A lot of pedals that come in as dead have a power or cable problem, not a fault inside. Work through these in order and stop when it starts working.
1. Take it off the board
Plug guitar into pedal into amp, using two cables you know are good. Nothing else in the chain. Power the pedal from a battery or a supply you know works with another pedal. If it works now, the pedal is fine and the problem is somewhere else on the board: a patch cable, another pedal, or the power supply.
2. Check the power
Most pedals want 9V DC, centre negative, from a 2.1 mm plug. It’s printed next to the power socket or in the manual. Check before you plug anything new in, because the wrong polarity or voltage can damage a pedal. There’s more on this in powering pedals.
- Try a different outlet on your supply, or a different supply.
- Check the outlet gives at least the current the pedal asks for. A digital pedal that wants 250 mA on a 100 mA outlet may light up and still crackle, reset or cut out.
- On battery, fit a new one. A battery can read 9V on a meter and still be too weak to run the pedal.
Two battery details catch people out. A lead left in the input jack keeps the battery connected, so it runs down overnight. And a stereo (TRS) lead in the input can stop a battery-powered pedal turning on at all, because many pedals use the input plug to switch the battery in.
3. Swap the cables
Patch cables fail more often than pedals do. Try new ones on the input and output. Then play and gently wiggle each plug where it meets the jack. If it crackles or cuts out when you move one, the fault is in that jack or that plug.
4. Reset the controls
A level knob at zero, a mix knob fully dry or a toggle switch stuck between positions can all make a pedal sound dead. Set every knob to halfway and every switch firmly to one side, then try again.
5. Note what it does on and off
Does it pass your clean signal when it’s bypassed (LED off) but go silent or distorted when it’s engaged (LED on)? Is it silent both ways? Does the LED come on? Write it down. It tells me where to start looking and can save you assessment time.
If it’s silent even when bypassed, it’s often the footswitch or a jack. Some pedals need power to pass any signal at all, even in bypass, so rule out power first.
If it still fails
If it fails on its own, with a supply and cables you trust, it needs a repair. When you get in touch, tell me what it does, when it started and what you power it with. If the supply is unusual, bring it with you.