection to the desktop software for that.
Sounds like more work then its worth at this point.
I used the DG suite with the AO Ultra pedal I had for a while, and it was simple enough, but I still found it a bit limited, especially compared to what Source Audio offers , or even TC Electronics.
I donāt argue with DG sound, but truthfully, I can take it or leave it, there are plenty of other things I like just as well.
Of course, I al still searching for a deal on a Tech 21 VT bass, and will get one at some time.
That said, I am working on getting a Mark Bass mini Distortion pedal. If it is anything like the full sized one, I am in for a treat. I think it might be the best bass distortion pedal I have ever heardā¦ But that was on the pedal that is the size of 3 pedals. Much like their Compressor, which is also the best compressor I have ever used. I have not tried the mini compressor either, but if I found one for a reasonable price, I would give it a while. And if I ever found the big one for under $150, I would probably get it too. That compressor was pure gold.
Good luck with that T! Markbass makes some good stuff. Itās really, really popular in The Netherlands and those new preamps with a tube sound cool too.
I tried the UltraWave from SA but I found it a bit too complex for my taste. The software and app are great and do love my C4 but the UW was just too much for me. I mean itās a distortion, compressor, synth, tremolo, etc in one pedal.
Personally I prefer the DG app with much less options and skeuomorphism visuals.
For all you La Bella string lovers out thereā¦.
You may remember the ball end popped off a G string on me (turns out I left the marker on the string, which was most likely the cause), however I have had two other issues with La Bella strings in the past few months.
The E on a 1954 Vintage set (790M) had āunwindingā too far down the string and caused the part of the string that was not āsmoothā to sit on the saddle. I struggled with tuning properly. La Bella swapped it out with one where the āunwindingā did not go as far up. They said it shouldnāt matter, but the new one helped.
The D string on another bass popped up by the tuning peg when putting new strings on a bass. They also replaced this free of charge.
When I dropped off the testbed bass to the luthier the other day for the custom pickguard, I mentioned something about La Bella quality and he went off! He said he has had more new La Bella guitar strings break on him this year than ever before, and he has called them several times for replacements. He said that they get called to co-manufacture for other ābig guysā when they canāt meet production and that they are taking on a lot of other work and the quality is suffering. He also said that they have stopped making some of the more specialty sets they used to make in order to keep up. Hopefully all these QC issues settle down if or when COVID settles down. That said, I think this COVID ride is going to last a lot longer than anyone foresees.
Sorry to hear of your experienced @John_E, but Im glad the company took care of it. I seriously doubt you leaving the āstring diceā on had anything to do with the ball coming off, but who knows for sure.
Iāve been fortunate in that Iāve had several sets of LaBellas and never had a problem.
UPDATE #3: Gamechanger has discovered this is a fault in all the pedals made, bad design. Here is the good partā¦ they are going to exchange it once the batch of fixed pedals comes out (who knows when). That is dedication!! Can live with it for now in any event.
What GREAT customer service.
Indeed! The world needs more of that.