K.O.T.B seems noisy (solved)

[Anonymous]

Guys

I recently built the KOTB and it sounds good but now seems to be extra noisy. I took it back apart and checked the connections and they all seem to be good. I know this is a high gain pedal and will be a bit noisy but I don’t remember it being so noisy at first. I can touch my cable and it will cut some of the noise. Any ideas?

[Anonymous]

Before going into a complete and formal trouble shooting procedure, the fact that you can change the noise by  touching the cable tells me you may have a loose or open ground somewhere.  Check for that.  If not, commence proper trouble shooting procedures.

[Anonymous]

Thanks. I’ll look it over again.

[Barry]

Since it is a high gain pedal so and perhaps not completely up boxed up (pictures) with all common grounds 100% secure with no cold solder joints that is a sure sign there is a ground issue. We have all experienced the same thing which indicates what to do next.

Touching the ground to remove noise indicates you are grounding the circuit where it lacks.

Could even be too much over spray where the jacks make a connection to the enclosure. Guessing here.

If so scratch away some paint from the jack location on the inside of the enclosure.

 

[Anonymous]

Thanks Barry I will do some more investigating

[Anonymous]

Issue solved, crappy power strip. Plugged straight into the wall and the bad noise went away. Touching the cables or strings makes no difference now. The pedal sounds great by the way. I’ve since bought about 8 more boards and will be building them soon. Thanks for the responses. Any ideas on a good power strip?

[Barry]

We suggest keeping a Battery strap with a 2.1mm end on it as a testing device for such occasions. Whenever you have a noisy pedal then you can break that out first and test your pedal with a battery since they never produce noise. I actually forgot to mention that and it is a very helpful tool. Thanks for reporting back and enjoy!

For isolated pedal power I use a Voodoo.

As for a power strip I use these:

[Anonymous]

Thanks Barry.

[Author]

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