My green encoder popped out, it does not go right back in correctly, also I have multiple keys double triggering, I bought it from gear4music who fortunately offer a 2 year guarantee, and I have only just had it for 1 year, it has only had occasional use, probably a couple of 2 hour sessions a month if that, and it is always kept in a case, never gigged or roughly handled. It is one from the first batch, I have requested a refund or replacement as I’m not confident that a repair will prevent future failures of the other encoders and switches.
On an item that cost me £529 I expect better, by my calculations it has had less than 48 hours of total use, so I think that these problems would have manifested earlier if I had used it more frequently.
I’m waiting to hear back from Gear4Music and I will update here what happens next.
not over time. I had some double trigs within the first month of using my opz. I almost always use a midi keyboard with it so i dont mind so much, although i may have returned it if i had the second chance.
Interestingly, i thought the problem was simply some inadequate debounce coding. If it was it could have been fixed in firmware update but it looks like maybe a manufacturing error or something worse. idk. But it def sucks, and the encoders, jeesh, and the bending, yikes…
So I just emailed gear4music about the status of my return, apparently it can take upto 60 days, to get a repair. Given that these problems with encoders and unwanted multiple button triggers, and warped units are widely reported, I find it quite unreasonable that it should take so long.
Seems the OP-Z is not built to last, mine has had fairly light usage, always kept in a case, never handled roughly. Kind of sad.
@darenager - this has just happened to me. I too bought mine from gear4music so I will be interested to hear how you get on.
If it’s of any interest, I’m just back to Northern Ireland from a trip to Amsterdam. OP-Z was in my hand luggage and always babied in a decksaver plus roll-up bag. Wondering if cabin pressure changes and/or the much colder weather now I’m back in NI may be a contributing factor.
Having bought one of your mini 4 way splitters, and therefore realising that you’ve got a good technical head, I’m also interested in your view on the magnetic “cure”. What’s your opinion on how these encoders are actually MEANT to stay in place?
I think I reposted this somewhere on the phone but I had double Triggs and popping out in coders on my first unit which was a first batch unit. I bought it from Sam at vintage King in the United states (I’m I’m Australia). The process of getting it fixed was insanely efficient as Sam simply asked me to post back the unit, and I was sent a brand new replacement unit which so far has worked flawlessly. Very occasionally I get a double trig, but I find it when I’m pressing the keys confidently and not overly soft there is no double-trigging to be seen.
Hi @cloudburst unfortunately I am still waiting to hear back from Gear4Music on what should have been a simple exchange, they had over 20 in stock when I sent mine back, so considering that the encoder was no longer staying in place it should have just been exchanged with a new unit.
Well, their loss as they won’t get my custom again, I just bought a Rytm mkII from Bax who have a 3 year warranty on items they sell as standard. Previously I had bought quite a lot of gear from Gear4Music so had they valued my custom a bit more, then I’d have purchased the Rytm from them too.
So far it has been over a month since the OP-Z was delivered back to Gear4Music, when I enquired how long it would take they simply said up to 60 days. If it takes longer than that then I will be contacting trading standards for advice.
I should note that before returning it I stated that a refund or replacement was my preference, so if it is repaired then I will be rather concerned that other buttons and encoders will fail.
I believe that it is a manufacturing defect, and to be honest I’m not willing to try to repair an item myself of this cost which is less than a year old.
Thanks for your response @darenager. That’s useful to know re gear4music. I’ve only bought this from them, so won’t be buying any more. Did they give an indication up front as to whether they would give you a replacement and if not, why not?
More importantly - what do you think has failed here? Glue or magnetism? I’m leaning to the "magnet fix” as opposed to either of the two other fixes and would be interested to hear your views on that…
No they didn’t give an indication as to if they would replace it or not, even though I clearly requested it before returning to them, had they said it was going to be repaired I’d have sought professional advice and not returned it, as I’m fairly sure that in cases like this - where it is clearly a manufacturing fault - the standard and expected course of action is replacement. I also think that I can claim compensation for the time without the product, and I will definitely be sure to tell plenty of my synth buying friends and the synth community at large about my experience, once it is eventually resolved.
I think it might be a glue failure, but not too sure, I can say that the encoder did not go back in properly though, like the magnets were repelling.
Magnets don’t easily loose their strength unless a strongly opposing field is applied. The “re-magnetize fix” may be changing the polarity of the magnets in a way that it pulls toward the inside of the case instead of outside, or because the field is increased a lot and it gets attracted to the steel bearings. I don’t like that procedure because it changes the original magnetic field. I guess that apparently causes no harm because the encoder ICs have an auto calibration feature.
Btw, if there is not glue residue at all on the inside of the wheels, I guess it means they are “pressure fit” into the steel bearings and likely got loose because the gray plastic material shrinks over time or due to temperature variations and is unable to return to the original size.
I try to buy from Thomann whenever possible. I had a button on an Eventide H9 fail after almost two years, and after some communication, and sending the unit back to Eventide, they replaced it with a new unit.
They also have a three-year warranty on everything, and a generous return period. Highly recommended.
Just FYI I bought a Zoom Arq from Gear4music last year and the main encoder went. I shipped it back and I think they said it would be 60 days but they expected it to be 30. I checked in at a month and probably just after the 60 day mark and they ended up just sending a new item. Looking back at emails they only took a couple of days to reply to me when I asked what was happening. I was happy with their response but I was not in a rush.
To be honest I don’t trust TE’s QC but i love their products. Out of all 9 PO’s I have most have had issues. My OP1 has the headphone socket issue and two or three encoders have cracked and the OP-Z has had encoders popping out.
The problem is now though I fixed that with plumbers tape and I have really got into it. The raised encoder really bugged me. Tonight I’ve had now noticed there is bend in the body of the unit which was not there when I got it. I don’t use these things enough to put it down to wear and tear. Because of all the TE issues I deliberately bought from Thomann with their 3 year warranty but right now i am happy to keep it. I am almost sure i’ll get some other issues soon and if so I hopefully Ill get a replacement with a better unit down the line. Hope you hear back to your satisfaction soon.
I just bought a used op-z this week that had encoders beginning to pop out. The PTFE tape/plumbers tape solution worked amazingly! If anyone is hesitant about giving it a shot, you really don’t have much to worry about. I was a little concerned after knowing that there is a least some adhesive applied in the factory, but using the phone stand tools from placeholder expansion module it was literally painless to take them out and wrap a thin slice of ptfe tape around. Thanks a ton for all the knowledge in this thread - I was really worried I had bought a device with irreversible damage and no warranty!
getting scared…