BJFE / BearFoot fx Guitar Effects Community

I seem to have some extra DC voltage in my chain causing some pedals to "pop" when I turn them on or off. Anyone have an idea how to cure this?

hawaii121 wrote:I seem to have some extra DC voltage in my chain causing some pedals to "pop" when I turn them on or off. Anyone have an idea how to cure this?

Hi Donnel,

what power supply are you using? I use PP2+ and have splitter cables, so some pedals share one ground. I have found that this can cause the “pop” sound that you described. I haven’t found a solution to it so I am also interested in hearing what others have to say.

Hum... I'm using the pp2+ and a trex fuel tank jr with all pedals isolated to their own jack.

hawaii121 wrote:Hum... I'm using the pp2+ and a trex fuel tank jr with all pedals isolated to their own jack.

Donnel,

The wall outlets you are using are properly grounded right?

I recently noticed that the wall outlet I was using was not grounded so i changed all my guitar rig to a different outlet that is well grounded and i get less ‘popping’ sounds.

Look forward to what others have to say.

I do live in an older house which makes the wall outlet a strong contender. I'm gonna start there and see what happens. If still a problem I'll go through all my pedals and see which one is the culprit. I'll report back...

hawaii121 wrote:I do live in an older house which makes the wall outlet a strong contender. I'm gonna start there and see what happens. If still a problem I'll go through all my pedals and see which one is the culprit. I'll report back...

Sounds good! Let us know what you find.

Checking each pedal is a good idea. I remember I had a Malekko Spring chicken and that pedal was prone for popping sounds when stepped one.

Man this has been a journey! I think I may have finally solved the problem after checking every pedal, cable (DC and patch), and diving into my pre amp tubes. Not 100% sure yet, but the problem SEEMS to be from a bad pre-amp tube in V1. I have had amazing help coming from both Bjorn and Ed (toneczar) both of which have graciously answered emails about trouble shooting this. I will say this - Both Bjorn and Ed are hands down some of the most incredibly dedicated and generous human beings I have ever had contact with - unbelievable (Donner is no slouch either)!

As some of you may know, my wife and I had our first child 3 weeks ago so I haven't been spending a tone of time with my gear so the process of trouble shooting is taking about 5 times as long as it should. I'm not complaining, couldn't be happier.

hawaii121 wrote:Man this has been a journey! I think I may have finally solved the problem after checking every pedal, cable (DC and patch), and diving into my pre amp tubes. Not 100% sure yet, but the problem SEEMS to be from a bad pre-amp tube in V1. I have had amazing help coming from both Bjorn and Ed (toneczar) both of which have graciously answered emails about trouble shooting this. I will say this - Both Bjorn and Ed are hands down some of the most incredibly dedicated and generous human beings I have ever had contact with - unbelievable (Donner is no slouch either)!

As some of you may know, my wife and I had our first child 3 weeks ago so I haven't been spending a tone of time with my gear so the process of trouble shooting is taking about 5 times as long as it should. I'm not complaining, couldn't be happier.

Congratulations! Is it a girl or a boy?

Thanks for keeping us posted! Next time i experience popping pedals, i will see if the pre-amp has anything to do with it.

Yeah congrats Donnel !!!!!!! Hope you have a good set of headphones ; ]

and yes that popping could be anything that side of the speaker reacting to the pedal change....

I usually start by putting a similar pedal in the same spot to see if its really the pedal ...

thanks for well wishes - baby boy - can't wait till I can teach him to surf already got him listening to Abbey Road.

I guess most amps rely on the V1 tube to buffer out any stray DC current. Seems I had more than one dud preamp tube so it wasn't till the third that I was able to get a zero reading on the multi meter.

Prior to figuring this out I ended up going through all my pedals, patch cables, and DC links. The 2nd bad preamp tube threw me off the trail until Ed explained what to test for in the amp. Bjorn also directed me to check cables. In the process I also uncovered 2 bad patch cables and a bad DC link cable which were adding a lot of noise to my line (all my cables are soldered so this was due to crappy solder work by me ). If you can not find DC leakage from any of your pedals, check your amp and cables with a multi-meter set on 200m in the DC settings (sorry for my non-tech lingo). It's normal to see 00.1 to 00.2 in true bypass on the output side, but the amp and buffered pedals should read 00.0. When I have two hands (holding little man) I will type out how to check cables.