Is this (unwanted) overdrive normal in this setup?

[kombi]

Hi there,

i'm pretty new to the whole effect-pedal world (but loving it already!) and so i bought myself two effect-pedals in the last couple of weeks. Today i was testing around and playing with both at the same time - until the neck-pickup started to overdrive as hell when i raised the tone control.

Setup is as followed:

Bass (Career CB-RIK400) -> Overdrive (BOSS ODB-3) -> WahWah (Vox VX V847A Wah) -> Amp (Ibanez SWX65)

This may sound stupid but the neck pickup only overdrives (highly scratching beeping sound of my amp, not the wanted, regulated overdrive) if the overdrive is on, the WahWah is pushed and the level/master-control (overdrive or amp) is on middle. If i lower the level on the ODB and raise it on the amp, its the same situation of course. It's not overdriving if either the ODB or the WahWah is turned off.

So i'm wondering now if this is the fault of the WahWah, the overdrive, the amp or is it even completly normal in this setup? Would a compressor help?

Sadly i dont have my second bass here right to cross-test it. Everythings normal with the bridge-PU.

I'd appreciaty your help!

[dumelow]

let me get this right; your bass sounds overdriven when youve got a boss overdrive pedal on, and you dont want it to sound overdriven?

[scotch]

I'm not entirely sure I understand what the problem is. Are you saying that you are getting a wild 'beeping' sound when you use your neck pickup solo'ed? If so, it sounds like your neck pup' is much hotter than your bridge pup'. You may need to lower it.

Also, there could be an impedance issue somewhere. Wah's are notorious for 'crapping out' tonally if hit with too strong of a signal impedance.

Try eliminating pedals one at a time and start with a good clean sound from just the amp. Your amp is a small solid state amp right? Don't expect to be able to "overdrive" the input and get pleasant distortion.

[Von Felgenhauer]

Im gonna take a stab and say bad grounding on the bass. A wildly beeping sound? Sounds like he's to close to electronics with a bad ground and his overdrive pedal gain is up. Try agjusting the gain on the pedal and see if that helps.

[kombi]

Originally Posted by dumelow

let me get this right; your bass sounds overdriven when youve got a boss overdrive pedal on, and you dont want it to sound overdriven?

Yeah but not the wanted fuzzy/distorted/overdriven sound, its like a high beeping sound that rips the ears apart.

Originally Posted by scotch

I'm not entirely sure I understand what the problem is. Are you saying that you are getting a wild 'beeping' sound when you use your neck pickup solo'ed? If so, it sounds like your neck pup' is much hotter than your bridge pup'. You may need to lower it.

Exactly this. If i run the setup with the bridge PU solo, theres no beeping sound that destroys my ears. Do you mean lowering the volume/tone or lowering by screwing it down?

Originally Posted by scotch

Also, there could be an impedance issue somewhere. Wah's are notorious for 'crapping out' tonally if hit with too strong of a signal impedance.

Hm ok, thanks for the hint, didnt know that. But i think i cant find out where the impedance issue is, right?

Originally Posted by scotch

Try eliminating pedals one at a time and start with a good clean sound from just the amp. Your amp is a small solid state amp right? Don't expect to be able to "overdrive" the input and get pleasant distortion.

Yeah, thats correct. Clean sound with no pedal running is no problem.
Overdrive on, WahWah off: no problem.
WahWah on, overdrive off: no problem.
So its just this one constelation (with tone up full) that gives me that sound.

Originally Posted by Von Felgenhauer

Im gonna take a stab and say bad grounding on the bass. A wildly beeping sound? Sounds like he's to close to electronics with a bad ground and his overdrive pedal gain is up. Try agjusting the gain on the pedal and see if that helps.

The gain is at around middle and yep, lowering the gain reduces the beep.

Thanks for all the comments so far.

[Von Felgenhauer]

Try standing away from EVERYTHING. The beeping sound makes me think you are getting electrical interference. Gain always makes it louder. It happens to me when im playing to youtube videos and im near the comp. My old alarm use to make it beep too. By any chance do you have a phone in your pocket? It could be picking up those frequencies

[bongomania]

Ah, so let me see if I've understood: You mostly just get this sound when the neck pup is on full and both effects are engaged?

[kombi]

Sorry for the late reply but thanks to all for your help so far!

Originally Posted by Von Felgenhauer

Try standing away from EVERYTHING. The beeping sound makes me think you are getting electrical interference. Gain always makes it louder. It happens to me when im playing to youtube videos and im near the comp. My old alarm use to make it beep too. By any chance do you have a phone in your pocket? It could be picking up those frequencies

Thanks, i tried that but didn't work I was standing at the opposite site of my room, wich should be like 2-3meters away from any electric stuff. Didn't have anything in my pockets either. Interesting thought though.

Originally Posted by bongomania

Ah, so let me see if I've understood: You mostly just get this sound when the neck pup is on full and both effects are engaged?

Correct, only in this setup. Volume and tone of the neck pup is raised fully up and both pedals are engaged (gain and level of the ODB on middle position). If i change one thing of this setup, no matter what, everything works fine. Thats why it was confusing me.
I've been testing around the last few days with hints that have been written down here from you guys and i think the problem seems to be the neck pup (tested it with another amp now too).

So the only solution (in this setup) seems to be to reduce the tone of the neck pup and/or the gain from the ODB. Maybe it'll change with another, bigger and better Amp.

[PaulDouglas]

Try a simple test: swap Overdrive and Wah positions:

Bass--> wah --> overdrive --> amp

Harmonics going into a wah can play havoc on the out-put sound.

Have you tried plugging in only one peddle at a time, just to see if it is a faulty peddle?

[scotch]

Originally Posted by kombi

...

So the only solution (in this setup) seems to be to reduce the tone of the neck pup and/or the gain from the ODB. Maybe it'll change with another, bigger and better Amp.

I think you've probably figured it out!

A better amp with more input headroom might work, or trying to get a little closer to unity volume with your different effects settings.

The first thing to try would be to lower your neck pup's height! This will lower that pickups' volume, while leaving all other factors the same. I'd definitely start there.