Who can fix a Hilton Volume Pedal??

Ernie Pollock · From: Mt Savage, Md USA

Oh My, Disaster set in at my Friday Gig, my Hilton pedal, quit working, at least I could only get a little volume out of it at full tilt. I have had this pedal for several years & NEVER had a problem with it. I am not sure if it is the pedal, or the power supply gone haywire. I don't have a clue as to where I could get another power supply to try, but I am not sure the walmart type that has a bunch of little end pieces with it would work or not.
I don't even know if they are being made anymore?

HELP - ANYONE!! Sad

Thank God I did not get rid of the Ol Goodrich pedal, but I sure do like that Hilton.

Ernie Pollock [leave a reply on here if you can help, or call me at 301-264-4172
Sorry, I am living in the dark ages here in Western Maryland AND DON'T HAVE E-MAIL AT THIS TIME.

Richard Sinkler · From: aka: Rusty Strings -- Missoula, Montana

I have had 2 power supplies die on me, and I believe I got replacements from Parts-Express, or some mail order place. Just Google the part number on the power supply. To get the pedal fixed, I would go straight to Keith Hilton for that.
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Carter D10 8p/8k, Dekley S10 3p/4k C6 setup,Regal RD40 Dobro, NV400, NV112 . Playing for 54 years and still counting.

Don Mogle · From: Round Rock, TX, USA

You could give Keith Hilton a call and see if he could look at it for you. I'm not sure of his contact number, but if you do a search here on the Forum I'm sure you can find it.

Last I heard, he was doing repairs on his volume pedals.

Don

Ernie Pollock · From: Mt Savage, Md USA

Thanks Guys, I will give some of that a try, I really like the sound with the Hilton with my Profex II, and my Evans amp, or my Fender Steel King, its really a great pedal.

Thanks to all & anyone else want to 'chime in' here, go for it!!

Ernie Pollock Very Happy

Ken Metcalf · From: San Antonio Texas USA

Keith is very good and reasonably priced about fixing them.
He fixed mine no problem and then I bought a Telonics pedal.

Keith Hilton · From: 248 Laurel Road Ozark, Missouri 65721

Yes, I repair pedals. I might suggest something before you send your pedal in to be repaired. 60% of the pedals I get in for repair have nothing wrong with them. Faulty guitar cords fool people. You can make a faulty guitar cord work by just un-plugging a pedal and plugging in another pedal. The biggest guitar cord problems I see people have, are with the George L type guitar cords. Most of the time with a faulty George L guitar cord the symptoms are "EXACTLY" like you described Ernie. By the way if it is a bad power supply the pedal will not work at all, so it does not sound like a bad power supply. If you ship me the pedal, ship it to: Keith Hilton 248 Laurel Road Ozark, Missouri 65721. Include your contact information in with the pedal.

Richard Sinkler · From: aka: Rusty Strings -- Missoula, Montana

Funny you should say that Keith. That happened to me last night. My sound started getting real distorted, but If memory serves me, nothing in the pedal affects the actual sound. Then sound just died. No typical crackling or shorting sounds like a cord going bad. I thought the pedal died. I had a George L cable with straight plugs on each end, and didn't think it was the problem. I took the Hilton out of the equation by using a backup pedal. It didn't work either. So, with a different cable, all was good to go. So, if I have an issue with a Hilton pedal, my first suspect would be the cord, power supply second, and probably not the pedal at all.
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Carter D10 8p/8k, Dekley S10 3p/4k C6 setup,Regal RD40 Dobro, NV400, NV112 . Playing for 54 years and still counting.

Jim Priebe · From: Queensland, Australia - R.I.P.

All the Hilton VP's here in Australia that I know of (there's a few) have suffered similar problems.
We love the VP and can't fault them but the power supplies when run on (our power) 240v AC just don't last. Symptoms are fading volume, distortion and if you run a compressor after the VP in your 'chain' some weird sounds.
Best solution out here seems to be to use this one :
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As you can see they are not expensive (ex Hong Kong on eBay about 2 weeks delivery). The trick seems to be in the 5 amp capacity. They are about the size of a laptop power supply. Runs 100 - 250V too.
N.B. you must use a fully regulated switching unit NOT a wallwart cheapo power supply as Keith's excellent units rely on the correct clean power coming from them.
_________________
Priebs GFI ('09)Short-Uni10. GFI ('96)Short-Uni SD11. ('86)JEM U12
www.steelguitardownunder.com

Richard Sinkler · From: aka: Rusty Strings -- Missoula, Montana

Jim said:

Keith Hilton · From: 248 Laurel Road Ozark, Missouri 65721

Jim, good to hear from an Australian Steel Player, say hello to my friend Quakenbush. 5 amps is a lot of current rating. 5 amps is 5,000 mili-amps. The pedal actually operates from less than 50 mili-amps. Wonder why the 4,950 mili-amps are needed in reserve?
Actually the "biggest" problem,and cause of failue, with "any" power supply is the small power cord. Of the few power supplies not working that I have inspected, 90% if the failures are because of a broken power cord. Not the actual power supply. Power cords laying on the floor get tripped over, and crushed with pack-a-seat legs. Or--the plug wires broken when the pedal gets rolled over on it's side. Actually with over 21,000 pedals out in use, in over 18 foreign countries, I have had very few power supply failures. It is a small number considering people tripping over the cord, and the cord being crushed. Back before 2008 I used an attached power supply cord. That cord was a re-inforced power cord as big around as a pencil. People would never break the cord, but instead would jerk it out of the pedal when they tripped over it. Of course people like the smaller power cord because it wraps up better in their pack-a-seat.
People also like the plug in cord better. But--- with the the old pedals with the attached power cord they never lost the power supply, never plugged in the wrong thing, and never forgot to bring it. If a cord is laying on the floor, eventually someone is going to trip over it. If the tripping over the cord causes damage is the product to blame? Probably so. Hope this information helps.

Jim Priebe · From: Queensland, Australia - R.I.P.

Hi Keith. Yes Milton is now in my home state (Queensland) and is playing a lot - mostly keyboard and accordian. What a guy - plays nice steel too.

I went through all the cord issues and tested them thoroughly and yes, that area is well worth investigating. The plug socket size (on the DC side) commonly used in power supplies is a never ending problem. There are other types of connectors that are really much more reliable.

After exhausting the connection problems in testing we tested several other power supplies and found this type (mentioned above) was the best and (so far) totally reliable. I know the 5 amp capacity sounds like total overkill but the ongoing issue in power supplies is more about the crappy electrolytic mini capacitors that are used (to save costs). They are a huge problem in power supplies for LCD computer screens especially where the mains power has surges. I would love to be able to strip all the encasing from some of the faulty power supplies and see the extend of case distortion that is happening to the capacitors.

It is worth noting that the power supply I have mentioned (above) is currently unavailable. I have contacted the supplier to find out why or a suitable alternative.
Edit: The supplier has gone home for the chinese New Year - will be back in a couple of weeks.
_________________
Priebs GFI ('09)Short-Uni10. GFI ('96)Short-Uni SD11. ('86)JEM U12
www.steelguitardownunder.com

Tiny Olson · From: Mohawk River Valley, Upstate NY

I will give a big, thumbs up for Keith Hilton and his products.

Recently, I sent my 14 yr. old Hilton Pedal back to him for repair. Keith repaired and returned the pedal to me extremely quickly and at a reasonable price. The problem in my pedal was probably due to a sound tech who manhandled the pedal at a Cody gig awhile back.

Anyway, Keith totally took care of me and got my pedal back under my right foot in a very short time... great service !!

Chris "Tiny" Olson

Keith Hilton · From: 248 Laurel Road Ozark, Missouri 65721

Tiny, I was happy to have helped you. Yes, you have to watch those "sound tech" guys. Good to hear you are still playing with Commander Cody.
Jim, good to hear Milton Quackenbush is still playing music. Milton is a "special" guy. Be sure to tell Milton the Baldknobbers show he played on in Branson has new band members. Also, tell Milton the Mel Tillis Show is still going, but Mel is recovering from surgery. Terry Bethel retired and Mel hired Johnny Cox. Chuck Landry's Son is playing drums after Chuck was killed in the fire. Hoffman and Pearyman are the fiddle players now.

Jim Priebe · From: Queensland, Australia - R.I.P.

Here's a couple of pics of Milton Q for you Keith.
Milton at his latest gig:

and a plug for the Hilton VP to keep 'on post'.

_________________
Priebs GFI ('09)Short-Uni10. GFI ('96)Short-Uni SD11. ('86)JEM U12
www.steelguitardownunder.com

Tony Glassman · From: The Great Northwest

Michael Hartz · From: Decorah, Iowa, USA

I still love my old style pedal w/attached power supply also. My only problem with it is the cord is all twisted and kinked from the conductors inside the shielding getting twisted over themselves due to wrapping the cord to put it inside my seat. Anyone else have this problem?

Craig Baker · From: Eatonton, Georgia, USA - R.I.P.

Michael,
Here's YouTube video that is very helpful regarding the best way to wrap cables. It applies to guitar cords, mic cords, speaker, power supply etc.

http://www.theblackandblue.com/2011/06/20/wrap-cable-over-under/

Craig
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"Make America Great Again". . . The Only Country With Dream After Its Name.

Michael Hartz · From: Decorah, Iowa, USA

Craig Baker · From: Eatonton, Georgia, USA - R.I.P.

Michael,
It really is a well-produced video. For very long cables. . . hundreds of feet, to store the cables they wrap them in a figure 8. You can grab either end and run with it and they never tangle. Don't ask me why or how it works. All I know is. . . it works.

Craig
_________________
"Make America Great Again". . . The Only Country With Dream After Its Name.

George Redmon · From: Muskegon & Detroit Michigan.

Thanks Craig, yup that's the way it's done. Great video. Now Craig, got a video to show helpful well meaning folks how to pull the cable out by the plug? Sad

Richard Sinkler · From: aka: Rusty Strings -- Missoula, Montana

But George, it's entertaining to watch whatever the plug is plugged into go flying across the stage when you try to pull it out by the cable. Kind of like tug-of-war, and you always win.
_________________
Carter D10 8p/8k, Dekley S10 3p/4k C6 setup,Regal RD40 Dobro, NV400, NV112 . Playing for 54 years and still counting.

Jim Priebe · From: Queensland, Australia - R.I.P.

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