Help! My pedals aren't working.

Marginal Tom · #1 05-13-2011, 05:41 PM

When I play with all of my effect pedals bypassed (turned off), everything is fine. When I turn on any pedal, the volume level drops to zero.

I’ve have tried the following, with bass to signal cable to effect in of a single pedal, then effect out to another signal cable to amp, and the effect powered by a One-Spot. The gain/volume levels of the various effects were at their (previously working) levels:

Turning up the gain/volume of the pedal – no sound.
Four different effect pedals (one at a time) – no sound.
Changed both signal cables – no sound.
Changed One-Spots – no sound.
Changed basses (Fender P, J) – no sound.
Changed amps (MarkBass II, LMT) – no sound.

I’m at a loss as to what to try next. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

crapusername · #2 05-13-2011, 06:02 PM

this might sound dumb, but are your cables sound?

Marginal Tom · #3 05-13-2011, 06:14 PM

The cables are all sound enough to work with the effect off, and I tried four of them.

**TheMutt** · #4 05-13-2011, 06:42 PM

Have you tried isolating the effects pedals and trying one at a time? (it might be that your daisy chain power cord is shorting out somewhere, or is grounding out on something, or that one of the pedals is grounding out and needs to be repaired)

Have you tried a different outlet? (the outlet that you are using could be bad)

Have you tried running the pedals off of batteries instead of the 1Spot? (both 1Spots could be bad)

Other than that, you might need to have your pedals looked at.

Marginal Tom · #5 05-13-2011, 06:56 PM

I have been testing with only one pedal at a time, and changing pedals. Either One-Spot will successfully power my tuner. All of the LED's light up on the pedals.

I will try a different outlet and power strip, and report the results.

Marginal Tom · #6 05-13-2011, 07:08 PM

I tried a different outlet and surge protector, two separate pedals and both One-Spots (one is the Gator equivalent). Same result (no volume unless the effect is off.

alec · #7 05-13-2011, 07:13 PM

Take the pedals to a shop and try them there?

Marginal Tom · #8 05-13-2011, 07:15 PM

I'm building my first real pedalboard after dabbling with effects over several decades.

I took it to an open mic two weeks ago, and it worked fine. But it hasn't worked since I tried it at home last weekend. Then, while the pedals were daisychained, none of them worked. After that, I began testing them separately, including two pedals that weren't on the original pedalboard, with no success.

Marginal Tom · #9 05-13-2011, 07:18 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by alec

Take the pedals to a shop and try them there?

Thanks to you and the others for the suggestions. I'll try that tomorrow unless the problem is solved tonight.

**TheMutt** · #10 05-13-2011, 07:20 PM

Believe me, I'm not trying to insult your intelligence by any means, but are the inputs and outputs connected correctly?

I've owned some pedals in the past that didn't have the standard input on the right, output on the left structure. Took me a good hour trying to figure out what the heck was wrong until I realized that one of the pedals was plugged in incorrectly and was killing my signal when it was engaged.

Also, which pedals are these? It might be that the power requirements are different than what you can get from the 1Spot. (I'm taking a stab in the dark here as I don't know what pedals you are using)

Marginal Tom · #11 05-13-2011, 08:57 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by TheMutt

Believe me, I'm not trying to insult your intelligence by any means, but are the inputs and outputs connected correctly?

I've owned some pedals in the past that didn't have the standard input on the right, output on the left structure. Took me a good hour trying to figure out what the heck was wrong until I realized that one of the pedals was plugged in incorrectly and was killing my signal when it was engaged.

Also, which pedals are these? It might be that the power requirements are different than what you can get from the 1Spot. (I'm taking a stab in the dark here as I don't know what pedals you are using)

The input and output jacks are labeled on the Voodoo Labs Sparkle Drive, the MXR El Grande Bass Fuzz, and the Mojo Hand Huckleberry v2. They're not labeled on the Musket. The Musket is brand new, so I'll check on it's power requirements.

Marginal Tom · #12 05-13-2011, 09:07 PM

The Blackout Effectors website actually recommends using a 1Spot to power their pedals, and states that the input goes on the right side and the output on the left, so that's not the problem.

My name is Mudd · #13 05-13-2011, 10:52 PM

More guesstimating here...

Are you plugging the 1Spot into the tuner and then daisychaining the effects out of the tuner?

Have you tried a different daisy chain?

Marginal Tom · #14 05-14-2011, 12:40 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by My name is Mudd

More guesstimating here...

Are you plugging the 1Spot into the tuner and then daisychaining the effects out of the tuner?

Have you tried a different daisy chain?

No, I'm not daisychaining at all. I had been using the 1Spot for my tuner (using the tuner out on my amp) and the Gator equivalent for my pedals. I removed the extra plugs from the Gator one, and tried both with individual pedals, without the tuner in the circuit. Both power sources work with the tuner. Neither one works with the pedals. (The LED's light up, but there's no sound.) The wall outlet through power strip works well enough to power the amp and the tuner.

chrisisnotevil · #15 05-14-2011, 03:19 AM

Only time I had a similar problem was when any of the metal on spare outputs on my daisy chain (this would apply equally to spare connectors on your gator 1spot) were making contact with anything else metallic, on my board or otherwise. Bit of electrician's tape later and problem solved. Hope this helps, i'm totally mystified otherwise. I take it the current draw from the pedals does not exceed the available current from the one spot? Unlikely, given the amount I can run from a single adaptor, but possible? I'm not sure what would happen if this were the case however.

warwick.hoy · #16 05-14-2011, 03:52 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Marginal Tom

The input and output jacks are labeled on the Voodoo Labs Sparkle Drive, the MXR El Grande Bass Fuzz, and the Mojo Hand Huckleberry v2. They're not labeled on the Musket. The Musket is brand new, so I'll check on it's power requirements.

Are these all the pedals in your chain?

I'm inclined to think that one of them isn't jiving with your daisy chain and shorting out the whole circuit when you are clicking any on of them one.

I ran into a similar issue when I briefly had a EHX Nano Clone. Not realizing that the Gator G-Bus-8 was a daisy chain in a box,...I powered the Center Positive Nano Clone of the G-Bus-8 and it killed power to the rest of my board.

If you are running all TBP pedals they should pass a signal when bypassed,...even if there is no power going to the pedals.

As far as I can tell everything you have listed is center negative which is the boss standard.

moles · #17 05-14-2011, 12:35 PM

Something about this is very odd to me. The OP stated that the LEDs light when the pedals are engaged - this doesn't sound like your garden variety power problem...

When you say you've tried both OneSpots...did you use the same daisy chain cable with both? Try direct from the power supply into one pedal? Try batteries?

Marginal Tom · #18 05-14-2011, 02:54 PM

I've had the pedals checked out. One (the Sparkle Drive) needs a new input jack installed. The others worked fine.

I've been tested the individual pedals separately, not daisy chained, running bass - signal cable - pedal (powered directly by the 1Spot without the daisy chain) - signal cable - amp - speaker. As stated previously, this works fine with the pedal off and is silent as soon as I turn the pedal on. The LED's in the pedal come on, as expected. The gain and volume knobs on the pedals are turned up.

The only remaining suspect I can think of is my electrical outlets, so I'll try them again upstairs, using another power strip.

Marginal Tom · #19 05-14-2011, 03:23 PM

I turned all of the circuit breakers in my house off and back on, took everything upstairs, and now they work. It's weird, because the amp, computer and TV are all on the same circuit (the amp and 1Spot were both on the same power strip), and they all worked.

Anyway, the mystery is solved. Thanks to all of you who took the time to reply.

alec · #20 05-16-2011, 05:44 AM

Well there's one for the books!