OGG
Master of the Meh
Hasta la vista pinché puto! The HD 500 has gone to a new home, far, far from my own.
I practically gave it away at $150 With the Gator Bag, but the joy I got from watching those tail lights disappear into the distance was priceless.
Ironically, after I listed it with full disclosure that the Expression Pedal didn't work (a very common problem with a very easy but expensive fix from Line 6), I remembered that I had long ago purposely disabled the footswitch for the looper because using the damned expression pedal always ended up in accidentally engaging the stupid looper. So I took it apart (for the bazillionth time) to re-activate the looper switch. While I had it apart, I decided to investigate the dead expression pedal one last time (after several failed expeditions).
The pin on the bottom of the rocker pedal rests on, and when pushed down, clicks a small diaphragm type dealie. It's two thin, convex metal pieces mounted opposite each other housed in a plastic circle that is attached to a daughter board. It is that "diaphragm" that fails, and Line 6 sells the replacement only as a complete daughter board assembly.
With nothing to lose, I popped the plastic circle off the board by squeezing the two fastening clips and very quickly realized that the act of pressing the pedal down to "engage" the function, pushes that convex "upward" top piece into the convex "downward" bottom piece to effectively complete a circuit. The pieces are so weak, and cheap, that the top one gets deformed and not only keeps the circuit closed, but makes it impossible to calibrate. And if the calibration sweep doesn't low end at 0 and top end at 255, the calibration test fails and the software disables the pedal entirely. So once it gets deformed, the sweep range readings go all over the map (mine would read 18-244).
One small ball ping hammer strike to each piece was all it took to correct the shape and return the pedal to perfect working order. Motherfucker!
Not only was the fix ridiculously easy, but the fact that L6 has known all along and not done a thing about it other than sell their customers expensive parts they don't need is almost criminally dickish.
So as it turns out, the day I sold it was the first day since shortly after I bought it brand new in 2012, that the entire unit actually worked.
Fuck you Line 6, and say hello to my leetle friend!
I practically gave it away at $150 With the Gator Bag, but the joy I got from watching those tail lights disappear into the distance was priceless.
Ironically, after I listed it with full disclosure that the Expression Pedal didn't work (a very common problem with a very easy but expensive fix from Line 6), I remembered that I had long ago purposely disabled the footswitch for the looper because using the damned expression pedal always ended up in accidentally engaging the stupid looper. So I took it apart (for the bazillionth time) to re-activate the looper switch. While I had it apart, I decided to investigate the dead expression pedal one last time (after several failed expeditions).
The pin on the bottom of the rocker pedal rests on, and when pushed down, clicks a small diaphragm type dealie. It's two thin, convex metal pieces mounted opposite each other housed in a plastic circle that is attached to a daughter board. It is that "diaphragm" that fails, and Line 6 sells the replacement only as a complete daughter board assembly.
With nothing to lose, I popped the plastic circle off the board by squeezing the two fastening clips and very quickly realized that the act of pressing the pedal down to "engage" the function, pushes that convex "upward" top piece into the convex "downward" bottom piece to effectively complete a circuit. The pieces are so weak, and cheap, that the top one gets deformed and not only keeps the circuit closed, but makes it impossible to calibrate. And if the calibration sweep doesn't low end at 0 and top end at 255, the calibration test fails and the software disables the pedal entirely. So once it gets deformed, the sweep range readings go all over the map (mine would read 18-244).
One small ball ping hammer strike to each piece was all it took to correct the shape and return the pedal to perfect working order. Motherfucker!
Not only was the fix ridiculously easy, but the fact that L6 has known all along and not done a thing about it other than sell their customers expensive parts they don't need is almost criminally dickish.
So as it turns out, the day I sold it was the first day since shortly after I bought it brand new in 2012, that the entire unit actually worked.
Fuck you Line 6, and say hello to my leetle friend!
