The thin veneer of engineering on top....

[mikeb]

.... with a load of bollocks underneath!

http://acapella.harmony-central.com/forums/showthread.php?s=b7b90264c053be00fc05d93eb8b4616b&threadid=719685

First of all it's Mean Time BETWEEN Failure(s). :roll:

Second of all - can you imagine some poor sucker standing there all day stomping the stompswitch, twiddling the knobs, powering the pedal up and down, inserting and removing the input and output cables AND riffing madly (ultra-speed death metal preferred to simulate lots of notes being played through the pedal, i.e. accelerated 'use') all the while?  

I guess if you can't engineer engineering you need to engineer customer service (ducks).....

Mike

PS Seriously though, MTBF can be useful, but most likely that in a WELL CONSTRUCTED PEDAL it will be the lowest MTBF of it's constituent parts, i.e. the MTBF of the stompswitch.

PPS Real MTBF testing costs $$$$ (like compliance / standards testing etc).

[niftydog]

.... with a load of bollocks underneath!

hmm, I liked the bit where they started talking about Line6 switches spontaneously combusting and attacking their genitalia.


MTBF is only useful if the product is expensive or highly critical (usually go hand in hand.)

A stompbox is only highly critical for some guy playing arenas, but he's probably earning enough money to have a backup pedal. We're not talking huge capital expenditure here... effects are cheap, labour is expensive. Rather than paying for MTBF tests, just replace the thing under warranty! Much cheaper!

Good design lasts forever. My TV is 29 years old and it hasn't missed a beat, ever. Still looks good, still has plenty of colour. The secret? Tough components and sensible design. And, it doesn't have a standby mode...

[mikeb]

Good design lasts forever. My TV is 29 years old and it hasn't missed a beat, ever. Still looks good, still has plenty of colour. The secret? Tough components and sensible design. And, it doesn't have a standby mode...

Do you read the Serviceman's column in SC? It's kind of depressing seeing that more and more items are becoming uneconomic to repair and hence disposable. My latest TV (I didn't have one for years) was $250 (51cm, two year warranty). Worst case it costs me $125 a year + electricity to watch TV (ok, ok, and my sanity and sense of style and blah blah blah ).

As regards pedals, the 'word' seems to get around soon enough about the reliability of items for people to make some sort of informed buying decision withing needing to know MTBF. And, even if they did have this information, they'd still likely buy the 'cheapest one' anyway!

Mike

[niftydog]

Do you read the Serviceman's column in SC? It's kind of depressing seeing that more and more items are becoming uneconomic to repair and hence disposable

I do, and yes, depressing. But what's more depressing is the amount of parts he replaces willy nilly before he discovers the actuall fault!

How do you work out what is "typical" treatment of a pedal? Some Boss pedals I've bought second hand are pristine, in their box and still with the manual. Others are scratched, dented, loose screws, scratchy pots etc...

obviously some sit in peoples jamming rooms for years, and others live on the road in an old suitcase, getting stomped on every night for years on end. How do you design for that kind of abuse and still make an affordable product?!?!

Think about that fragile little momentary switch that's in all boss pedals. That's protected by the sturdy case. So, aside from careful, considerate electronics design, building the thing like a brick shit-house is the only answer!