Clicking

[FRANK MARIANO]

I’m Getting a Clicking noise coming from my Pedal board on my Zum D 10 when I press my the pedals . It seems that it happens more on my E9 pedals than the C6.Any help here?

[John Palumbo]

This happened to me when I had a Carter S-10. What it was is when I would press the pedals the pedal board was clamped to the inner part of the leg but clamped to the point just below the clutch about a 1/16th of an inch. So that when I depressed the pedals the pedal board would pivot off the pedals & raise hitting the clutch on the leg. The clamping was not tight enough to prevent it from sliding. Then go back to the same position when I got off the pedal(s). It was annoying and I was never able to get rid of it. Not sure if that is your problem but that is what was happening in my case.

[Tucker Jackson]

What John said... it's counterintuitive, when you step on a pedal, the pedal rack is rising up and hitting the adjustment-nut on the leg. When you release the pedal, the whole pedal rack drops down a tiny bit.

You can fix this by shortening the leg so that the gap between the nut and rubber foot is just wide enough to fit the pedal rack on, so the rack has no room to move up and down where it clamps to the leg. No wiggle room, so no clicking. In particular, you need that rack to be snug up against the nut on the leg when you clamp it.

On one of my PSGs, the builder cut two of the legs to specifically serve as front legs: when they are adjusted to their shortest (bottomed out), the gap between the nut and rubber foot is exactly the right height to wedge in the pedal rack. It's easy to adjust since 'bottomed out' is always the correct leg height. Also, it's solid when you put downward pressure on it since it's impossible for the clutch to slip.

Meanwhile, the other two legs used on the back can go shorter than that so you can level the guitar, if needed.

Maybe your guitar is the same, and two of the legs are cut to exactly accept the pedal rack at their shortest? You may have a couple of legs like that but it isn't obvious, so one or both are now on the the rear of the guitar. Or on the front, but adjusted a little too high.

If you do find two legs designed to be 'front', going forward as you break it down and set it up, it's helpful to have a system to keep up with which legs are special. Always use the correct legs on the front and you'll never have this clicking problem.

[John Palumbo]

What John said... it's counterintuitive, when you step on a pedal, the pedal rack is rising up and hitting the adjustment-nut on the leg. When you release the pedal, the whole pedal rack drops down a tiny bit.

You can fix this by shortening the leg so that the gap between the nut and rubber foot is just wide enough to fit the pedal rack on, so the rack has no room to move up and down where it clamps to the leg. No wiggle room, so no clicking. In particular, you need that rack to be snug up against the nut on the leg when you clamp it.

On one of my PSGs, the builder cut two of the legs to specifically serve as front legs: when they are adjusted to their shortest (bottomed out), the gap between the nut and rubber foot is exactly the right height to wedge in the pedal rack. It's easy to adjust since 'bottomed out' is always the correct leg height. Also, it's solid when you put downward pressure on it since it's impossible for the clutch to slip.

Meanwhile, the other two legs used on the back can go shorter than that so you can level the guitar, if needed.

Maybe your guitar is the same, and two of the legs are cut to exactly accept the pedal rack at their shortest? You may have a couple of legs like that but it isn't obvious, so one or both are now on the the rear of the guitar. Or on the front, but adjusted a little too high.

If you do find two legs designed to be 'front', going forward as you break it down and set it up, it's helpful to have a system to keep up with which legs are special. Always use the correct legs on the front and you'll never have this clicking problem.

Sorry if I misspoke, but what you described was my problem also. Thanks for clearing it up.

[FRANK MARIANO]

Thanks tucker I’ll make some adjustments tonight, good info

[Tucker Jackson]

You got it exactly right on the cause of the problem, John (i.e. "What John said.").

What prompted my post was your saying you never could fix it, so I added some ideas because I've had this problem too.

On most PSGs, I adjust the height so the pedal rack will just barely wedge in there... works just fine as long as the clutch doesn't slip a little. And I have a Carter where two of the legs were apparently cut the perfect height at the factory, so no need to mess with the nut on that guitar when setting it up.

[John Palumbo]

All good & makes sense Tucker, wish I would have posted something when I was having the same issue.
Thks again!

[Gene Tani]

Being a belt/suspenders guy, i have PVC pipe cut to just the right length to hold the legs up without the clutch but I also clean the clutches thoroughly for minimal slippage. You'll never get zero slippage if you put body weight on it. I wrote a long winded post on cleaning, can't find it, basically, take clutch apart but note well how the beveled faces on the brass ring and the red plastic piece inside the clutch mate and oriengation of these pieces (which one is on top), clean everything (including lower leg section) with rubbing alcohol or citrus cleaner and put it together the way it was.

7/8" OD wood dowel also works, that's how i received the legs from Al Brisco for my Carter.

[FRANK MARIANO]

Thanks Tucker for the great info , my Zum is all fixed. Love this forum.