Page 1 of 2

HELP!!! Pedals not playing nice with each other.

Posted: Fri Jun 25, 2010 3:49 pm
by MaggotBrainNY
So, I have a cool little effects rig happening, BUT I'm having issues with the pedals all playing nice with each other.

Here's a run down of what I have, and the order it's all in:

Boss TU2 tuner
EH Small Stone
Voodoo Labs Microvibe
Boss Tremolo
Fulltone OCD
Earthquaker Devices Tusk Fuzz
Dwarfcraft Devices The Great Destroyer Fuzz
Malekko Heavy Industries 616 Ekko delay

Here's a couple issues I'm running into: OCD tone darkens when followed by non-true bypass pedals, and the Dwarfcraft pedal is not responding to volume/tone adjustments on my guitar (by itself, it's THE most interactive pedal I own, and have ever heard).

Everything other than the 2 boss pedals is true-bypass. The Malekko actually allows you to switch between buffered, and TB. I keep it on TB, because the OCD sounds like shit if I don't, but I like the sound of the repeats in non-TB mode a lot, so that kinda sucks sometimes.

Anyways... any ideas how YOU would set this up? Do I need to go so far as to ditch the Boss things, and go all TB?

Really driving me nuts.

Re: HELP!!! Pedals not playing nice with each other.

Posted: Fri Jun 25, 2010 3:58 pm
by floating opera
yr TGD is totally defective dude sell it to me for $85 shipped.

:)

Re: HELP!!! Pedals not playing nice with each other.

Posted: Fri Jun 25, 2010 4:01 pm
by devnulljp
Fuzzes often don't like buffers, and you will lose the interactivity if there's anything between your guitar and the fuzz anyway. Your best bet would be a multiple TB looper to keep all those buffers out of the chain. Put the fuzz first too.
Something like this

Image

Re: HELP!!! Pedals not playing nice with each other.

Posted: Fri Jun 25, 2010 8:19 pm
by harpies
put both bosses at the end of the chain. No need to have a buffer at the beginning of a 8 pedal chain, and you might end up liking the trem at the end. If that doesn't make a big difference try taking the boss pedals out of the chain altogether.

Also, is the Small Stone old? I ask b/c it could be buffered.

Re: HELP!!! Pedals not playing nice with each other.

Posted: Fri Jun 25, 2010 9:36 pm
by bubstance
.

Re: HELP!!! Pedals not playing nice with each other.

Posted: Fri Jun 25, 2010 11:34 pm
by Derelict78
the great destroyer needs to be first in the chain to be able to use tone knobs to "control" it.

Re: HELP!!! Pedals not playing nice with each other.

Posted: Sat Jun 26, 2010 12:13 am
by Chumley
I don't see what would be so difficult about putting everything before the TGD into a passive loop switcher... you wouldn't be able to control it with other pedals on, but if there's nothing in front of it but some passive switches, I can't imagine how there would be tone loss... [/electronics n00b]

Re: HELP!!! Pedals not playing nice with each other.

Posted: Sat Jun 26, 2010 12:24 am
by Gunner Recall
I would bump the tgd closer to the front. If you plan on using your guitar knobs to control it you'll be better off putting it as close to the start as possible.

Maybe bump the tu-2 further down the line? I personally don't like the idea of starting my chain off with a buffer.
At the end of your chain it can serve as a universal mute for your board in case anything acts up or you just want quiet. The only trick there is you have to remember to turn off anything before it when you actually want to tune.

I would also bump the tremolo towards the end of the line, that buffer might be fudging with the ocd (plus I generally like tremolos towards the end of my chain).

Re: HELP!!! Pedals not playing nice with each other.

Posted: Sat Jun 26, 2010 3:18 am
by floating opera
buffering issues aside i would just ditch the OCD personally but this is just me talking. & i don't own any Boss pedals so thankfully i don't have this problem.

:)

Re: HELP!!! Pedals not playing nice with each other.

Posted: Sat Jun 26, 2010 5:24 am
by erik
Gunner Recall wrote:I would bump the tgd closer to the front. If you plan on using your guitar knobs to control it you'll be better off putting it as close to the start as possible.

Maybe bump the tu-2 further down the line? I personally don't like the idea of starting my chain off with a buffer.
At the end of your chain it can serve as a universal mute for your board in case anything acts up or you just want quiet. The only trick there is you have to remember to turn off anything before it when you actually want to tune.

I would also bump the tremolo towards the end of the line, that buffer might be fudging with the ocd (plus I generally like tremolos towards the end of my chain).


congratulation, you won a +1 from me!
i love putting my tuner right before my DL-4, so i can leave it drone while I tune!
and yes, i agree on the tremolos as well.

ditching the boss pedals is not a bad idea, unless you already sound built around them.

Re: HELP!!! Pedals not playing nice with each other.

Posted: Sat Jun 26, 2010 7:17 am
by pillof
In my case, I put a dr. scientist cleaness early in the chain between wah/buffered pedal (Boss PQ-4) and sensitive fuzzes and keep it always on. In my rig it restores the guitar signal and make my fuzz face/torn's peaker/SPAE work normal. I can't explain why and I don't have a TGD, so I can't confirm whether or not it would work in your pedal chain. Good power and buffer always help though...

Re: HELP!!! Pedals not playing nice with each other.

Posted: Sat Jun 26, 2010 2:31 pm
by harpies
bubstance wrote:
harpies wrote:put both bosses at the end of the chain. No need to have a buffer at the beginning of a 8 pedal chain, and you might end up liking the trem at the end. If that doesn't make a big difference try taking the boss pedals out of the chain altogether.

Also, is the Small Stone old? I ask b/c it could be buffered.


I don't know about that, man. 8 pedals can certainly be enough to cause noticeable high end loss, especially if you have long cables (anywhere in the chain).



well, I've had mixed luck with it, depending on the pedals. I wouldn't expect much loss with the pedals he has, except the boss and maybe the ehx, although I don't know what kind of cable he is running. I'm just trying to get him to test it out before getting spendy on tbp loops, which I often find to be a hassle, take up way too much space, and/or unnecessary except for the convenience of having all your switches right up close.

Re: HELP!!! Pedals not playing nice with each other.

Posted: Sat Jun 26, 2010 4:27 pm
by Sockgazer
You're not using a wah so I'm unsure why you'd put the fuzzes first.

Re: HELP!!! Pedals not playing nice with each other.

Posted: Sat Jun 26, 2010 4:39 pm
by aen
buffers before TGD make it unresponsive.

Re: HELP!!! Pedals not playing nice with each other.

Posted: Sat Jun 26, 2010 5:21 pm
by bubstance
.