Trying to cut noise in chain. Need suggestions on options

[romanianreaper]

I got my Supro Keeley this week (great little combo btw!) and running all of my Keeley pedals into it with a TC Electronics Sentry pedal at the end of the chain. Although I'm using the Sentry, still getting a fair amount of noise.

I wanted to mention a few things I'm planning on doing and seeing what you guys think. I know we have everything from bedroom players to professional here so I know there is a bunch of options. I don't want to spend a ton of money because it is just my small setup for fun but still would like to cut noise a bit.

First off, I'm going to plug into different outlets at my house and see if there is a big difference but am sure it will be the same thing. I have a bunch of no-name cables between the pedals so thought about getting something of higher quality for start. I'm sure they are not that great.

My friend mentioned getting a Furman power strip since I need one anyway and it will cut out more of the noise coming thru my house electrical. I'm covered with the Sentry noise gate so that is not anything I need to look into. I guess I'll look at my guitar cables too and see if any are more noisy but they are all top brands like D'Addario and Planet Waves, etc.

I have the Voodoo Lab Pedal Power 2 to power the pedal board. Not sure how much it is supposed to cut down on noise but just figured I'd mention it. Any other suggestions would be good. The noise is not horrible by any means, especially using high gain pedals but I want to get my overall tone as noise free as possible. Thanks!

 

[maddnotez]

Furman is always a good decision, even if you don't always need it.

Other things that come to mind are Valvulator (although very large) or maybe Friedman Pedalboard with their buffer bay.

I think if dirty power is the problem maybe the only thing that can help is the Furman?

 

[romanianreaper]

Furman is always a good decision, even if you don't always need it.

Other things that come to mind are Valvulator (although very large) or maybe Friedman Pedalboard with their buffer bay.

I think if dirty power is the problem maybe the only thing that can help is the Furman?

Thanks man! Yeah, I originally was going to get the Friedman and decided it was probably a bit much as a bedroom player, etc. I agree that the Furman is good regardless because I need to have a powerstrip of some kind, if nothing else to protect the equipment.

I wasn't sure how big of a deal patch cables are but seems like a few people have cleaned up their tone a bit switching some of those out too.

 

[SFW]

Just went through a similar thing. Ended up getting rid of a bunch of pedals. It it created excess noise or caused tone suck then I pulled it off my board. A good power conditioner will work wonders.

 

[romanianreaper]

Just went through a similar thing. Ended up getting rid of a bunch of pedals. It it created excess noise or caused tone suck then I pulled it off my board. A good power conditioner will work wonders.

Thanks man! Yeah, it is amazing how each little piece of the puzzle just compounds into this big mess of noise. I have been out of the pedal world for so long that I'm trying to decipher the code again. LOL

 

[stratjacket]

Another thing to try is a UPS with AVR (Automatic Voltage Regulation). If you have one already hooked to your PC or something, maybe try that. You can get new one starting around $90 or so, they will be like anything else entry level wise and get better as the price goes up. But even the basic ones will help so your gear is isolated from dirty input electricity from the wall.

 

[skullfxr]

Power conditioners are a must IMO. I run four or five rigs in the shop/studio and never have any noise with a power conditioner. To the point that I don't even use a gate. When I did I just used a decimator. It's in a drawer now.

 

[romanianreaper]

In addition to trying other outlets, I would use process of elimination across your entire rig. Remove one pedal a time, and/or reduce cables one at a time, and see if any one of them is a bigger part of the problem. Or how much noise remains when your guitar volume is all the way off?

I agree with the others about some type of power conditioner. I would also look at whether your pedals are sharing a common power source. I used a Strymon Zuma to ensure all of my pedals were isolated power-wise. I also used an RJM Effect Gizmo so that pedals were taken out of the chain when I didn't need them.

Good luck

Thanks! Yeah, I have a Voodoo Labs with the isolated power sources so covered there but like your idea about taking pedals in and out of the chain and isolating a possible issue. Appreciate it!

 

[skullfxr]

always divide and conquer, start with nothing, add pedals in one at a time. i would recommend going with a battery as opposed to an adapter just while setting things up.

but seriously get a power conditioner. that with a good pedal power supply has always fixed my problems.

 

[romanianreaper]

always divide and conquer, start with nothing, add pedals in one at a time. i would recommend going with a battery as opposed to an adapter just while setting things up.

but seriously get a power conditioner. that with a good pedal power supply has always fixed my problems.

Thanks dude! Yeah, I think the power conditioner is a great start because I don't want to just be plugging the amp and pedalboard into the wall anyway. I need something to protect the equipment so that might tame the noise enough that I can use a better setting on the noise gate pedal.

 

[skullfxr]

always divide and conquer, start with nothing, add pedals in one at a time. i would recommend going with a battery as opposed to an adapter just while setting things up.

but seriously get a power conditioner. that with a good pedal power supply has always fixed my problems.

Thanks dude! Yeah, I think the power conditioner is a great start because I don't want to just be plugging the amp and pedalboard into the wall anyway. I need something to protect the equipment so that might tame the noise enough that I can use a better setting on the noise gate pedal.

I retired my noise gate when I got a power conditioner. You can also get them with a battery backup. Which is another benefit.

 

[Pentatonic Wanker]

Only scanned the responses quickly, so not sure if this was mentioned but make sure your guitar is properly grounded. Check that the bridge and switches are grounded, as well as the pots and pickups. Correct grounding makes a huge difference in noise.

 

[skullfxr]

Only scanned the responses quickly, so not sure if this was mentioned but make sure your guitar is properly grounded. Check that the bridge and switches are grounded, as well as the pots and pickups. Correct grounding makes a huge difference in noise.

That is a good point.

 

[romanianreaper]

Only scanned the responses quickly, so not sure if this was mentioned but make sure your guitar is properly grounded. Check that the bridge and switches are grounded, as well as the pots and pickups. Correct grounding makes a huge difference in noise.

Yeah, definitely a good thing to bring up. I have a few different guitars varying between all stock, humbuckers versus single coils, different levels of pickup gain, etc. and plugged them all in. There is a bit of a difference between them but getting noise with all.

Appreciate the reply man. It has been interesting trying to figure out what it going on with the noise and teaching me a bit about pedal chains, etc.