Guitar Gear Forum

So I thought I would try out my new Tonerider AD-1 with my JCM900 today, but when I kicked in the delay it sounded horrible! It almost sounded like my power tubes were going. Funny though, the pedal works with the Egnater Tweaker 15 head that I have, but it does cut some of the volume from the signal.

It is really weird, when I disengage the pedal [that is supposed to be true bypass] it cuts the signal completely. I really just want to rule out whether this is user error or a faulty pedal. Is the pedal being overloaded?

Here is a clip that I recorded to show the difference; the first pass is without my delay, second is with delay into my Marshall, third is without delay but into the Tweaker, fourth is with delay into the Tweaker...

WTF?

https://soundcloud.com/col-justesen/tonerider-ad-1-wtf

Cole

Sounds to me like it is defo the pedal. Have you searched online to see if this exact model has similar problems?

Elessar [Sly] wrote:Sounds to me like it is defo the pedal. Have you searched online to see if this exact model has similar problems?

Not yet... I thought I would post here to see if anyone has ever had a similar effect happen and what they discovered... I am Googling it now.



That really bums me out!

Cole

colejustesen wrote:

Elessar [Sly] wrote:Sounds to me like it is defo the pedal. Have you searched online to see if this exact model has similar problems?

Not yet... I thought I would post here to see if anyone has ever had a similar effect happen and what they discovered... I am Googling it now.



That really bums me out!

Cole

Good luck finding something. I had the tonerider British distortion, it was a cool pedal. Sorry I can't be more help right now.

Elessar [Sly] wrote:

colejustesen wrote:

Elessar [Sly] wrote:Sounds to me like it is defo the pedal. Have you searched online to see if this exact model has similar problems?

Not yet... I thought I would post here to see if anyone has ever had a similar effect happen and what they discovered... I am Googling it now.



That really bums me out!

Cole

Good luck finding something. I had the tonerider British distortion, it was a cool pedal. Sorry I can't be more help right now.

I had a British Distortion and an American Overdrive and had zero issues with them too. I think there are some cold solder joints; when I took off the back cover and inspected the leads from the on/off switch I could see some less than stellar solder points on the switch and where the leads connected to the main PCB.






Cole

I can't listen to the clip at work, but could it be a power issue? My true bypass pedals will all work, UNTIL you try and turn them on, then the signal gets cut. This happened to me at a show with my Phase 90.

Diocide wrote:I can't listen to the clip at work, but could it be a power issue? My true bypass pedals will all work, UNTIL you try and turn them on, then the signal gets cut. This happened to me at a show with my Phase 90.

Did you mod your Phase 90 for TB?

Do you have it running straight into the amp? Guitar>Delay>Amp seems strange it would sound fine with one amp and not the other. Test it with as many different scenarios you can as maybe something is on the input signal of the JCM causing the pedal to freak out like that. If you could replicate it with another scenario this would prove the pedal may be iffy.

Wilson wrote:Do you have it running straight into the amp? Guitar>Delay>Amp seems strange it would sound fine with one amp and not the other. Test it with as many different scenarios you can as maybe something is on the input signal of the JCM causing the pedal to freak out like that. If you could replicate it with another scenario this would prove the pedal may be iffy.

I was running in the loop of each amp. I am sure what types of effects loops each amp has [series or parallel]. I tried with different power adapters, different cables, but I haven't tried it in front of the amp. I could try that, but I arranged to send it back for a different unit. After recording that clip, I could definitely hear that it is affecting the Tweaker too, but not as drastically as the JCM. So hopefully, this is just a faulty unit and the new pedal will work more appropriately.

I have never heard a pedal make such a drastic change in overall tone so horribly. I really thought at first my amp was needing a new power tube install...

Cole

Devin wrote:

Diocide wrote:I can't listen to the clip at work, but could it be a power issue? My true bypass pedals will all work, UNTIL you try and turn them on, then the signal gets cut. This happened to me at a show with my Phase 90.

Did you mod your Phase 90 for TB?

I was not aware that they weren't TB? Woops. Well regardless, my P90 let's signal through without any power, but as soon as you turn it on, then it kills the signal.

If this is happening in the loop it could be a few things.

1. The loop may be intended for line-level effects and is severely overloading the effect.
2. If it's a parallel effects loop it's possible that the output of the pedal is out of phase with the input and you're cancelling most of your sound.
3. It could also be an impedance issue, especially if the loop is parallel.

Try running the delay out front and see how it behaves.

shoe wrote:If this is happening in the loop it could be a few things.

1. The loop may be intended for line-level effects and is severely overloading the effect.
2. If it's a parallel effects loop it's possible that the output of the pedal is out of phase with the input and you're cancelling most of your sound.
3. It could also be an impedance issue, especially if the loop is parallel.

Try running the delay out front and see how it behaves.

I contacted the merchant and arranged for a trade to see if this would work any better. I got the new pedal today and I am having the same issue, except the true bypass works [it doesn't cut the sound when I turn off the delay pedal].

I did some research on my effects loop and it appears to be a serial loop, not a parallel loop. My amp has a dial on the back that allows be to compensate for -10dB to +4dB. No matter how dial it in, the delay still sounds harsh. I tried it out front and it works fine, except I hear a tick-tock noise that won't stop.

I haven't had these issues before with the other digital delays being ran through the loop, but this is my first experience with an analog delay... It makes me wonder if I tried another analog delay like the Malekko 616 or the MXR Carbon Copy if I would have the same problems

Do you have any other suggestions for me to try?

Cole

some pedals don't work well with certain loops unfortunetly.

Mesa/Kramer wrote:some pedals don't work well with certain loops unfortunetly.

This is what I think is the problem; it just doesn't work with my amp. It is too bad, because it sounded great with my Egnater Tweaker. Oh well, Draelyc is letting me try out is VFE Blueprint, so if I end up liking that I will probably get one of those instead.

I also have had my eye on the Rocktron Celestial Delay. All the clips I have heard of this one sound good too!

Cole

So I ended up getting a replacement unit and the same thing happened, so I opted to just get a refund on the pedal. It really is too bad, because it did sound pretty good with my Tweaker.

I have received the VFE Blueprint from Draelyc, and what time I have had to play it, it sounds really nice. I also decided to try the Rocktron Celestial Delay, so I have one of those being delivered. I found very little information on it, but what I have heard, it sounds very nice. I am not going to lie, once I saw that Rocktron released their "boutique" pedals I was intrigued. I will take some gut shots of it when I get it and share with you guys. We will see how "boutique" this pedal really is.

After I get the Celestial Delay, I will be able to give the a good comparison between the VFE and it to see what I would rather have.

Hopefully, this time around I will be able to get a unit that plays nicely with my Marshall.

Cole