Home › Forums › Help/Technical Questions › Does your LittleBigMuff pop loudly when engaged?

Viewing 15 posts - 16 through 30 (of 30 total)
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  • December 31, 2008 at 8:42 pm #89908
    electro-melx
    Moderator

    my LBM is fine, but some of my others pop….my soul preacher does.

    December 31, 2008 at 9:02 pm #89910
    Ned Flanders
    Moderator

    Ya know, I don’t have one pedal that pops.

    January 5, 2009 at 4:09 am #90084
    devnulljp
    Participant
    Quote:
    You don’t need to replace the switch these switches are good for 30,000 cycles, to fix this problem will cost you 20cents.
    Solder a 4.7Meg resistor form input to ground and from output to ground.
    That’s from the first silver band to the last silver band on each black plastic jack inside.
    This will totally remove any pop.

    As I understand it, that will load down your bypass signal and doesn’t apply a pulldown to the coupling capacitors. Pulldown resistors should go on the switch itself.

    Pulldown Resistors

    April 20, 2009 at 12:06 am #95850
    Muffit
    Member
    Quote:
    Here’s a diagram I done for you.

    ANTI-POP.png

    I finally got around to trying your suggestion Ned, but no luck. It still pops the same way it always has. It only pops when turned on and not when turned off. I used the exact resistors you recommended and cleanly soldered them onto the exact points you said and still nothing. Is it possible I need a new switch like some here have suggested?

    April 20, 2009 at 1:07 am #95852
    devnulljp
    Participant
    Quote:
    I finally got around to trying your suggestion Ned, but no luck. It still pops the same way it always has. It only pops when turned on and not when turned off. I used the exact resistors you recommended and cleanly soldered them onto the exact points you said and still nothing. Is it possible I need a new switch like some here have suggested?

    I’ve had a couple of wah pedals that popped loudly when engaged–one so badly I almost chucked it out. After lots of futsing around with nothing working, I found that raising the switch a bit worked. It’s an easy thing to try: if it works, great; if not, it’s no big loss. (I know, it’s homeopathy for your pedals now…sorry).
    Try it and see? Most it will cost you is 10 minutes of your time. After that, I’d try a new switch. I’ve seen schems wit ha pulldown resistor on the switch itself too. My DAM RamHead muff clone has a resistor on the sustain potI’m sure there’s a good reason for.

    April 20, 2009 at 7:08 pm #95868
    Howard Davis
    Member

    Footswitch pop has several possible causes, and sometimes is not internal to the pedal at all but is caused by DC leakage or other problems with the amp or another pedal. Installing pulldown resistors will not always help, and properly designed pedals already have them. When you have alot of gain following the switch, as in the Big Muff, the pop is amplified and can be intolerably loud. Whatever the cause, if it is internal to the pedal, I can fix it.

    Guitar pedal design engineering, repairs, and custom mods:
    http://howard.davis2.home.att.net/

    April 20, 2009 at 10:32 pm #95877
    Muffit
    Member

    Thanks Mr. Davis. I’d visited your site before and learned quite a bit from it actually.

    My LBM is 9V battery operated and the pop only occurs when turning it on, not when turning it off. I truly believe it’s an internal problem, because rearranging the signal chain, or just taking the pedal out of the chain completely, yields the same exact result: a loud pop when turned on. None of my other pedals do this and the LBM makes the same pop with different amps. Furthermore, the resistors I soldered onto the jacks yesterday seem to have no effect whatsoever on the pedal. Could they stay in place or should I remove them?

    I’m going to talk to a local technician first and see if he can help, but if he can’t take care of it I’ll be contacting you next. Thanks again!

    April 21, 2009 at 5:26 pm #95897
    Howard Davis
    Member

    Hi Muffit,

    As the resistors you added didn’t reduce the pop, you should remove them – they are unnecessarily loading the input and output, although if they are above 2.2M or so the loading effect is negligible.

    It does sound like you have a problem with the pedal. If you want to send it to me for repair, please email me at howard.davis2@att.net.

    Guitar pedal design engineering, repairs, and custom mods:
    http://howard.davis2.home.att.net/

    May 16, 2009 at 2:29 pm #96755
    chev
    Participant

    Hum, I just bought two used but mint condition Bass Big Muff and Big Muff Wicker and they does that same problem…

    I’ll have a look for that resistor mod(thanks for the info, BTW).

    I guess for the price I paid it’s not too bad but it’s unexpected from a new generation product.

    May 16, 2009 at 7:10 pm #96770
    devnulljp
    Participant

    Did you try raising the switch a couple of turns?
    Really, I’ve cured pop in a few vintage pedals that way.

    May 20, 2009 at 2:46 pm #96880
    chev
    Participant
    Quote:
    Did you try raising the switch a couple of turns?
    Really, I’ve cured pop in a few vintage pedals that way.

    How do you do that?

    thanks

    May 20, 2009 at 4:21 pm #96882
    devnulljp
    Participant
    Quote:
    Quote:
    Did you try raising the switch a couple of turns?
    Really, I’ve cured pop in a few vintage pedals that way.

    How do you do that?

    thanks

    Loosen the nut on the top of the switch. Once the nut is loose enough, adjust the inner nut on the switch on the inside of the pedal. Turn the nut in 1/4 to 1/2 turns ONLY. A little goes a long way. Raise the switch action by lowering (closer to the switch body) the round nut. Finger tighten the top hex nut and try it out. Repeat until you get it perfect for what you want. Some switches have little plastic washers — removing one of them will also raise the switch.
    It might work and it’s an free and easy fix to try before getting into other things.

    May 20, 2009 at 4:28 pm #96883
    chev
    Participant

    excellent!

    I’ll try that for sure.

    thanks a lot.

    May 24, 2009 at 7:46 pm #96982
    devnulljp
    Participant

    If that doesn’t work, here’s some more good info to really track down the problem.
    http://www.diystompboxes.com/smfforum/index.php?topic=43035.msg311544#msg311544
    http://www.diystompboxes.com/smfforum/index.php?topic=38789.msg275394#msg275394

    May 25, 2009 at 2:36 pm #97003
    chev
    Participant

    All my popping problem was related to one bad wire in fornt of them.

    This reduce the Signal to Noise Ratio so badly!

    So practically all the pedal after that defect wire was popping like hell and give only 20% of there gain…

    Now, I have no pop anymore and it Fuzz 100%!

    My pedal are still noisy even with the TU-2 On (which mean everything should be mute…)

    But the 2 Big Muff at full Sustain and Boost are so powerful they boost whatever signal or noise left at there input…

    But for the wall of Fuzz they give me…I can live with…hehe!

    I wonder if I can put a NS-2 somewhere in there to reduce that? I’ll test that.

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