Home Forums Help/Technical Questions HELP! Small Stone Interference Sound?

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  • #77850
    mattcasey
    Member

    Hey, I have a Russian Small Stone. I bought it used a couple months ago and it was working fine until last weekend. Now it sounds like it’s picking up some radio frequencies and making a “wooshing” noise even when nothing is played through it.

    When I do play guitar through it, I get both the wooshing frequency and my phased guitar sound, which get kind of muddy together.

    I noticed that if I put my foot (I was wearing a sock at the time) on the Color Switch, the pedal stops picking up frequencies and stops making the wooshing sound altogether and my guitar played through it sounds like it should. I also noticed that if I have my foot on the black casing of the pedal (again with a sock on at the time I tested this), the wooshing sound died down some, but was still audible.

    I’m not really familiar with how electronics work, but could someone help me understand what’s going on here and how I can fix it? I called a guitar store in town and they said it was probably a bad cord but that they don’t work on pedals at all. I’ve changed the cords out, and obviously it made no difference. I also tried using a different battery, and different power adapters, but still have the same issue.

    If anyone has any ideas on how to fix it, I’d love to hear them, thanks!

    #94712
    coolbus18
    Participant

    I am also getting radio with my lpb-1 through my Vox VT30 amp. Same here help! :rawk:

    #94713
    electro-melx
    Moderator

    It could be many things, there are loads of radio signals floating around in the air, you/your guitar/your cables/your pedals can all pick this up.

    any kind of pedal can work as an amplifier to boost these signals and your guitar and cable make a great antenna… but usually boosts and overdrives are the worst because they are amplifying the signal more.

    they usually get worse when you have a shielding or grounding issue. Cheap cables can make it worse, unpotted pickups, badly shielded guitars, coiled cables, faulty amplifiers, badly earthed pedals, pedals in plastic boxes.

    Radio waves are really easy to pick up unfortunatly, power filters can help too, so can noise gates….

    this is all it takes to pick up radio signals!!

    http://www.mutr.co.uk/product_info.php?products_id=728

    #94714
    coolbus18
    Participant
    Quote:
    It could be many things, there are loads of radio signals floating around in the air, you/your guitar/your cables/your pedals can all pick this up.

    any kind of pedal can work as an amplifier to boost these signals and your guitar and cable make a great antenna… but usually boosts and overdrives are the worst because they are amplifying the signal more.

    they usually get worse when you have a shielding or grounding issue. Cheap cables can make it worse, unpotted pickups, badly shielded guitars, coiled cables, faulty amplifiers, badly earthed pedals, pedals in plastic boxes.

    Radio waves are really easy to pick up unfortunatly, power filters can help too, so can noise gates….

    this is all it takes to pick up radio signals!!

    http://www.mutr.co.uk/product_info.php?products_id=728

    Firat of all thanks. Second I I suspected that the boost and

    cable length Could combine with some frequencies and boost otherwise innocuous signals. Ah the laws of magnetism. I am going to pot my pick ups. Once again thanks for the thoughts.

    #94718
    electro-melx
    Moderator

    no problem, sorry I can’t give you a more exact idea of how to solve the problem, it’s something we’ve all suffered with at some point.

    #94734
    mattcasey
    Member

    my bet is something came ungrounded. i was playing with it one day, then the next i had this issue even when i’d switch out cables. took it to get repaired though, i’ll let you know!

    #94736
    BlueSteel
    Participant
    Quote:
    It could be many things, there are loads of radio signals floating around in the air, you/your guitar/your cables/your pedals can all pick this up.

    any kind of pedal can work as an amplifier to boost these signals and your guitar and cable make a great antenna… but usually boosts and overdrives are the worst because they are amplifying the signal more.

    they usually get worse when you have a shielding or grounding issue. Cheap cables can make it worse, unpotted pickups, badly shielded guitars, coiled cables, faulty amplifiers, badly earthed pedals, pedals in plastic boxes.

    Radio waves are really easy to pick up unfortunatly, power filters can help too, so can noise gates….

    this is all it takes to pick up radio signals!!

    http://www.mutr.co.uk/product_info.php?products_id=728

    I somewhat often pick up radio waves and stuff through my amp. also sometimes if a neighbor is using, for example, an electric saw, i get this high pitched sound through my amp.

    #95539
    MFTech
    Member

    I am a tech in Omaha, NE & have been trying to troubleshoot this pedal without any success… here’s some details…

    -The pedal is a USSR model w/black painted case.
    -RF is present when pedal is engaged & once phasor begins to oscillate. (takes a second or so)
    -RF is still audible when guitar volume is turned down.
    -I compared the pedal to a new NYC small stone in same environment & with same cables… the new one is quiet & no RF present.
    -RF appears to floating on ground plane. grounding signal at any point apart from output jack makes RF louder. Disconnecting all grounds to case reduces RF.
    -Installing cap at input jack to ground makes no difference. Actually makes problem worse.
    -Replaced all ICs, transistors, and caps… no difference.
    -Techs at EH didn’t have any insight… they said it is prone to RF to some degree.

    This one baffles me… my conclusion is it’s something with the layout of grounds on the PCB. Not having another USSR model to compare, its hard to know for sure… Only components I haven’t changed are coupling caps, & resistors… Hmmmmm.

    marc

    #95900
    mattcasey
    Member

    it seems to be cleaned up a bit now. RF is lower than it was before and i can manage.

    #95903
    MFTech
    Member

    Good to hear, Matt… Next time we get a USSR model in I will check it out & will let you know how it compares…

    Marc – Russo’s
    Omaha, NE

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