Steps to take to improve longevity and reliability?

[Taylor]

Some really cool and useful info here. I'm especially interested in ways to make the circuit itself more reliable, besides the mechanical stuff which is also very informative. Not to take anything away from the excellent thoughts here, but...

The gook on the run of the mill Japanese stereo stuff...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gook

I know you didn't mean that, but perhaps another word could be used. I'm not at all the PC type, but especially in this context I think it might be worthwhile to get in the habit of using a different word, like gunk or something.

[R.G.]

I wasn't comparing it to the old varnish stuff, I was just saying (since nobody mentioned it) that there are grades of loctite that aren't permanent.

Sorry, I misread your post.

And the "extra machining"... you clip the nib off and usually have enough sticking up to seat in a dimple. Just a quick spin from a bit. Basically, when you lock the nut down, it has just enough grabbing to keep the pot from spinning and possibly causing more problems. AND you can use micro knobs.

Actually, I was just pointing out that I'm too lazy to do even that messing about with them - for me, it's easier to drill all the way through. And it is laziness, because the location of the drill spot is the same.

Please don't shoot me down on this, it's something I've done in the past on repairs and it works awesomely. I just figured I'd give my 2c.

No shooting intended.

I know you didn't mean that, but perhaps another word could be used. I'm not at all the PC type, but especially in this context I think it might be worthwhile to get in the habit of using a different word, like gunk or something.

You're right, I didn't mean that - so much so that it doesn't occur to me that it would be offensive. Of course another word could be used. We could use the term "guano" and get away with it, because bats and birds don't have a political lobby, although I'm not sure that PETA wouldn't be after us for it. (PETA people - THIS IS A JOKE!)

I pre-apologize, but this is one of those topics that make me nuts. My use of the word "gook" comes from its use in the small rural town where I grew up for any unspecified thick gooey semiliquid substance of unknown composition. It literally was the local word for that kind of thing. I find the wikipedia definition odd, in the same way I'd find a homophone from another language notable.

Trying to not offend anyone in any possible way has a long history, going back at least to Victorian England, where "limb" was the only acceptable word for the portion of a female human's body to which the foot is attached, because "leg" was considered by polite society to be graphic and crude to the point of boorishness and possibly deliberate offense. One of the early uses of computers in a linguistic application was when Du Pont used them to make up nonsense words for names for new chemicals. The idea was to make up terms which were pronounceable easily, but not actually words in any language. The notable failure of this was when they named a new product with a word which was nonsense except in Swedish? Norwegian? where it meant "enema". (as best I can recall - it's been a long time on that one)

There are instances of the linguistically correct use of words which just happen to sound similar to offensive words being taken as evidence that the speaker was not sensitive enough to the possible offense to others by the use of the word; and the person hearing the correct use of the term and understanding its correct meaning lodging formal/legal protests against the user of the word because someone might be offended if they misheard the word or just that the speaker did not stay respectfully far enough away (in a linguistic sense) from the offensive term. The idea being, of course, to intimidate people into pre-censoring their speech to avoid any possible offense to any group.

The politically correct movement represents an attempt to control the behavior (and thoughts!) of people outside the interest group by the use of shaming and coercion, sometimes of the superiors of the person for which the control attempt is being made. It's almost the beginnings of the NewSpeak of Orwell's "1984", the idea being that if a person can't say the words, then they can't think the concepts that go along with it. I personally find the concept of thought control repugnant.

Hey! I'm offended!!    Kewl!

I did not mean to offend any or all of *low prostitutes, *Haitian laborers, *tramps, *anyone who speaks Spanish, *Filipinos, *Nicaraguans, *Koreans, *natives of the Pacific islands, Africa, Japan, China, Korea or any European country except England, *Oriental non-Christians, *Asians in general, *any non-American (presumably USA) in general, quoting the wikipedia entry.

Taylor, you're certainly a thinking person. Think for yourself. That is the exact opposite of Politically Correct, and in fact will be something that PC as a movement will attempt to suppress.

[80k]

Yea I use the blue loctite on some of my builds, and found them easy to remove. I do like the added security knowing the pots won't get loose. Loose pots are not only an annoyance but also can put stress on the wires or worse, short against something as it rotates.

[MikeH]

Some really cool and useful info here. I'm especially interested in ways to make the circuit itself more reliable, besides the mechanical stuff which is also very informative. Not to take anything away from the excellent thoughts here, but...

The gook on the run of the mill Japanese stereo stuff...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gook

I know you didn't mean that, but perhaps another word could be used. I'm not at all the PC type, but especially in this context I think it might be worthwhile to get in the habit of using a different word, like gunk or something.

Admittedly I read "Gook on the run" about three times thinking "Did he just say what I think he said?" until I worked in the "of the mill" part and realized it was 'guhk' not 'gook'. 

And blue loctite works great.  We used it on the screws for snowboard bindings at the ski shop I worked at.  Holds in place until you give it a nice stiff turn with a screwdriver.  Miracle stuff really.

[R.G.]

I was too lazy to type in the hyphens in "run-of-the-mill"    , not realizing that the PC movement has more or less successfully made any use of same-sound (homophone) or same-spelling/same sounding (homonym) or same-or-different-spelling and same-sounding (homonym) terms (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homonym) so politically charged that they must be avoided at all costs. Actually, I'm a little surprised that Wikipedia is even allowed to continue present that definition, close as it is to some other terms which would be offensive to some people, even when the words are used correctly in a purely technical sense.

Let me be clear:

My use of the word "gook" comes from its use in the small rural town where I grew up for any unspecified thick gooey semiliquid substance of unknown composition. It literally was the local word for that kind of thing...

I did not mean ... any or all of *low prostitutes, *Haitian laborers, *tramps, *anyone who speaks Spanish, *Filipinos, *Nicaraguans, *Koreans, *natives of the Pacific islands, Africa, Japan, China, Korea or any European country except England, *Oriental non-Christians, *Asians in general, *any non-American (presumably USA) in general, quoting the wikipedia entry.

I most especially had no reference to the Japanese, as my general cluelessness shows, I think. It's not a person, or any allusion to a person or group of people at all. 

Here's an interesting question: if I had realized the possibility of offense and self-censored, wouldn't that be more biased than being clueless?  Is it possible that anyone who never makes a PC mistake is in fact a seething cauldron of prejudices that are kept in check only by constant effort?  Oh, no! How do we tell?? 

I have this personal opinion that eliminating from the language not only words which are slurs and epithets, but also anything which sounds, or is spelled somewhat similarly to them but with different meaning entirely, is a tragedy. Having no concept of others as "others" to be slurred or offended ought to be a goal of the PC movement. Sadly, the goal is not really fairness and equality, but instead thought- and behaviour-control.

While we're at it, as a person of letters ("R.G.") I am offended by the continuing use of acronyms for any and everthing. We're not letters, we're PEOPLE!!!!!!!

[Dai H.]

I wasn't even remotely close to being offended (I'm japanese)and I don't how that would make sense being there obviously being no intent or within any sort of racist context. I've actually used the same word to mean the same thing myself (unknown sticky semi-liquid-ish stuff). Please get back to the original discussion before people start getting silly and banning phrases such as "nip in the bud", "chink in the armour", etc. etc.

[Mark Hammer]

While we're at it, as a person of letters ("R.G.") I am offended by the continuing use of acronyms for any and everthing. We're not letters, we're PEOPLE!!!!!!!

Then a word or two of advice my friend, DO NOT seek work in government.  It is largely about two things: not being findable (which is why organizational names and structure change so often), and acronyms.  I'm in the midst of writing a report on hiring, and I swear, the darn thing looks like a listing of all the Scrabble letters I threw away the last time I passed on my turn!  Entire agencies have had their names changed simply because no one put enough thought beforehand into how the acronym for the agency name would be pronounced (or mispronounced).  My own agency had to change the name of an initiative because the acronym would have been HRPS.  Yeah, like I want to be known for my close involvement with the "herpes" project.

[head_spaz]

In the 70's we used the name "glip" for that lacquer goop that's about as red and runny as a runovered snake's-shit.

[dano12]

This is a really great thread, one of those stuffed full o' knowledge treasures.....

My rule for reliability is to build before I open the Chianti bottle.

[R.G.]

Yeah - not drinking the cleaning solvents first is a Really Good Idea! 

[Scruffie]

Ohhh.... But there so tasty! and tingly on my throat, certainly warm the %^&*les...

[earthtonesaudio]

...Don't call them "zombies," that's not PC.  The proper term is "death challenged" or "formerly interred."

Anyway...
It can be useful to "know your enemy" in terms of those forces that will bring about a pedal's untimely injury or demise. 
Such as:
1.The end user
2.the end user's roommate
3.the end user's cat
4.the end user's ex-girlfriend
5.beer
6.basement with faulty sump pump
7.the tinkerer
8.the modder
9.the repair tech

These entities or things have it out for pedals.  Especially any of the above in combination with #5.
As for specific things you can do, try to avoid:
1.Batteries
2.trimpots
3.dip switches
4.switches in general
5.knobs
6.jacks
...as much as possible.

[Scruffie]

I'd have thought they'd be the living impaired?

[earthtonesaudio]

Nah those are just ordinary dead people.  They seldom complain about being stereotyped, or anything else.

[R.G.]

Ordinary dead people are "metabolically challenged" or "differently respirated".

[Scruffie]

Surely Living impaired suggests there only a bit dead, not fully, hmm I think that one would require some real debate to decide if they were actually just plain dead or just impaired at being alive... but that'd be up to the zombie rights movements to decide and I doubt theyll face much opposition from the ordinary dead peoples front or the front of the ordinary dead people (I wonder who will pick up on that small brit comedy quote...)

I'd probably say that dead people were life challenged rather than living impaired.

[Kearns892]

Sorry for pulling this further off topic, but I was really interested in what you (R.G.) were saying about the whole PC movement, mostly because I've thought a lot of similar things myself (particularly the connection to Orwell's 1984).

I would like to preface my next statement with the fact that I completely understand the PC term for "dead people" discussion is a joke (one that I actually find humorous) and I am not offended in the least, but I actually just got back from a funeral (thankfully not anyone close) and the discussion just got me thinking. To me it seems that these PC euphemisms for death, or more seriously, race are more offensive than an obvious description. As PC terms are an obvious tactic for jumping around a subject and by attempting to dodge the subject you have just shown there is something troubling to you about the differences between the subject  and yourself. I feel like I'm just repeating what R.G. said, but I just felt like I had to say I agree completely. I'm not at all supporting the use of racial slurs or obviously derogatory language, but I find the course the PC movement to be taking at least as offensive implicitly by making such matters as race and diversity taboo topics as the explicit use of derogatory terms themselves.

Sorry if I'm just echoing what's already been said. Just thought I'd throw my bit out there, which is probably a dangerous move on the internet...    

[Taylor]

Read up on the "euphemism treadmill" for some interesting reading on that subject.

Apologies for starting this derail, and as the offending party, I hope we can hereafter discuss longevity of stompboxes.

Any thoughts on whether it's a bad idea to PC-mount stompswitches? I can imagine it might create stress on the PCB, but has anyone seen this actually happen?

[Scruffie]

Yup, comedy seldom doesn't come without some message behind it, and that is just what we've been doing, mocking the system of being PC because it in itself is un PC, frankly I think the term should be abolished from politically to socially correct (if it has to have a term anyway), if you can't make up your own mind that what you just said was offensive and/ or someone just feels like turning something innocent into something offensive, then it's a sad state of affairs...

You may echo what has been said, maybe not, but you echo the majority of the peoples thoughts and on the internet, no one knows who you are or where you live! Atleast you can pack your bags and can just change your name at a press of a button rather than change your name through the courts and leave town, I think if you have something valid to say, it's right to throw your bit in, not just arguing with what someone has said (not that you have) but bringing something to the table... well thats my bit... and if it should have repercussions... well uhh... it was him! >>>