Dunlop wah buzz

  • Thread starter Thread starter GregM
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GregM

GregM

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I've been hearing more buzz for the last couple months than I remember and I finally got around to diagnosing it this weekend. I have a gate in the loop so I'm not so much worried about a little bit of noise when not playing, but with or without my 535Q engaged, as long as it's in the signal chain I'm getting more buzz than I'm comfortable with while playing. It's in front of the amp. Any time I let a chord or note sustain and fade then the buzz is pretty unacceptable and will show up on a recording.

I'm powering it with a wall wart pedalboard power supply, daisy chained to the pedals instead of the crappy circuit board on the pedalboard, and the power supply is plugged into a power conditioner. None of the other pedals seem to be affecting this one. I don't remember the pedal being this noisy up until this summer so I'm thinking the issue is either with the power supply or the pedal itself.

Is the 535Q that noisy and I just never noticed it before? Should I try something like a Voodoo Labs Pedal Power before condemning the pedal? (I'm wanting a JC95 anyway but didn't want to spend the money unless this one quit)
 
i assume this is an electronic type of buzz, like the hum from single-coil pickups, not a physical type of buzz, like from buzzing strings?

a couple things you might try, for an electronic type of buzz:

daisy-chaining pedal power cables can introduce ground loops, which causes hum that sounds kind of like single-coil pickups. try taking the other pedals out of the chain and plugging the power adapter straight into the wah.

sometimes the bottom plate on my Dunlop wahs isn't making electrical contact with the wah shell, and so the bottom plate is not providing any shielding from electric fields in the room (like from florescent lights). my fix for that is to scrape paint off the place in the wah shell where the screws go in, down to bare metal, so the bottom plate when screwed on can make electrical contact with ground. i check with a voltmeter to make sure.
 
Thanks for the suggestions.

To the first poster, no, changing settings in the pedal didn't alter the noise.

The daisy chain I was using was intended to be temporary at best and this forced me to dump it. I picked up an MXR Iso Brick but that didn't change anything. I needed it anyway.

When that didn't work I said screw it and ordered the Cantrell wah rather than opening up the 535.
 
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