Has anyone had switch issues on a Vela?

[Aahzz]

Was playing last night, all going well, flipped the switch to the neck position and no sound. Worked in the middle, worked on the bridge, back to the neck and silence. Twiddled all the knobs, silence. Unplugged the cable, plugged it back in, everything worked again for the next hour, at which point I was done playing. Haven't plugged in yet today.

Anyway, it has me thinking the switch is probably going bad, though I'm open to other diagnoses. I'm also open to ideas for good replacement switches . If you know a good tech in the Cincinnati area to install it, even better!

 

[alantig]

Vela? No. I did w/my DGT. A little contact cleaner, some careful bending of the tines, good as new.

A switch swap isn't terribly difficult if you have even middlin' soldering ability.

 

[andy474x]

Unfortunately the switches on SE’s and S2’s have been the one thing that I’ve not had good luck with. The toggles on two of my SE’s are intermittent, and the blade on one of my S2’s literally fell apart.

 

[László]

I had a US-Made, Switchcraft switch go bad on a Private Stock. It happens. PRS replaced it, of course. Switchcraft is a very good company, who've made most of the toggle switches used in guitars in the US for 7 decades.

I tried to repair it myself, with Jack Gretz' helpful advice, went to Switchcraft's website, looked at diagrams, looked in guitar repair books, and couldn't fix it. Toggle switches push a "bat" (that's what the part is called) against leaf springs to make their connection. The springs themselves appear to be alloy plates that give and connect as the bat is pushed. If the manufacture isn't 100%, the bats don't put the leaf springs in the right place to make the proper connection.

My feeling is that best thing to do with a switch that's iffy is to replace it (I didn't want to risk finish damage doing that on a PS, so I sent the guitar in for replacement). Contact cleaner is fine if there's dirt, but if the problem is mechanical, replacement is the only sensible thing to do.

The switches themselves are inexpensive, and the headache of messing with an iffy switch doesn't offer much in the way of rewards. Just get a new Switchcraft switch, and call it a day.

My guess is that if a (generally well-made) Switchcraft part can fail, an inexpensive imported part is probably more likely to do so. I should note that I have lots of 30-plus year old Switchcraft connectors in my studio that are completely reliable. This is not a knock on Switchcraft.

 

[xjbebop]

Not uncommon for any switch. What Alantig said is good maintenance...
""A little contact cleaner, some careful bending of the tines, good as new.""

 

[SinSir]

Not a Vela but I just had this issue with a LP that I replaced all of the internal wiring for from switch to jack and everything in between. I chased and chased it trying to find the cause. At first it was intermittent but then one day it was consitent allowing me to better diagnose it. At this point I had decided it was the switch but it ended up being the top nut was on too tight. Stupid and weird but thats what it was. Zero problems since loosening it.

A little background. I was having an occasional issue with the old switch coming loose so the new one I installed extra tight. If it is the switch pickup a switchcraft.

Good luck!

 

[Fram]

I had a similar issue with my Vela before I changed the electrics to USA.

If you loosen the strings, you can carefully slide the pick guard out from under them ( towards the bottom of the guitar) and turn it over, there is enough excess wire from the bridge earth that you can do this carefully.

First check for a broken solder joint, then check the switch itself. My switch was soldered fine but wasn’t making contact properly.

I solved it by bending the switch tab a little with the guitar plugged in, just kept bending and flipping the switch until it worked in all positions.

hope this helps

 

[Fram]

Just want to say, if you do replace the switch with a switchcraft one, you need either the short switch, or the right angle one, the regular switch is too long and doesn’t fit.

I went with the right angle one, but only because I couldn’t get a short one.

 

[Bill SAS 513]

Alan, Les, et al above...Yup^^^^^^
If you're one that leaves guitars out (as MANY do), dust can contribute to intermittent switches. Electronics Cleaner will help.
I've bent the tines (ever so lightly) and improved contact with the blades, and made a difference.
Open up the small cavity and watch how the "bat" separates the PU selector tines...pretty simple to comprehend, once you see it in action.

And Switchcraft is the way to go...also on their input jacks...you can see/feel a difference in quality with their stuff.
Good luck.

 

[TFC]

The switch on my Vela went bad (intermittent failures like yours). I replaced it with this Switchcraft from Amazon. No issues since.

 

[Boogie]

Yes. Just do a Switchcraft swap and you’ll be golden.

 

[Iceman101]

Not with a vela, but with 2 S2 Starla's. Switchcraft will do the trick

 

[John Beef]

If you know a good tech in the Cincinnati area to install it, even better!

C'mon man! It's a restring, 4 solder connections and however many screws hold that pickguard on. You can do it!

 

[Aahzz]

C'mon man! It's a restring, 4 solder connections and however many screws hold that pickguard on. You can do it!

I'm gun-shy with soldering. There have been issues in the past - would prefer to let someone else do it.

 

[Markal]

Was playing last night, all going well, flipped the switch to the neck position and no sound. Worked in the middle, worked on the bridge, back to the neck and silence. Twiddled all the knobs, silence. Unplugged the cable, plugged it back in, everything worked again for the next hour, at which point I was done playing. Haven't plugged in yet today.

Anyway, it has me thinking the switch is probably going bad, though I'm open to other diagnoses. I'm also open to ideas for good replacement switches . If you know a good tech in the Cincinnati area to install it, even better!

I had this issue with my S2 Singlecut after a couple years. Had a local tech replace the switch and, when he handed me the old one, it became clear that the switch is definitely one component where PRS cuts costs on the S2 line. Cheap repair though.

 

[Aahzz]

The Switchcraft short switch has been ordered....