Home › Forums › Help/Technical Questions › HELP! Small Stone Interference Sound?
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March 6, 2009 at 9:08 pm #77850mattcaseyMember
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!
March 20, 2009 at 11:40 am #94712coolbus18ParticipantI am also getting radio with my lpb-1 through my Vox VT30 amp. Same here help! :rawk:
March 20, 2009 at 12:47 pm #94713electro-melxModeratorIt 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!!
March 20, 2009 at 1:47 pm #94714coolbus18ParticipantQuote: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!!
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.
March 20, 2009 at 3:54 pm #94718electro-melxModeratorno 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.
March 20, 2009 at 10:26 pm #94734mattcaseyMembermy 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!
March 21, 2009 at 12:25 am #94736BlueSteelParticipantQuote: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!!
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.
April 10, 2009 at 9:02 pm #95539MFTechMemberI 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
April 21, 2009 at 5:51 pm #95900mattcaseyMemberit seems to be cleaned up a bit now. RF is lower than it was before and i can manage.
April 21, 2009 at 6:07 pm #95903MFTechMemberGood 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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