Excessive Noise from pedals

[Junior_]

Hi all,

I'm sort clueless as to why my efx board is making so much noise. I initially thought it's cause of the gain that results in noise/hiss/hum(whatever you call it), so I got a Boss noise suppresor to curb the thing. however it sucks the tone so I'm looking for other alternatives to solve the issue.

I did a trial and error kinda thing by isolating the two drives(just guitars into the two drives then into the amp) to see if the pedals were originally noisy or was it due to other pedals, and guess what, they are surprisingly quiet. Still has some noise but not as bad as when my whole rig is in.

Ok, before I go further... here is how my board lays out. I send my strat(w/ Lace Holy Grails) into:

wah>NS-2(send)>CS-3>TS-7>DS-2>GE-7>fab chorus>TR-2>NS-2(return)
NS-2(output)>DD-6>HG Reverb>amp

I power all my pedals using One-spot except for the reverb which uses it's own power adapter. I once met a sound dude who told me that the noise is due to powering so many pedals with the one-spot. And especially since DD-6 draw much more current thus resulting in noise. Or could it be due to noise being boosted by the other pedals?

Kinda lost as to what to do, so I need some advice from fellow softies who have more experience... Sorry for such a wordy post and thanks in advance.

 

[Godspeed64]

I'd say its the cheap cables there..

Or the fab chorus.. That's notorious for providing noise..

And why worry about tone loss when every pedal in your chain is buffered?

 

[Junior_]

I only used 4 pieces of those, I tried changing out the cheap ones for better quality ones and the problem didn't seem to get resolve.

The fab chorus is actually quiet. I played it alone as well as with the two drives and the noise problem is minimal actually.

It's kinda irritating, you can hear the diff when u on and off the NS-2. there is that drop in volume and it just doesn't sound as good as when u turn it off.

 

[Godspeed64]

I'd still say the cables..

I use Canare GS-4s on my entire board..
Guitar to pedalboard and pedalboard to amp I use Canare GS-6..

I had a shortage of cables at one time (cause I had one extra pedal).. Used an old patch cable, similar to those cheap ones.. And I had noise all over again..

I'll tell you what are the usual culprits..

1) Cables.. Mentioned in detail above already..
2) PSU.. Some pedals need isolated PSUs to reduce noise..
3) Pedals.. Some pedals tend to be noiser when plugged in with others.. Must be something to do with the circuits..
4) Gain.. You're using way too much gain..
5) Amp grounding.. This might not be the case here..
6) Guitar.. Some faulty electronics, or require proper shielding, which again might not be the case here..
7) Pickups.. 60 cycle single coil hum?

You have to simply trial and error.. :mrgreen:

 

[leecs]

I believe send/return are for drive pedals only???????

 

[Junior_]

Godspeed: Hmm ok, the guitars issues are out cause I just sorta overhaul the electronics of my guitar. (wiring, pups, pots etc)

I'm also suspecting the issue lies with the power supply and the layout issues. Cause when the pedals are used alone, they are very quiet. Cep' for the two drives that has slightly more noise. Plus, the DD-6 might also be drawing too much power, what do u think?

If I have the opportunity I would change out the two drives for a drive pedal that has a boost option(something like the T-rex or satchurator) don't know if it helps.

leecs: yah, its for drives, but if i don't do it, the noise is slightly noiser.

 

[subversion]

if you activate more than 1 drive pedals simultaneously, the noise/ hiss is inevitable.

 

[Godspeed64]

I only used 4 pieces of those, I tried changing out the cheap ones for better quality ones and the problem didn't seem to get resolve.

I had a shortage of cables at one time (cause I had one extra pedal).. Used an old patch cable, similar to those cheap ones.. And I had noise all over again..

Read what I wrote.. I had only ONE cheap cable in the midst of Canares, and the noise was obvious.. You have four.. A complete overhaul of cables, like what I did, helped me out..

Like I mentioned, diagnose each possible problem..
If its the guitar, see if another guitar into the same setup causes the same problem.. Then check first guitar direct to amp..
If its the amp, try the guitar into another amp.. And then guitar with pedalboard into another amp..
If its the pedalboard, try out each pedal into the amp.. Then proceed to powering all with batteries (to see if PSU is the problem).. Then proceed to testing out with 2-3 pedals, switching CABLES in between to see if there's any faulty cables.. Then if the problem still persists, get all your cables changed to higher quality ones.. They're an investment IMO..

 

[funktastic]

i've never known that cables could make so much of a difference...
well, i'll keep in mind to have quality cables when i start my own pedal board next time.

 

[dudelove]

quality cables are seriously a worth while investment. i mean u can buy a 200buck pedal, why not just top up a small sum of abt 10bucks and get a good quality patch cable to go with it