Grateful Dead Music Forum

Hi all:

This has been a hassle for some time, but finally I just can;t stand it anymore and feel it's time to address it. My Jerry rack contains (in addition to an SMS and Mac 2505) a pull-out tray of various effects pedals routed through a GCX switcher, so each can be used in isolation or in combination with others. Pretty standard approach. The problem is that whatever distortion pedal I put in there hisses like a banshee when its loop is engaged. All other effects are dead quiet, and rig with no effects engaged is dead quiet.

I started with a Boss OD2-R, which was noisy as hell, then switched it out for a BYOC 250+ (distortion + clone) which has the same problem. I also use a mild overdrive (Timmy), mostly for thickening/edge of breakup stuff, but that one has no noise issues, and, in any event, does not give you the "angry bees" Jerry-tone.

Is this just a problem inherent to all "distortion" type circuits? Or are there Jerry-ish distortion pedals might be quieter than these two?

Any potential fixes, as I do like both of these pedals and would use either one if they were quieter?

Rig gurus, please help!

Does your guitar have the OBEL?

Not yet. Soon, though!

What happens when you plug the guitar straight into the OD (powered with a battery) and then the OD straight into the amp? Same noise?

Gain pedals especially with the gain turned up high, are inherently noisy. But I would first isolate it to the pedal by itself by taking the GCX out of the equation, as it could be a variety of things -- power supply issue, ground loop, patch cable, etc.

Good point. I will try the pedals on their own tonight and see what I discover. Thanks for the suggestion.

I'm using an sms > carvin dcm 200 and my dirt pedals sound like shit. Ive got the gain knob up to 1 o clock, maybe thats too high for boost pedals? I have two distinctly different distortion pedals and they both sound very similar when i turn them on with the pre in the 1 o clock position... lame. If I turned them way down, gain and level, I can get a soft od kinda grit, but thats it. It goes from light to bees quickly.

Not meant to hijack! But similar issue i guess.

As for your noise, check your power supply, and patch cables running in that loop, probably something simple if its happening on two different pedals, either that, or your real unlucky!

hippieguy1954 wrote:Does your guitar have the OBEL?

HeadSpace wrote:Not yet. Soon, though!

The OBEL will make them quiet

try a dedicated seperater power supply for the distortion spot on the loop. if you are using a multi-power supply to power all the pedals this issue will come up.

Yet another good suggestion to try out tonight. Many thanks...

Another vote for getting the OBEL. I run the MXRs (block logo and Series 2000), the OD2, and a TS808, and there really is no noise--except for the clean noise of overdrive. I can tell you that without the OBEL, my gain structure is all over the place, and that has a lot to do with balancing effect levels.

Until you get the OBEL, you might want to try batteries to see if the noise you are experiencing is really a ground issue caused by the external supply.

Distortion pedals are quite simply based on LOTS of gain to achieve the clipping effect. Any hum, buzz, or noise that the pickups "pick up" out of the air will be greatly amplified with all that gain. Dirt pedals will always make noise a lot louder, more noisy. It's not the pedal typically, it's the gain factor. The unfortunate thing for us Jerry heads is that we use single coil, non-humbucking pickups. It's kind of the nature of the beast. But without specifically identifying the type of noise you're struggling with, it's hard to know if this is an issue that can be addressed or if it's simply life with single coils and high-gain dirt pedals.

Brad

HeadSpace wrote:Hi all:

This has been a hassle for some time, but finally I just can;t stand it anymore and feel it's time to address it. My Jerry rack contains (in addition to an SMS and Mac 2505) a pull-out tray of various effects pedals routed through a GCX switcher, so each can be used in isolation or in combination with others. Pretty standard approach. The problem is that whatever distortion pedal I put in there hisses like a banshee when its loop is engaged. All other effects are dead quiet, and rig with no effects engaged is dead quiet.

I started with a Boss OD2-R, which was noisy as hell, then switched it out for a BYOC 250+ (distortion + clone) which has the same problem. I also use a mild overdrive (Timmy), mostly for thickening/edge of breakup stuff, but that one has no noise issues, and, in any event, does not give you the "angry bees" Jerry-tone.

Is this just a problem inherent to all "distortion" type circuits? Or are there Jerry-ish distortion pedals might be quieter than these two?

Any potential fixes, as I do like both of these pedals and would use either one if they were quieter?

Rig gurus, please help!

Can you please post your signal chain? Also, what other effects are you using and in what sequence? If, for instance, you're using a compressor after the distortion, that will greatly increase the volume of the hum. You might want to try one of these, which will kill the noise: http://www.isptechnologies.com/portfoli ... ro-g-rack/