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playing with pedals

March 4th, 2010 | music

Some days are just better than others when it comes to sounds you’re getting from your gear…today was one of the good days. I switched a few things around with pedal chain. I found that my dirt pedals are great with DGTM –> HotCake –> Boss DS-1. Yep, I said it, the cheapest Boss pedal ever is on my board. Why? Mainly, just to sit there and look cool. Let me explain…

I have a Maxon PH-350 phaser. It’s quite nice, but I had a problem with it…a huge pop when turning the pedal on or off sometimes. Yep, sometimes. One time the switch would be silent; the next time turning it on or off I’d hear a big POP through the amp. ugh.

True bypass pedals can do this sometimes because of being out of the circuit and then jumping into it when turned on. So what’s a good solution to the problem? Buffer it! Boss pedals are not true bypass; they have a buffer. This means when the pedal is off the signal stays strong, but there’s also the chance the pedal/buffer can colour your sound a touch, while a true bypass pedal doesn’t touch your sound while it’s off. People can say what they want about Boss pedals, but I must be honest, they aren’t as bad as people want to make them seem. I also think that the bypass isn’t too bad in them either. Of course I could just get or build a tiny buffer, but this was quicker and cheaper.

So to fix the Maxon switch pop: I was usually running HotCake –> DGTM –> Maxon PH-350. The chances of Maxon popping when turning on/off were greater because of the true bypass pedal in front of it. I wanted to buffer the signal right in front of the Maxon. My new chain goes: DGTM –> HotCake –> DS-1 –> Maxon PH-350. By simply putting the DS-1 in the signal just before the phaser, I have eliminating the POP sound I heard everytime I turned the Maxon on or off. Do I use the DS-1? Eh, I tried it a couple times, but chose to not use it for the most part.

It was a good day…

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