Korg Pitchblack causes a POP

[Chrisk-K]

The Pitchblack is the first pedal in my board. When I play my Spector (w/ EMG PJ), activating or deactivating the Pitchblack results in a loud pop in the speaker. It doesn't cause a pop when I play my passive basses.

The Spector's pickups and preamp work fine. Although the output jack is a little bit loose, it doesn't cause a pop (I'm using a right angle cable). Any ideas about what's happening?

[warwick.hoy]

Those are TBP yes? Capacitance build up perhaps?

Before you turn your amp on (or mute it); give that switch a few taps to release that charge and see if that helps.

That's the only thing I can think of but it could be something else (the fact that you say it doesn't happen with your passive basses makes me wonder if it could be something else).

[onosson]

I had this happen once when I did a gig using a rental amp. Turns out the patch cable they gave us to go from my pedals to the amp was actually a speaker cable. Mind you, this was happening for me with a passive bass, but you might want to check with a few different cables, and the tuner on its own without the rest of your board.

[chi-town_mike]

If you can, get the tuner true bypass or not, out of your effects chain. If your amp has a tuner out or if you have an aby switch or something.

[Chrisk-K]

I can use a tuner out. But I'd like to use the Pitchblack as a convenient "mute" pedal.

I did the following:
-changed the instrument cable
-changed the patch cable
-directly connected the Pitchblack to the amp

Still the same pop whenever I step on the tuner when my Spector is connected.

My other pedals don't show the same problem. The Pitchblack has a TPB. So does the Source Audio BEF, which I have. Assuming that it's the Spector, what could possibly cause the Pitchblack's switch to make a popping noise?

[Charley Umbria]

I've got the Pitchblack and I love it. The mute feature is very handy for tuning or changing instruments.

However, the first one I bought had the "pop". After some research online, I found that this is a fairly common complaint with the Pitchblack. I ended up taking my pedal back to the store (Sam Ash) and trying out some of the other Pitchblacks they had in stock. The first two popped, but less noticeably. The third one was silent. That's the one I took home and it's stayed quiet for over a year now. I have no idea why some pedals pop and others don't...

EDIT: Oh, and, no, they're not supposed to do that!

[RCCollins]

the pitchblack looks cool and all, but i prefer a buffer at the front of my chain, and I like to have a signal splitter too - so i traded "down" to a TU-2

[Chrisk-K]

I gave mine about 50 consecutive taps. Now the pop is much less noticeable. It must be the way Korg built the switch.

[arsie]

I get the pop sometimes but not all the time. Mostly when I first fire up the amp and plug in.

I wonder if there's anything we can do to popping pitchblacks that can stop the pop, anyone?