Pedal whine

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vvv
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Pedal whine

Post by vvv » Sun Oct 30, 2016 3:45 pm

I have a nice overdrive/boost by Toadworks called, "Meat, Jr."

Recently, it started a low-level whine sound when activated, like a sine wave, no oscillation, just constant.

Would that be a bad cap?

What is the easiest way to diagnose the problem?
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Post by Nick Sevilla » Sun Oct 30, 2016 10:08 pm

Sounds like a component in the feedback portion of the circuit is no longer going to ground, and causing too much feedback.

Without seeing the schematic, impossible to say which one could be the culprit.
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Post by vvv » Mon Oct 31, 2016 4:11 am

OK, that gives me a beginning, thanx.
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Post by Scodiddly » Mon Oct 31, 2016 5:14 pm

How old is it? It usually takes years for caps to go bad.

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Post by vvv » Mon Oct 31, 2016 9:20 pm

I'm guessin' 5-7 years old? Seems to have come out first in 2009 ...

See here.

I really like this pedal when it's working correct.

I have the older Meat pedal also, but prefer the Jr.
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Post by floid » Tue Nov 01, 2016 3:56 am

My ProCo Rat stopped doing this when I replaced the well- abused footswitch.
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Post by vvv » Tue Nov 01, 2016 4:16 am

Hmmm ...

We have a mix session 2-nite; I hope to work on this pedal, and fix some mic and patch cords, this weekend.

As well as clean the battery-acid goop outta a pedal I just got offa the E-bog (full refund).
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Post by Drone » Tue Nov 01, 2016 6:25 am

Does it still make the noise with a shorted jack in the input? Tried on multiple amps/interfaces?

Just trying to rule out bad cables, noisy pickups, jacks, etc.
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Post by vvv » Tue Nov 01, 2016 6:31 am

Haven't tried the shorted jack.

It's more apparent when the pre-amp is gained up, and yep, onna cuppla different amplifiers, with a cuppla different cables, guitars, etc.

It didn't used to do it with a One-Spot, but I'll try and switch that out, I reckon, also.

Basic troubleshootin' first, yep. 8)

The pedal's controls have no effect, and I'm pretty sure it's in the pedal guts.

I will report back.
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Post by Drone » Tue Nov 01, 2016 6:46 am

If a battery quiets it up, could be that the cap they put on the power jack is drying out, and isn't smoothing like it used to.

Assuming they put one on, most do. But yeah, if it does the same on battery with a shorted jack, you've ruled out input noise and power line noise.

Do you have a scope to look at it?
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Post by vvv » Tue Nov 01, 2016 2:05 pm

No, no scope.

And I hate Listerine ... :twisted:
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Post by Drone » Tue Nov 01, 2016 2:11 pm

If you mix with olive juice, can you tell the difference between listerine and vodka? :shock:

Well all the old dodges apply, you can try rigging an audio probe, and tracking the signal, try ithe unit on a battery, short the input jack, etc, etc.

Also never undervalue the worth of taking everything apart, like removing the board, jacks and pot from the case, running some pot and switch cleaer over the salient parts and bolting it all back together again :D
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Post by vvv » Tue Nov 01, 2016 10:24 pm

T'anx!
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Post by vvv » Wed Nov 02, 2016 3:49 pm

Aiight, did all as above.

Shorted cable, different cables = no effect.

Pot and switches are clean, "Fat switch" changes the tone of the whine; no whine if pedal is in bypass.

No problem with the battery - no noise at all.

A couple different power supplies; 1-Spot (9v 1700mA output) gives the whine, a Mr. Power (9v 2A output) oscillates the whine.

Image

Image

Idears?
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Post by vvv » Wed Nov 02, 2016 4:12 pm

So, I just swapped in the older-model Meat pedal and, guess what?

Same f*ckin' problem when using the (admittedly inexpensive) power supplies, chained or just this pedal being powered.

It must be a Microsoft-like "design feature", as a battery works fine. (Interestingly, the original Meat pedal [serial # 005] is all real resistors and such on the board - none of that machine-soldered micro-shite like pictured above.)

Too bad - I really like the sound of the pedals, but I refuse to go on stage or even jam, in 2016, using batteries.

So I ordered a Blackstar Boost so mebbe I'll swap that in, or put the Soul Food back on my board, just use these in the bedio.
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