Series 3 Troubleshooting

Do you have one of the bad preamps?

Probably not. There were very few, just the first batch that I sent out in 2012. I recalled those preamps and managed to get all but one or two of them back. The symptoms were:

• Battery status LED works sporadically, but not at all.
• Metallic jacks and nuts as shown in the picture. Changing to the plastic Neutrik jacks is what solved the problem.

Battery status LED just gives a brief "flash"

That's by design. A very brief "flash" when you plug into the output jack indicates a good battery. This is by design, so the LED itself doesn't eat your battery.

DC Power Jack

A couple of people have noted that DC power plugs seem to be a bit loose when inserted into the DC power jack. However, I've checked out these jacks and they seem OK, plus the electrical connection is definitely good.

The root cause is that there is not a precise standard for this type of DC power jack. The pin has to be a slightly smaller diameter than the hole in the plug, or the two will get stuck together. How much smaller? Makers of both plugs and jacks seem to have adopted differing standards for both the plugs and jacks. In addition, there are very few types of panel-mounted DC power jacks that would fit in the space available in the Series 3 box.

So, I think that this will be a permanent symptom of the preamp.

There are DC power plugs with a two-prong split inner conductor. The Visual Sound 1Spot adapter has such a plug. These plugs mate themselves to a standard power jack quite tightly, and also have a little notch in the outer sleeve that seems to prevent the plug from falling out of the jacks that I've tested, including an old Boss guitar pedal.