Picking up radio on SBMV?

[cajone5]

I was playing last night and ended up catching some Wallflowers Sixth Avenue Heartache coming through my SBMV with the volume on the amp cranked. I switched all my other pedals on and off and the SBMV was the one picking up the radio stations. It got louder as I increased the amplitude knob. Anyone know why this may have happened and what, if anything, I need to do to keep it from happening again?

[voxdefiant]

Hi, I have had this problem with mine too. Where is it in your chain?
I think I put it first, after a cornish ld-1, and solved the problem, but need to refresh my memory.
Will go play around. I sometimes get bad, bad radio signals through my Apt.
I had a regular green minivibe and it never picked up radio signals. I wish pedals/ and amps could be entirely vaccinated against radio signals.
I find it SUPER annoying.

[cajone5]

I have it first in my chain. Never tried it after a buffer but I have it before my fuzz/drive section and those don't play well after a buffer so that's not really an option. I wonder why the regular MGMV didn't do it. The only difference between the SBMV and MGMV is the extra footswitch and the extra trimmers, oh and the box (IIRC). I wonder if the SBMV box Donner uses doesn't shield as well as the one BJ uses?

[voxdefiant]

I tried it on a different amp and sitting in a different part of the room and no radio signals at all now, so maybe it is just where a pedal is?
Not sure. It is kind of mysterious?

[cajone5]

Yea, who knows. It only happened once and could be due to any number of factors. I appreciate the extra thought that BJ put into creating this -- not only is it the greatest vibe ever it also functions as a radio!

But seriously, I'm not too worried about it. If it happens again I'll try moving things my gear and myself around. It was quite faint at high volume on my amp so in most realistic situations no one would hear it anyway. Still one of my favorite pedals -- especially with amplitude at 0 as a sweetener. If only I could get THAT sound in a pedal... maybe SBEQ or PGC?

[BJF]

Hi,

Well the last time I had radiorecepition in my gear was when I was was rehearsing on top of the Islandic/Yuguslavian Friendship Association and could tune between Radio Moscow and Radio Luxemburg via the volume and tone controls on my guitar and the wha wha....and only when I wasn't playing....

Now there's no difference in sheilding capabilities of the boxes used for MGMV and SMBV and yes I do know how to build a radio allthough it was very many years ago I went through radio repair course

Right, let's see to fully vaccinate one would have to look at the whole system and see also specific grounding where antennas can be created and how one can disturb them


As a funny note my local submarine engineer would say about using single coil pick ups that those are inferior and have a lot of problems picking up disturbances, but then when he plays music he's bassist;)
He'd have these examples that he'd qoute hehehe

Another fun thing is something Scott Henderson told me about why he changed pick ups on his strat to humcancelling: he said that after 9/11 radio masts got significantly lower and radio interference when gigging got a lot worse in NYC to intolerable and then he also said he'd wired a tone for the bridge pick up and told what the LA people said onto eachother 'Tone On Two' meaning set tone on two for thicker tone

Not above how you can tune antennas when created.

Also some spots are more prone to disturbances and then one must be very thourough or move position.

Oh yes one can eliminate disturbances if one can access to the whole system and run the system in an environment that is prone to disturbances and one can isolate.

Have fun
BJ