Pedal problems

[Lemonade]

Hey y'all,

Hoping someone out there might be able to give me some advice on a problem I'm having with one of my pedals which isn't working properly. It's an EHX Big Muff (as pictured below), which I use with an EXH power supply cable. Whenever I press on the footswitch to switch on the distortion, the pedal comes on but either the sound cuts out entirely, or all I get is a crappy scratchy noise, as though I'm using a broken cable or an amp with dirty pots (though all my cables are fine and the pots on the pedal are fine, playing with them does not make a scratchy sound or make the sound come back on).

The only way I can remedy it is by applying pressure to the left hand side of the pedal (near the bottom left screw in the picture below) - basically after I step on the switch I then also have to stand on the casing to get it to come on. The oddest thing is that I took it apart yesterday to see if I could see anything obviously wrong, and the part I have to stand on to get it to come on is just empy casing, there's nothing there that could be causing a dodgy connection.

Has anyone ever experienced a problem like this, or can diagnose what it might be? I checked all the connections and all the soldering yesterday and I can't see any obvious problem.

Thanks

LR

[sonhenry]

lots of times you can't see a problem with a connection, but it's there. Just hitting it with a soldering iron and a little fresh solder can fix it. Jacks, switch and wire connections would be where i'd start.

[Alan Cynic]

I was just about to suggest the jack input...I had similar probs with an old Ibanez echo pedal.

[Soda Jerk]

My Guv'nor pedal used to do this. I took it apart and just sorted it out a bit. There were a couple of wires that looked stretched, and were getting caught under the actual switch. I tidied that up and moved them round, and it worked again!

It's the worst when you've got a string of pedals, and no sound is coming out, so you have to through each one individually to see who the perpotrator is.

[paranoid]

I have just got the bass version of this pedal, and the same has happened to me. Brand new last Monday and it wasn't working so I rejigged the cables a bit and it fixed it. Played our set on Friday and it worked fine. Went back on stage for the jam to fill in for Downfall's set and it was dead again. Saturday morning I hooked up my amp in the garage and the bloody pedal had fixed itself again.

I did notice a spring at one side, I presume this is the earth onto the case. That seems to be my suspect connection. might solder the shit out of it and see if it helps.

[Lemonade]

When I took it to bits yesterday I bent all the cable connectors in slightly, before I put it all back together again (I don't trust myself with a soldering iron). I haven't actually tried it since but there's a teeny tiny chance that might have fixed it, though I'm not holding my breath. It just seems such an odd problem that it only works if you stand on an empty bit of casing.

[jon]

When we were in Deadenstereo, Craig had a Russian Big Muff that only worked with a small block of wood and a blue Smartie sellotaped inside it.

This is actually true.

[Lame Guitarist]

Either a solder joint as recommended or you have a possible fizzled out component in there.

Run over all your solder joints, wire connections, then if there is still no sound you have a component somewhere that needs replaced. maybe an IC