Fairfield Accountant + Dr Scientist Elements

[penelope tree]

I expect that quite a few of you will have combined these two pedals. I'm a bit concerned because I've noticed that the Elements produces a loud hum when engaged at the same time as the Accountant. I have them daisy chained at the moment and it would be irritating if I had to acquire another power supply just for the Elements.

I don't actually intend to use the pedals at the same time very much but I wondered whether they were functioning normally.

[skullservant]

Compressors can add noise to distortion/high gain effects

[Doctor X]

in what order they? and how high is the gain on the elements?

[Ryan]

Is it the kind of hum that goes away when you switch from your bridge pickup to your middle position? There's not a ton that can be done about that and a compressor, especially after a distortion pedal, is inherently designed to accentuate that noise floor. You could try switching to the next lower bass cut on the Elements, would lose some of that low frequency hum.. or lower the Elements gain..if the compressor is making up a lot of gain then you might not lose any overall gain, just lower the noise..

[penelope tree]

Is it the kind of hum that goes away when you switch from your bridge pickup to your middle position? There's not a ton that can be done about that and a compressor, especially after a distortion pedal, is inherently designed to accentuate that noise floor. You could try switching to the next lower bass cut on the Elements, would lose some of that low frequency hum.. or lower the Elements gain..if the compressor is making up a lot of gain then you might not lose any overall gain, just lower the noise..

The Accountant is before the Elements and I think it makes the same hum regardless of the settings on the Elements (but I'll put that to the test when I get the chance). I don't think adjusting the pickups makes much of a difference, but again I'll try that soon.

I'm generally not too concerned about hum or noise but it seemed a bit odd to me that the Elements makes noise when in tandem with the Accountant but the other gain pedals I have after the compressor (MF Drive, Fuzzprint, Geiger Counter CI) don't have the same response. I suppose there could be lots of explanations though!

[Chankgeez]

Yeah, compressors make noise.

Try reducing the pad on the Accountant and then compensate for that by bringing up the volume on the Elements.

That might do something.

[penelope tree]

I've experimented with this a bit and the issue appears to be with the Elements rather than the Accountant. The buzz occurs regardless of settings on the pedal or the guitar and happens even if the pedal is set to produce very little distortion/gain. Adjusting the EQ on the Elements does not affect the sound of the drone. I also tried placing and engaging overdrive/distortion/boost pedals before the Elements and it had the same impact as the Accountant.

Perhaps it is a power issue, I will try another adapter soon.

[Chankgeez]

Does the problem occur with other gain pedals as well or only with the Elements?

[Jero]

Is his Elements perhaps one of the weird ground ones? Might need that wire mod.

[penelope tree]

Does the problem occur with other gain pedals as well or only with the Elements?

Just the Elements.

[Chankgeez]

As Jero said, maybe your Elements has a grounding issue.

[goroth]

What colour is it, and what serial number?

[penelope tree]

Not sure about the serial number but it is a pretty recent version with the nature design.

[goroth]

Then it's correctly grounded so that's not the problem. What power supply are you using?

[penelope tree]

I've tried it with an isolated power supply and that eliminated the noise. There must have been something in the daisy chain that it disagreed with.