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  • July 14, 2009 at 5:30 am #78586
    woodrow
    Member

    My “brand new” big box Pulsar arrived today. The only reason I’m using quotes around “brand new” is because it’s technically unused, but it appears to have been in storage for awhile. I know this particular model was discontinued. It’s got the wooden box, which I think places it even earlier in the final wave of the big box Pulsars. Anyway, it sounds absolutely amazing, but I noticed that it’s a bit loud – par for the course with older EHX pedals, I know, I have loads of ’em – but this is really, REALLY LOUD. When I’m not playing it sounds like… well, I’m sure you can imagine. And unless I’m playing rather hard/loud, the pulsating whoosh intrudes on the softer notes before they even fully decay. I’ve had the wonderful Wiggler for years and that’s a very loud tremolo pedal as well, so I’m guessing it’s just the typical EHX policy – if you want the delicious analog goodness, you’ve gotta deal with some noise.

    Now the other, much more unsettling thing is that when the Pulsar is in BYPASS mode I can still hear a very quiet, but very noticeable “tick-tick-tick-tick-tick” kinda sound faintly coming though my amp… and it turns out that it’s controlled by the RATE knob! I turn it clockwise, the tick-tick-tick gets faster; I twist it all the way backwards to nothing and the ticking completely disappears. Very strange indeed, considering it’s supposed to be hardwire bypass. Is this a defect?? If anyone can help me out at all with either of these problems, I’d really appreciate it.

    Thanks,
    Woody

    July 14, 2009 at 9:17 am #99386
    electro-melx
    Moderator

    I’ve had a grand total of 4 pulsars 2x stereo and 2x big box.

    My first big box was sweet as a nut and I wish to this day that I had kept that one.
    The two Stereos were fine, no problems with those.
    My last Big box had the same tick/tick problem as yours.

    I spoke to ‘puretube’ about it and apparently the early pulsars do it and there isn’t much that can be done apart from putting it in a TB loop or leaving it on all the time.

    It is “a parasitic capacitance bleeding the LFO signal into the audiopath through the PCB layout”

    So basically it’s a ‘fault’ on the early units that I believe EHX sorted out because there’s plenty around that don’t have this problem.

    I ended up selling mine (for a loss) on ebay as ‘faulty’ because I knew that the person I sold it too would have the same problem. I was really pissed off about this at the time and I wouldn’t buy one again unless I could try it first.

    ….and sorry to be the bearer of bad news.

    July 14, 2009 at 6:35 pm #99425
    woodrow
    Member

    Thanks so much for the quick response, it was certainly helpful – even if it is technically bad news. Luckily, this pedal is going to be used exclusively in a studio setting for now, so I can totally work around the problem. Meantime, I’ll keep my eyes open for a later model, which I’ll use for shows. In the past I’ve recorded and toured extensively with the Wiggler as my main trem pedal and it’s absolutely amazing, no doubt it’ll always be in my set-up. The Pulsar is obviously very different, especially with all the variable shape options, which rules.

    July 21, 2009 at 9:46 pm #99814
    LeeR
    Member

    Hi:

    I’m a newbie to this site. I have a problem with my old Pulsar not working at times. I step on the switch and nothing happens. Then, on other occasions, it seems to be fine…any ideas? Thanks!

    LeeR

    July 21, 2009 at 10:58 pm #99817
    electro-melx
    Moderator
    Quote:
    Hi:

    I’m a newbie to this site. I have a problem with my old Pulsar not working at times. I step on the switch and nothing happens. Then, on other occasions, it seems to be fine…any ideas? Thanks!

    LeeR

    it’s probably either a loose wire to or from the switch or the switch itself.

    you could have a look, check the wires all look good… if so you could try a new switch or try spraying some switch cleaner down the switch.

    …either way it sounds like it’s the switch that’s got the problem, or a dodgy wire somewhere.

    July 22, 2009 at 12:25 am #99821
    LeeR
    Member

    Thanks, I’ll give your suggestions a try!

    LeeR

    July 22, 2009 at 3:41 am #99823
    Fender&EHX4ever
    Moderator
    Quote:
    My “brand new” big box Pulsar arrived today. The only reason I’m using quotes around “brand new” is because it’s technically unused, but it appears to have been in storage for awhile. I know this particular model was discontinued. It’s got the wooden box

    those are hard to come by anymore. I’d keep it for the box alone.

    September 6, 2014 at 5:58 pm #120205
    11-A
    Participant

    Came across this thread searching when I had the same problem.

    I emailed EHX and was told that there was no fix for this, they advise moving the wires to reduce noise. So I did some trouble shooting of my own. The below pertains to my unit, maybe not yours..

    I found that the output jack socket is too close to the PCB. A jack plugged into the unit will pick up the ticking at the ‘tip’ connection even when there is no wires connected to the jack socket.

    So ideally you have to move the jack to eliminate the noise. I opted for a rehouse but there are options within the original huge enclosure. Alternatively there is room to add thin shielding between the jack and the PCB, but I’m unsure how effective that would be.

    I should note that simply rotating the output jack socket so that the tip connector (quite large on these open frame style sockets) is furthest away from the PCB significantly reduced the noise – this could explain why some units have a noticeable tick and others do not?

    Sorry for the necro anyway. I just wanted to post my findings in case it helps others. Noise aside, it’s such a cool box!

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