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Post subject: Does anyone else have this footswitch issue?
Posted: Tue Aug 01, 2017 7:25 am
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Aspiring Musician
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My 4 button switch has a issue where it freezes up now and then. Actually quite often. I will go to switch presets and the buttons won't do anything. Sometimes i can hit the mode switch and scroll thru the modes and back to the preset mode and then it will work. Other times i can't because the mode switch freezes too. Has anyone else experienced anything like this?


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Post subject: Re: Does anyone else have this footswitch issue?
Posted: Tue Aug 01, 2017 4:44 pm
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Yes, that's happening to me too. Happens when I use the looper. I click to stop a loop and the dub and play/stop buttons do nothing. I just have to click the mode button or anything else to finally go through the modes until back at the looper to work again.

Not a deal killer for me ... because I'm not using it live.

Needs fixing!


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Post subject: Re: Does anyone else have this footswitch issue?
Posted: Tue Aug 01, 2017 5:19 pm
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I should add… It only happens occasionally. (And I have mostly been using the pedal for the looper, so it probably would happen on all the other modes too.)

I love the looper and amp a ton, but it could be an embarrassing problem live.


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Post subject: Re: Does anyone else have this footswitch issue?
Posted: Tue Aug 01, 2017 5:24 pm
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yeah, i think it does it in all modes but you only notice it in the mode or modes you use. I use the effects mode at times but not much at home so i don't notice it a lot. But it DOES do it in that mode too. And i also has the same thing in looper mode the very few times i used it. Now i keep tat disabeled.


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Post subject: Re: Does anyone else have this footswitch issue?
Posted: Wed Aug 02, 2017 2:29 am
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You will, no doubt, have noticed that the four button footswitch has only two wires ending in a regular jack. In times gone by, they would have used a multicore cable for such a switch and some sort of multi-pin plug. This footswitch is sending digital codes back and fourth along two wires - which should work in theory. In practice, it is unreliable, the way your television remote doesn't always do what you expect. The main problem is that a mechanical switch is initiating the digital code. Unlike digital signals which are either on or off, the mechanical switch, if not operated precisely, has a multitude of states between on and off so the digital part gets confused. If the firmware was designed properly, the mechanical switch would have an element of 'debounce', a short delay that helps smooth-out these spurious in-between states. If this delay is too short, it doesn't work well and if it is too long, it would affect the operation (timing) of using the switch, so a compromise has to be reached. This is why the footswitch works most of the time but is not 100% reliable. At home, it is not a big problem but I certainly wouldn't use it in front of an audience.


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Post subject: Re: Does anyone else have this footswitch issue?
Posted: Wed Aug 02, 2017 6:07 am
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Mine is a brand new latest version switch. Seems to be fine with the GT40.


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Post subject: Re: Does anyone else have this footswitch issue?
Posted: Wed Aug 02, 2017 7:21 am
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Thats not the problem. If you owned a old mustang you'd know it's a perfectly reliable way to do it. 5 years with mine and i cannot remember a single glitch. Not to mention the old one had MORE switching functions going on with 2 different footswitches at the same time. Also, the EXP one has bugs with this amp and again, never with the old mustang. The problem is not due to the design and having only 2 conductors. Not to mention lots of amps use this design and work perfectly. But IMO *may* be a hardware issue, maybe not enough filtering in the supply or voltage regulation etc etc. The voltages are even different. The MIII's FS supply is 3.2VDC while the GT's fluctuates wildly between 3.4 and 3.6 VDC. That i think due to the delay tempo LED but doesn't happen in the MIII. I just think theres a issue with the supply in this amp because this isn't the only bug that its got that could potentially be due to that. Even the tuner is wacky and seems to vary in how bad it works from time to time. Then you have bugs in the UI that also could be due to that. All of this intermittent and at times works fine for a time. So it's just not this type of design, it's this PARTICULAR amp's implementation of it. I don't want to convict fender here, it may indeed be a firmware issue and i certainly hope so which is why i started this thread. But i fear is a PSU issue, i just hope im wrong. But whatever it is the design is perfectly capable of being dead reliable as it was with the old mustang.

stratocaster1983 wrote:
You will, no doubt, have noticed that the four button footswitch has only two wires ending in a regular jack. In times gone by, they would have used a multicore cable for such a switch and some sort of multi-pin plug. This footswitch is sending digital codes back and fourth along two wires - which should work in theory. In practice, it is unreliable, the way your television remote doesn't always do what you expect. The main problem is that a mechanical switch is initiating the digital code. Unlike digital signals which are either on or off, the mechanical switch, if not operated precisely, has a multitude of states between on and off so the digital part gets confused. If the firmware was designed properly, the mechanical switch would have an element of 'debounce', a short delay that helps smooth-out these spurious in-between states. If this delay is too short, it doesn't work well and if it is too long, it would affect the operation (timing) of using the switch, so a compromise has to be reached. This is why the footswitch works most of the time but is not 100% reliable. At home, it is not a big problem but I certainly wouldn't use it in front of an audience.


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Post subject: Re: Does anyone else have this footswitch issue?
Posted: Wed Aug 02, 2017 7:29 am
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My footswitch is new too. I don't have the problems with the footswitch or the tuner that you describe. Could be a power supply problem, or even a mains supply problem. You should contact Fender support for advice.


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Post subject: Re: Does anyone else have this footswitch issue?
Posted: Wed Aug 02, 2017 9:32 am
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Not the mains, my MIII still works fine with all 3 devices. And i have already discussed this with 2 reps which relayed the info to the design team. Its a matter of whether they 1-can replicate it, or 2-recieve more complaints with the same issue. Otherwise nothing will happen. I can still use it in a band context but it will limit what i would LIKE to be able to do. In other words, i made do without all those years using single channel tube amps. But i really started to love having so many tonal good options when i got the GT, something i never had with the MIII because i only liked one model in that amp. So i can live with it but i paid for those functions and they should work. I DO appreciate fenders efforts, but there's a good chance that even if they work this out it will take a lot of time before they are even aware that it truly is an issue. With digital circuits being so fussy It could be as simple as component tolerance, which would account for why some may not experience it.


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Post subject: Re: Does anyone else have this footswitch issue?
Posted: Wed Aug 02, 2017 10:53 am
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oczad wrote:
Not the mains, my MIII still works fine with all 3 devices. And i have already discussed this with 2 reps which relayed the info to the design team. Its a matter of whether they 1-can replicate it, or 2-recieve more complaints with the same issue. Otherwise nothing will happen. I can still use it in a band context but it will limit what i would LIKE to be able to do. In other words, i made do without all those years using single channel tube amps. But i really started to love having so many tonal good options when i got the GT, something i never had with the MIII because i only liked one model in that amp. So i can live with it but i paid for those functions and they should work. I DO appreciate fenders efforts, but there's a good chance that even if they work this out it will take a lot of time before they are even aware that it truly is an issue. With digital circuits being so fussy It could be as simple as component tolerance, which would account for why some may not experience it.


Well, at the price, they obviously aren't using top quality components. Now, if there was a military grade Mustang ... there use to be ;?)


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Post subject: Re: Does anyone else have this footswitch issue?
Posted: Sun Aug 27, 2017 4:05 pm
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I've had a problem twice now where the GT40 won't come out of tuner mode when invoked by the MGT-4. Only a power cycle would restore it.


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Post subject: Re: Does anyone else have this footswitch issue?
Posted: Sun Aug 27, 2017 5:50 pm
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Mine has done that too, and even went INTO tuner mode after just hitting the button and not holding it down for a few seconds. Thats one of maybe 3 to 5 glitches it ha done. But the main one is freezing to where no buttons work but i can usually get out of it without a restart by just turning the data wheel on the amp. Then it usually frees it back up.

That said, i believe my problems were exaggerated greatly due to using the EXP-1 along with the 4 button switch. I stopped using the EXP1 and the switching issues stopped almost completely. Now it will freeze now and then, maybe once for every few hours i use it. When using the EXP1 it was a regular event that happened about once for every 20 times i hit any button on the FS. So for anyone contemplating getting a EXP1, be warned. I have 2 EXP1's too, so it's not a issue with them. It's a issue with the EXP1 and the 4 button not working correctly together.


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Post subject: Re: Does anyone else have this footswitch issue?
Posted: Tue Aug 29, 2017 4:00 am
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Yeah that happened to mine Im not sure why

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