Mxr smart gate m135 on 51503

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Codeski6689

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I just purchased a mxr smart gate M135 and I'm wondering where to put it in the effects.

Should it go in front or in through the 51503 effects loop.

In front I have...
Crybaby wah, flanger, phaser

In the effects loop I have
Reverb, chorus, and delay.

With the effects button 'on'... I get I high hum and just trying to minimize it without killing to much sound quality.

Appreciate all advise
 
It sounds like the hum is being caused by the effects in the loop, so it needs to go there. That said, you will surely get replies asking how the pedals are powered, and questioning ground loop issues between them. You may not even need the gate if you get that sorted out, but it depends on if you're playing high gain. I like a gate in front to cut feedback, and would only gate the loop if the preamp hiss is bothersome with high gain. It sounds like you have something else going on. A gate in the loop after those effects, especially the reverb and delay will be problematic and alter their effectiveness.
 
Filter500 said:
It sounds like the hum is being caused by the effects in the loop, so it needs to go there. That said, you will surely get replies asking how the pedals are powered, and questioning ground loop issues between them. You may not even need the gate if you get that sorted out, but it depends on if you're playing high gain. I like a gate in front to cut feedback, and would only gate the loop if the preamp hiss is bothersome with high gain. It sounds like you have something else going on. A gate in the loop after those effects, especially the reverb and delay will be problematic and alter their effectiveness.
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The pedals are powered by Gator power supply that gets hooked into the wall.

It's definitely in the effects loop.

It's a evh 51503 100wat head on a 4x12 cabinet also evh.

I'm just using the effect loop with the reverb, chorus and delay... Should I move the chorus to the front so it's in between the guitar and amp?
 
I would remove all pedals from the loop and engage the effects button to see if the hum is still there. If it is, try putting the gate first in the loop. If not, try one pedal at a time and combinations in the loop to figure out when the hum appears. If it's a combination of pedals, I would look at alternative power.
 
Filter500 said:
I would remove all pedals from the loop and engage the effects button to see if the hum is still there. If it is, try putting the gate first in the loop. If not, try one pedal at a time and combinations in the loop to figure out when the hum appears. If it's a combination of pedals, I would look at alternative power.
Click to expand...

Will do and really appreciate your input ☺️
 
Filter500 said:
A gate in the loop after those effects, especially the reverb and delay will be problematic and alter their effectiveness.
Click to expand...
That's why you place a noise gate first in the effects-loop, so that
-any pedal after it gets a cleaner, less noisy/hummy signal
-it won't cut off reverb and delay trails.

A real 'hum' is typically more a problem of power supply issues or maybe a fluorescent light or dimmer in the room on the same group as your amp.
With high gain amps (provided you're using humbuckers, not single coils) it's typically mostly hiss and some minor hum.

One thing that I found in the past, when I was using a large pedal board with a bunch of pre-amp effects and a bunch of fx-loop effects, is when I was daisychaining one pre-amp effect on the same chain that was also powering one or more fx-loop effects, that caused a ground-loop, thus hum.

This means that you REALLY need to keep your pre-amp effects isolated from the fx-loop ones, and if that Gator power supply doesn't have real isolated outputs, then I'd look there first.
 
Speeddemon said:
That's why you place a noise gate first in the effects-loop, so that
-any pedal after it gets a cleaner, less noisy/hummy signal
-it won't cut off reverb and delay trails.

A real 'hum' is typically more a problem of power supply issues or maybe a fluorescent light or dimmer in the room on the same group as your amp.
With high gain amps (provided you're using humbuckers, not single coils) it's typically mostly hiss and some minor hum.

One thing that I found in the past, when I was using a large pedal board with a bunch of pre-amp effects and a bunch of fx-loop effects, is when I was daisychaining one pre-amp effect on the same chain that was also powering one or more fx-loop effects, that caused a ground-loop, thus hum.

This means that you REALLY need to keep your pre-amp effects isolated from the fx-loop ones, and if that Gator power supply doesn't have real isolated outputs, then I'd look there first.
Click to expand...


Thank you I appreciate it. I'll check it soon.
 
Did you get it sorted?
I ask because I recently added a noise suppressor (Boss) to my rig and I've also had my fair share of ground loop issues, FX loop issues, power supply, tubes, etc. Double check tubes too if you've exhausted everything else. I also got a GFI tester.
 
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