The Steel Guitar Forum

Hey all. First off, I did just email Hilton Electronics, but meanwhile, I'm hoping for some tribal knowledge from somebody out there...

My mentor/instructor leant me a Hilton standard guitar pedal and, after more than a year of happy usage, yesterday I dropped it. It was in a little gig bag with my Spark amp and it rolled off of my bed, dropped about 3 feet and fell with the pedal first to the carpeted floor with the spark amp on top of it. OOF! There was no evidence of damage, obviously the frame is bulletproof... but when I got to the jam I was headed to, it no longer worked.

I popped the top pedal off with an allen wrench and investigated connections to see if it had jostled a solder point loose... but no luck.

What I know...

• When I plug the output into the rear out (non-volume out), the pedal works fine as a pass through.
• the light illuminates, power seems to work fine
• no dents or outside damage
• when going thorough the middle out that I normally use (volume-modulated out), there's no sound. not even weak sound, just zero signal makes it to the amp regardless of position of pedal.

Is there any common thing that a drop like this would likely break, that maybe I can fix, or order a part from you to fix myself perhaps?

Inside the pedal (on the top treadle) there is a small piece of clear Lexan, about 1.5" square. Glued to this is a very thin sheet of plastic with fine grid marks on it. If that thin piece of plastic comes off, the pedal will not operate.

Check your pedal by removing the hex-socket screws on either side of the pedal, and carefully removing (lifting up) the top treadle. Just verify that the very thin sheet of clear plastic with the grid is still glued in place on the piece of Lexan. (Reassemble the pedal carefully so you do not damage those plastic parts!)

I agree with Donny that the plastic piece that has graded hash marks on it could cause a problem if not set in place right. I once had a problem with my Hilton pedal not working because cat hair got into the enclosed compartment and was stuck on that little plastic piece. I brushed it off and all was well. I let my cats sleep underneath my guitar and look what they did!

Nothing is 100% bullet proof and accidents do happen.

I've used Hilton's since the early model with attached power supply without problems.

I helped Herby Wallace (fixed his tube preamp after dropping some equipment) at a Florida show and saw him "abuse" his Hilton VP and it still worked.

Not long after I got my Hilton it started making occasional odd crackles. I asked Keith and he said "Just use it" which didn't seem helpful at the time, but it soon stopped and it's been fine ever since. Probably a particle of debris that cleared.

I have been building Hilton volume pedals for over 23 years. Besides building new pedals, I repair pedals. In the last 23 years I have seen some really odd things, when it comes to repairs. Probably the oddest thing was a pedal that came in for repair from a really, really famous Nashville pedal steel player. When I tested the pedal it did not work. I took the pedal apart and found out why the pedal was not working. The inside of the pedal was stuffed full of small dog food pellets. A tiny mouse had stolen the small dog food pellets and stored them inside the pedal. The inside of the pedal was pack so full they blocked the infrared sensor system.
I have had pedals come in for repair that have been under water. I can always tell when a pedal has been under water, because water causes a white film coating to form over the circuit's copper and other metals. There is no use trying to salvage a pedal that has been under water.
Another really odd repair came in from a Branson, Missouri steel guitar player, Eddie Lane. Eddie had been given a pedal that had been in a house fire. When Eddie brought me the pedal. it looked like it came out of a trash burn barrel. Yes, it really looked bad, even the labels were burned off. My first thought was-- Eddie is crazy for bringing me this burned up pedal. Eddie and me opened up the pedal, and the inside looked as bad as the outside. I was thinking---"This pedal can't possibly work". The plastic control strip was melted. Just for the heck of it I put on a new plastic control strip, and hooked the pedal up. To my surprise, and Eddie's surprise, the pedal operated like a new pedal. As if nothing had ever happened. We could not believe it, and it is still hard for me to believe. Eddie Lane made a post on the Steel Guitar Forum about that, sometime a year or so ago.
The most common failures I see are people tripping over power cords, or crushing them with pack-a-seat legs. I seldom if ever see a failure in the circuit board. The only failures inside the pedal are people fooling around with a soldering iron. Defective guitar cords are the biggest reason a pedal will not transmit a signal. People are easily fooled by defective guitar cords. The un-soldered type guitar cords cause the most trouble, and fool the most people.
I have many pedals over 20 years old still working around the world. How many radios are still working after 20 years? A guitar volume pedal is on the floor. A floor is a dirty nasty environment, and floors are high in moisture-damp.
I want to say thanks to all those players who have used my pedals over these many years.

I've been using a Hilton for maybe 15+ years, and have only had 2 problems. I have had 2 wall warts fail. Funny thing, they both failed at the same outdoor venue that I played once a year, one year apart. When I checked both with a volt meter, there was no voltage output at all. That really is not a Hilton problem, but a power problem. I do carry a spare wall wart with me, but that one venue was the only place I had any issues.