Sportacus said:
Can anyone vouch for the build quality of the FCB1010? I went to a national store to buy one and was advised against getting this due to poor build quality. The guy reported that he had numerous units returned with broken latches/pedals and EPROM failure. Any comments from current users? The alternative I was considering is the roland FC300. Looks like my GT10 which is solid in construction.
At the price point, it's my opinion that it's as solid as any other pedals in that range. If people are breaking pedals on it, they'd probably break them on the FC300 or GT10 as well. When I got my FCB, I literally jumped up and down on top of it a few times to test that kind of thing... same with my PODxt Live -- I'm not a heavy guy though, so YMMV if anyone else tries that as their litmus test.
Any assembly line could be susceptible to periodic weaknesses in construction though. Maybe that store got a bad batch. I know Sweetwater told me specifically that the reason they don't carry Behringer was because of too many returns but I don't know if the returns applied generally or only to specific parts of the Behringer line.
Via the FCB1010 Yahoo Group, there was something found a while back (that I think affected the vol/wah pedals, IIRC), and, to my surprise, a Behringer rep on the group spoke up and addressed the issue specifically, the reasons why it happened, what was being done in the factory to solve it, the current fix they used on their end (people had been posting their solutions), and also thanked the members for pointing it out. I don't want to go so far as saying that they offered to fix it for free, but they might have... this was about a year and a half ago, so my memory's hazy.
So far, mine's held up to the minimal abuse I give it. At $150-ish for a used one, it's pretty easy to replace if anything does go wrong, and it suits many of my needs. OTOH, $150 twice is $300... if another pedal is
half as likely to break down on you, there's a reason to consider it.
Hope that helps you make a definitive decision!
:lol:
Oh, also, keep in mind what the UnO firmware chip fixes and if you think you'll use any of those fixes and so if you're comfortable popping the FCB open and replacing the chip. Plus the cost of the update. See one of the Yahoo groups for more info.