tl;dr Pre-installed SD card was crammed in with the force of a rhino, and that broke the reader (so the whole pedal is unusable).

[em]Update 3/7/2014:[/em] [strong]Replacement arrived and is working great, so hopefully the SD card slot issue isn’t common.[/strong]

(Cross-posted at TalkBass: http://www.talkbass.com/forum/f36/ehx-45000-arrived-broken-1060010/ )

I’ve been using an old Digitech GNX4 for looping for a long time. With 8 tracks and expandable memory it has served me well, but I felt like it was time to get something a little more specialized. I ordered an Electro-Harmonix 45000 and the associated foot controller from Musician’s Friend, and was super excited. I had read some comments from various folks complaining about quality control, though, so I prepared myself just in case I happened to get a bad one. But hey I figured that if my POG2 hasn’t given me any problems for the past few years, then surely this one will be fine too.

I unboxed it and removed it from its excess of carefully packed bubble-wrap, and said to my girflriend “wow they really care for this thing.” With it sitting on my lap, I played with some buttons, sliders, and pan knobs admiring the whole thing and the impending musical awesomeness. I noticed the SD card was pushed in really far. I poked at it, but it just sat there rather than bouncing back out like it should. It seemed like it was just stuck and I’d be able to get it out with some effort later on if I even ever needed to. No big deal. I can forgive that.

Then I stood and heard a quiet, horrible sound from within the pedal. Something was loose and rolling around inside. I pretty much immediately thought that it was the spring mechanism from the SD card receiver (and it turns out I was spot on). Plugging the unit in and attempting to do anything involving recording or playback yielded no results. I could listen to the “CLIX” track, adjust levels, and change tempo, but I didn’t buy a $476 pedal and $119 foot controller just to use its metronome.

I decided to try to fix it myself. It seemed like a simple enough problem, so why not have a shot at it. After removing the back cover, this is what I saw:

And a little closer:

So yeah. Whoever or whatever installed the SD card shoved it in so hard that it broke the receiver. I did my best to get it situated back like it should be, but it didn’t do any good. The 45000 is completely unusable without access to the SD card, so I called up Musician’s Friend, ordered a replacement 45000, and will be sending back this one for my refund. There are other stories around the internet of these loopers arriving broken. Like I mentioned before, I’d read them and had prepared for that possibility. I’m still angry. This is such a massive disappointment. GET IT TOGETHER, EHX. The proper positioning of the inserted SD card has it still hanging out by about a centimeter. That looks wrong to me too, but the people responsible for inserting the cards before they get to customers should know how hard to push the thing in! Come on. Ugh.

Anyway, I really hope the next one arrives in working condition. I would go with a Boss RC-300 if it had something like the 45000’s mixdown track, but I don’t think it does. (If that’s incorrect, please let me know!) If the replacement 45000 arrives and isn’t in working condition, I really don’t know what to do. If that were to happen, what should I do? I want a working 45000, but I can’t keep returning broken ones.