X-Wing DPDTs -ok?

[The Tone God]

I have had many effects of various manufactures come into the shop in need of foot switch replacement. IMHO over 85% of the failures were with X-wings. I'm not saying that all x-wings will fail but from observation a failed switch is more likely to be an x-wing.

Andrew

[smoguzbenjamin]

If you think about it, they're cheaper, probably produced with the cheapest parts, it makes sense that they have a higher failure rate. But I'm not too bothered about it. I'll take the same attitude as I mostly do: A says they suck, B says they're great, why don't I just build/buy one and see for myself? :?

So that's exactly what I'm gonna do!

[Mark Hammer]

I've bought and installed maybe about 40 of them and have had only one failure so far.  Note, however, that I am not a gigging musician so these do not entertain heavy use.

That being said, a big part of the strain that footswitches undergo depends on mounting/installation.  Ideally, you want the switch to move up and down and as little from side to side as is feasible.  When the plunger is low profile (i.e., the top of the plunger is closer to the surface of the chassis that the switch is mounted on), there is less room for lateral movement.  When the switch is mounted in such a way that the plastic/contact end of the switch is flush with the chassis and the plunger is way up in the air, every degree that the rampaging, beer-infused, Doc Maarten-covered foot is off-axis (i.e., not strictly up and down) places added stress on the switch.

That is one of the things that distinguishes the solid-state/momentary switching systems from purely mechanical stompswitches.  In the standard BOSS/DOD box, the downward pressure is applied in a uniform way by the treadle mechanism, so that no matter how off-axis you are when you stomp, the little platform you step on makes sure that the switch underneath only goes up and down and not side to side.  That is has very little vertical travel as wll also helps in minimizing stress due to lateral pressure.

Ideally, what would be nice is some sort of tubular channel or something to fit around the cylindical shaft of a stompswitch so that no matter what angle you come at it from you will be guaranteed to press it down and down only.  Just in followup to an earlier thread on the "ideal" box, an ideal box for a purely mechanical true-bypass switch would be some sort of BOSS-ified chassis that had a sloped front where a stompswitch could be mounted and a treadle system that would apply uniform pressure to the switch underneath.  For the time being, though, I suspect that the higher-priced switches are made of materials, and in such a way, as to be more resistant to the kinds of stresses I describe.

If you are one of those folks like myself, who are either confined to using the X-wings for reasons of economy or availability, just make sure you mount them in such a way as to decrease the side-effects of lateral travel as much as is feasible.