Does your MB200 dislike pedals?

anonymous1015111 · #1 08-16-2011, 08:00 PM

I have an MB200. I have been a guitar player and effect/amp builder for a long time. I have played bass, but never use effects with my bass (just a personal preference). Recently, I decided to test a few bass pedals out for some customers. In the past I have always done the testing with my 800RB, but since I sold it, I only have the MB200. The thing is that no matter what pedal I put in front of that amp, I get tons of noise/hum etc. If I use the input pad, the noise goes down, but not all the way.
Is it just that these amps tend to be unfriendly to pedals? The thing is dead quiet with just bass-amp and the effects don't add noise to other amps. All of the effects were tested using isolated clean power. When I plugged the effects into an older Crate bass amp I had laying around they were dead quiet.
Is it the Class D that causes the problem, or is it that the MB200 has no master volume? Any ideas? Anyone else notice this?
It is not that big of a deal to me since I never use pedals for bass, but it makes testing pedals I sell a pain since I need to pull out the old Crate.
-P

Exploiter8 · #2 08-16-2011, 08:06 PM

"All of the effects were tested using isolated clean power."

Did you try just battery power?

X8

anonymous1015111 · #3 08-16-2011, 10:06 PM

Yup, I always test with a 9v battery and my Fuel Tank Jr. Same results both ways. I am starting to think that since the pedals in question are all boosts of some sort or another, by placing them between the bass and amp, they are acting like active pickups, thus the reason the noise drops when the 10db pad is activated.
In the guitar world we don't worry about this that much since guitars typically only use 1 input on amps (there is almost never a 10db pad on a guitar amp).
-P

WingKL · #4 08-17-2011, 01:59 PM

I found a presentation which may explain why the MB200 gets noisy. Look under the 19 bad behaviours section.

Puru · #5 08-17-2011, 05:13 PM

I've used a Zoom B2 and a BBE Optostomp in front of mine with no noise problems.

5port · #6 08-17-2011, 07:31 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by WingKL

I found a presentation which may explain why the MB200 gets noisy. Look under the 19 bad behaviours section.

I cant find anything in the 19 that tells me why some people have noise and some people dont. Also nothing in the 19 that tells me why some people have a problem with a no load situation and some people dont. He presents it as "they all do it."