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You can get humming and buzzing from two pedals
that don't hum or buzz when you play either one
by itself.
You can get humming and buzzing from two pedals
when both are turned on at the same time.
You can get humming and buzzing from two pedals
even when neither is turned on.
Now, add half a dozen more pedals . . . and you
can get some serious, unwanted noise!
Or . . . you can set the board up properly, and
have a super quiet board!
Here are a BUNCH of how tos and tips. ANY ONE of
these not done correctly can cause issues. Two or
more and you get . . . misery!
Take it a step at a time. I'll cover initial setup,
as well as trouble shooting to find the "culpret"
on your board that's causing the noise.
None of these by itself are more important than
the others. Each one can be "the" problem. Or can
be part of the problem. So be sure to consider
each one!
1). Component quality. Use quality components if
you want quality results.
A common problem is power supply! (PS) The most
common sources of noise are cheap cables, a PS that
is not isollated. And ground issues.
a). If you are "daisy chaining" pedals together
using a PS with one long wire and a bunch of "plugs"
to cnnect a bunch of pedals, that can cause a bunch
of noise. In some cases, it's absolutely fine to do
this. Depending on the pedals you have, how much
power they draw, you might be OK. But then again . . .
ideally, you should be using a PS BRICK! A block with
isolated outputs for each pedal. AND it should have
enough juice to power the pedals you're using.
If you're using entry level pedals, inexpensve, mini
pedals, etc. that require a small amount of power,
and you're using maybe 2 or 3, 5 or 6 even, and every
thing else if correct (see below) you might be fine.
But if you introduce even one pedal into your chain that
requires a lot more power, depending where the pedal is
in your chain (and maybe regardless of where it is!)
you could have issues.
Plus, as I'll cover in more detail below, some pedals
just don't "play nice" with some other pedals!
And the order your pedals are connected can cause issues.
Agsin, I'll cover signnal path in more detail below.
So let's say you're using one of those daisy chain PSs.
And you're getting some buzz. Try bypassing one at a
time. Just remove it from the chain, skip over it.
Does the noise stop? Could be a bad pedal. Probably not.
Try moving it to a different spot in the chain. Why?
More on that in a bit.
If the buzz stopped when you skipped the pedal, it
could also be the setting on the pedal. Do you have
the gain cranked? Then back it off!
Also, verify the power draw on each pedal. Maybe one
or them uses more power than you thought. Maybe it's
not even a 9v pedal. Maybe it's 12v, or 18v. But
most smaller, less expensive pedals will be simple
9v, low power usage pedals.
But check anyway!
OK, so you made sure your PS is adequate. It has
outputs for 9v, 12v, 18v, with adequate amps.Some
pedals require only a small amount of amps. Some
require 100MA. Some . . . 300 or more! The more
complex the pedal is, the more it does, the more
power it needs.
Now to connect the pedals. Cheap cables will almost
always be more trouble than they are worth. And will
end up costing you more in the end. $3 cables . . .
Nope! They are more likely to make noise. And will
not last long! They'll just stop working! And you
lost money, and time! Plus a lot of frustration!
Either buy quality cables, or purchase a quality
kit (or buy separate components) and make your own.
If you have more time than money, that's the way
to go. But don't cheap out on the cables!
Sloppy Wiring! As much as possible, make sure
your patch cables and the power cables from the PS are all
neatly run, and do not cross over each other! As much as
is practically possible, run all wires parallel with each other.
When PS connecting wires cross over each other, and cross over
your patch cables, you're just asking for trouble.
Your wiring MUST BE NEAT!
I don't personally go to extremes about this. But I AM NEAT!
Here are two examples side by side. One I found online. And mine.
 
OK, now you have a quality PS and picked up a handful
of quality cables to connect the pedals all together.
You matched up the power requirements for each pedal.
Fired up your amp and board, and BUZZZZ!
Try plugging your PS into a different wall plug. Are
you running the PS into an extension chord and plugging
into the same wall plug, on the same electrcal circuit
as most of your kitchen appliances? Or your furnace,
washer and dryer? Are you plugged into the same circuit
as your guitar amp and PA? That might not be a problem.
But it's part of the process of elimination. Try using a
different plug.
If your board is plugged into the same source as maybe
some other electronic device, or light source, that can
cause buzzing. Like flourecsent lights!
So, you eliminated power source. Or are dealing with it.
Like maybe the house is pretty old and the electricity
sources are "shady". DO NOT run your gear in ungrounded
plugs! Not only because of noise. But . . . for safety!
What next? Settings! MOST players set their gain WAY too
high! Check out my tutorial about dialing in your pedals!
And the tutorial about stacking pedals.
If you have the gain on say, a fuzz pedal, set appropriately,
and you still have noise, even when the fuzz pedal is off . . .
even if you bypass that pedal, you still have issues to resolve.
The order you have your pedals connected can cause
issues.
NOTE: The physical order of the pedals on your board
do not need to be wired in the same order. You can
have the pedals you use more up front. But they can
be at the end of your signal chain.
Position the pedals
logically, so the most used are up front and easy to
get to. And your "always on" pedals at the end or back of the
board. Gain pedals (OD, distortion, fuzz, etc.) should
usually be at the very beginning of your chain. Right
after the tuner.
Some fuzz pedals do not like being after a distortion pedal!
Keep your fuzz pedals as close to the beginning as you can.
Like right after the tuner.
But if you don't use one or more of
them very often, wire them 1st in your signal chain,
but using a longer patch cable, place the pedal out of
the way.
Your time based and modulation pedals should
usually go at the end of your chain, or into your effects
loop on your amp. But if you use them a lot, place them
up front. But wire them in at the end.
Another reason to make your own cables. You could need
some longer cables. And they cost more.
Signal path. As I said above, the order the pedals are
wired can be an issue. I use a FreQout feedback pedal
that requires being at the beginning of the chain. It
just doesn't function correctly unless it's first in
the chain. You might have your OD first, into your
fuzz pedal and then into your distortion. And that might
work fine for you. But if you're getting noise,
try this . . .
Fuzz into Distortion into OD. Or try
Distortion into OD into Fuzz.
Maybe you have your wah pedal after the gain pedals.
Try running it before gain! Your volume pedal might
be at the beginning of your chain. With one exception,
that's not a good idea. Try running it at the end.
Still have some noise? Even after reading the other
tutorials about dialng in your pedals? Hmmmm.
So the main power source is OK. No lamps or lights, AC,
or other stuff causing issues. Gain is set correctly.
Good PS and cables.
Try different guitars! Maybe you have a ground issue
with your guitar. Eliminate that possability.
Try a different amp! And verify your guitar cable is
good quality and not the issue.
Obviously, if swapping out guitars stops the issue, you
know what to do. Get your guitar fixed! But maybe your
board just doesn't like humbuckers, or single coils. Or
maybe your pick ups are active and the board doesn't like
that!
How is your amp set up? Do up usually push your amp so it's
usual sound is already distorted, over driven of crunchy?
Pedals will respond to that scenario differently than if
you used, maybe a Fender DR set to pristine clean.
If you run a clean amp sound from the amp, your pedals
can all go straight into the amp. Not usually an issue.
But if your usual sound is through a driven amp, I would
seriously suggest a different setup for your pedals.
Run the gain pedals through the front of amp. No problem.
But wire/loop your time based and modulation pedals into
the amp effects loop, if it has one. This will bypass
the pre-amp so your reverbs, delays, flangers, phase shifters,
choruses, etc. get a pure, clean signal.
Let's check your amp settings? If you plug diectly into your
amp, guitar to amp, are you getting any hum or buzz?
You ARE! Well, it's only going to get accentuated when you
run your pedals into the amp.
Address your amp buzz before continuing to eliminate
pedal issues! Maybe I should have put that first.
OK. Amp sounds good. Little to no unwanted noise. Plug in your
board. Sounds good. You try a bunch of pedals, and it sounds great!
But as soon as you step on any gain pedals, BUZZ!
First, let's say you have Distortion, OD and a Fuzz. Do
all three buzz, if you only turn on one at a time? As in,
does the Fuzz pedal work OK without a noise issue? Yeah,
you'll get SOME noise. You're puching the gain on your
amp. But it souldn't be "bad" or loud. It's OK? Cool.
How about the Distortion? Same thing. OK, then try your
overdrive pedal.
If either/and/or any of them are buzzing badly, your choices are limited.
1). Recheck your gain settings!
2). Try changing the order of the gain pedals.
3). You might just need to use a noise gate or noise reducer.
More about this later.
OK, next . . . Each gain pedal was OK by itself, but
when you used more than one at a time, gain stacking your pedals,
the buzz was back!
The gain settings used on any one pedal will be different than if
you stack them!
Choose the most common scenario for your playing. What will you most
commonly use. OD and distortion? OD and fuzz? Set
your gain on each to work together.
And a final note . . . Some pedals just don't work well with others.
You might find that simply trying a different distortion pedal could
eliminte the issue.
Last resort . . . Noise Gates and Noice Surpressors.
This requires a whole tutorial on it's own. But in general,
you can run a pedal that will shut off ALL noise from your pedal board.
It has pros and cons. But if you're a high
gain rocker, it just might be the best solution for you.
There are dozens of NG and NS pedals out there. Ranging
from $40 to $300! There are several ways to connect it.
Before your pedals (1st in chain) after, end of chain, AND
into the effects loop.
I suggest setting aside at least an hour or two, and watch a bunch of
videos! At least a dozen or so!
AND NOT JUST VIDEOS PROMOTING A SPECIFIC PEDAL!
Learn about them. The pros and cons. How to dial them in. They can
destroy your sustain and suck the tone out of your amp! Or they can
do magic!
It's all about process of elimination. One pedal at a time. One cable
at a time. Pedal order. Cabling. Power. Guitars, amps, No one answer here.
Just take it s step at a time.
Enjoy! Wayne
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