My Earthquaker Devices The Depths recently reached a point where the foot switch was completely unreliably. The old versions of these pedals (like mine) use simple mechanical 3PDT (three pole, double throw) switches which are prone to a problem where the grease from the rocker mechanism slowly migrates down onto the contact plates breaking conductivity. Thankfully Earthquaker have changed (like many modern pedal builders) to using soft switches that are more reliable (and more flexible too.)

While Earthquaker do offer a great warranty program it’s predicated on being able to ship them the pedal, and with current international shipping that has become prohibitively expensive. Instead, and in possession of a surplus of unearned confidence, I decided to fix it myself. While I've one this a couple of times before, I’d forgotten just how fiddly these switches are. The disassembling and cleaning is easy. Getting it back together can be a bit of a trick as the metal housing for the switch and the spring are held onto the body of the switch by eight tiny little metal hooks gripping only the slightest lip of plastic and the force required to actuate the pedal will easily cause the switch to blow apart if you don’t get those hooks on right.

Having dealt with enough of these switches going bad (across many brands: this isn’t a failure on Earthquaker’s part), classic “true bypass” switching is now on the list of things I will try to avoid with future pedals.