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I just bought a Tone Wicker and it's the noisiest pedal I've ever used. It's noisy whether it's on the pedalboard or by itself just going straight into the amp. Lots of buzzing even when not being played. Is this normal? It's unusably noisy when paired with other pedals, yet nothing else in the chain makes such a stink when used with the other pedals.

I'm using a Squier JMJM and going into a Pathfinder 15r (which is set for clean and no dirt). The only thing I've found that decreases the noise is to almost completely roll back the tone knob down to nothing on the JM.

No, although it is a fairly gainy pedal (to the shock of noone ever)

How are you powering it?

All Muffs? No.
FWIW the Tonewicker Muff I had was idle-noisy as a Harmonic Percolator...not sure if coincidence or par for the course with that circuit revision. My v6 doesn't behave like that at all. The v4 and v7 I had didn't either.
Try using a cable with robust insulation, connecting guitar to the pedal...and powering it off a battery. Any change?

digi2t wrote:How are you powering it?

Totally this. Also it depends on the quality of the build and so many other details. I've had muffs that pick up radio stations, and others that are close to dead quiet. You might want to check out some of the small-builder versions of the muff - there are plenty out there that build muff circuits with tone-wicker-y functionality.

None of mine are what I would consider noisy at all, but these are mostly early vintage units and are running off batteries.

Many times, noise problems lead back to the power supply. If you could do an A/B test powering it by battery, and then power supply, you'll be able to hear if the power supply is the cause of the noise. Do the test with the pedal alone, not in a chain with other pedals, and see if there is a difference.

digi2t wrote:Many times, noise problems lead back to the power supply. If you could do an A/B test powering it by battery, and then power supply, you'll be able to hear if the power supply is the cause of the noise. Do the test with the pedal alone, not in a chain with other pedals, and see if there is a difference.

Tested both ways earlier this morning. When it's on the board, it's being powered by a PowerAll. I then took it off the board and just used battery power. Same results.

Sounds like a dud, hopefully you can return it... Wickers are not that popular and is my least favorite version... If you wanna stay cheap check out the Little Big Muff, it sounds like a Muff...

Sounds like yours is broken.

I've powered tons of muffs many different ways, and I've never had a problem.
isolated supply
ac adaptor
battery
daisy chain
etc.

My BM w/TW is fairly noisy as well, has always been whatever the power source, fx chain or amp. The noise level is alright for me with the wicker set to off, I kinda like feeding the noise into other boxes ... though maybe yours is much noisier?

Tone Wicker is super noisy in my experience as well

I've owned a vintage muff, 2 black russian muffs, and a nyc muff. All were fairly quite. I've also owned a pharaoh, a LSTR, and a Hoof, all of which were dead quiet.

Thanks for the replies. I'll probably just return it since the noise level is ridiculous.

I used to use a Bass Big Muff that was driven by an OD-3 and had great results. I would have gotten a BBM, but I already feel that the JMJM has enough low end. I just wanted something (fuzz-ish) to maybe pair with the OD-3 and the Rat clone. Something that would handle chords well and not be super expensive.

I know BBMs are not favoured around here, but check out the Deluxe Bass Big Muff. Aside from clean blend and crossover which gives you two different distorted sounds it has a rather well done noise gate AND the distortion itself seemed better than on the basic BBM to me (compared side-by-side)

more clarity but still sounded ballsy. Not as ballsy as other, better muffs maybe, but it is a sort of... Safe Big Muff with which you won't be noisy and not lose as much low end i guess