switch pops (i've tried everything!)

[pinkjimiphoton]

Use your meter and check the output of your pedals for having a DC level over about 10mV. Anything bigger than that will cause big pops, and no amount of pulldown resistor bandaids will fix it. This is often - but not always - caused by an electrolytic capacitor at the input or output of a pedal being put in backwards.

hah hah so true... i worked for a "major boutique" company for a few days last summer <total waste of time effort energy and money> and was sent home for "@#$%ing up" one of their pedals. they wouldn't even give me the @#$%ing schematic.
a month later when i was allowed to go back for my tools n shit i left there, he let me look at the schemo.
he kept bitching about how i @#$%ed it up, it didn't sound right, it shouldn't pop, all this crap.
i replaced the @#$%in switches with my own, still popped. look at the schematic, and the ONLY thing that could be wrong was ONE electro.

as it turned out, now that i had the dang schem, that mr boutiquey pants had bridged the output cap, hence leaking a substantial amount of dc.

when i told him i fixed it he asked what was wrong.

i asked if he wanted the truth? or to blow smoke up his ass?

he said truth. i told him.

never went back. he said he could handle the truth... he had built and populated the board, all i did was install it in the casing.

took MONTHS to get the rest of my shit back..... all cuzza a bad cap. or a bad technician lol... not me in this case.
never even got paid right, but THATs another story...lol

quite glad to just do my own thing again. 100 miles a day to make like 25 bux was ridiculous.

[thermionix]

I know the feeling.  I got my "dream job" back in 2003 working for a boutique amp builder.  The pay arrangement we agreed on seemed more than reasonable, in theory.  After a few months of 12-hour days I couldn't even pay my very modest bills.

[pinkjimiphoton]

i feel ya. this was far from a "dream job"... they'd posted they were looking for help on farcebook, i replied i may be interested, they replied they didn't need builders, they needed admin.

a year or so later the phone rings asking me if i could bail them out. i said sure. i agreed to a price .... and never saw it. totally scummy situation, but truth is, i don't think this guy sells shit for pedals.
he complained his tech guy wouldn't debug stuff, and that he needed five of each model on the shelf at all times.

well, i WILL debug shit. and i have no problem working for 12 hours to get shit right. most of his wares may have one instance assembled.

if he did shit RIGHT,he could be making a fortune. the quality is outstanding on some of the stuff... other shit would never make it off my bench.

i spent more on gas than the jerk paid me... and i had agreed to a VERY fair price (12/hr) and he paid me twice, and less than half of what he owed me.

really left a bad taste in my mouth. really liked the guy, we seemed to get along alright, but due to my extremely liberal viewpoints i was pretty much character assassinated by some idiots we both knew. ridiculous shit, for real.

blaming me for his @#$% up was so childish it still blows my mind. i DID accidently scratch one pedal casing slightly. i offered to buy it in fact. spent a whole damn day debugging a @#$%ed up univibe he'd sold someone with the goddamn vactrols put in backwards... and never got paid for it.

total douche move. real shame, i really liked the guy... but now i could give a shit, he'll get what he has coming in the end. shame to buy a brand with some clout and respect to it and run it into the ground.

sorry for the butthurt. mother@#$%er really rubbed my fur the wrong way.

i sell more shit on my own, my shit is better built and generally way more bulletproof than this cat's offerings... so actually glad in a way it didn't work out. that's not the issue... the issue is the way he handled shit, and dicked me around for months just to get my shit back.