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Compressor pedal noise

A

AlastairWatts

Oct 28, 2011
58
11
Melbourne Australia
#1
Hey all...
Recently bought a interesting pedal- a compressor from a boutique-ish company that I thought I'd done my research on. The pedal is no longer commercially available so when I saw it in a used listing (NOT on this site!) I was pretty stoked! Unfortunately when I got it I noticed pretty much straight away a level of noise from it that makes it unuseable in the studio and a pain in the neck to use live... This is all to my ears only of course but I'm confused. See, I'm a compressor noob and I have thought that maybe noise is par for the course BUT... this is really bad! I don't wanna name the company for fear of UNFAIRLY labelling them...
So my question is...

ARE COMPRESSORS MEANT TO BE A WEE BIT NOISY?

And before you ask, the rest of my gear is pretty good- could be better but it's definitely not crap (a.k.a 'noisy')!
 
#7
Well, JHS is not an exemplar of boutique quality. Just average quality.

The comp in the Green Tea is an "Orange Squeezer" type, which is a little bit noisy in most cases anyway, and can be very noisy depending on the care that went into the implementation of the circuit.

Beyond that, sometimes noise is caused by an interaction between pedals, even if it sounds like only one pedal is noisy. So try isolating the pedal from others, to see if that changes anything.
 
#8
does the noise go away when you hit a note, then come back after a moment?

you might just have it set for too much squash and too much make-up gain, so it really kills the volume of your notes, then boosts up the sound (and thus the background noise) too much when you're not playing.
 
#9
Thanks bongomania and walterw; nice to know that there's people willing to help!:hyper:
I guess I based my earlier statement re: JHS boutique-ish-ness on their price points. Given the pedal cost around $330US new (I believe?) I would expect more is all. My excitement when I found one 'used' in Australia was pretty big. Having gone through something similar with the Hao Rust Ride (and loving that pedal!) I wanted to give this one a go too. Bought it for $200AUS.

SO...

I always try new gear on its own in order to give a clear impression of the pedal/bass/amp's character. Used my gig leads, a nice P, Eden Amps... Problem was in this case the moment the compressor section was engaged this high pitched whine came in BEFORE I played a note. I messed around with the controls- no dice! The whine is there once the impact of the compression on my sound is apparent!:bawl: Reduce the level of audible compression and I feel like I'm left with a dumb power sucking green thing (NOT the Dan Armstrong Ring-Mod!) on my pedalboard! I want to hear it! :confused:

Someone started an hilarious thread on the ruin caused them by Juan Alderete's youtube channel. Part of what I'm going through is 'coz of him too! I want a compressor that makes harmonics ring out and even a little bit of dirt(?)... The pedal does this BUT with the whine.

SO... I EQ'd the whine out by dropping the treble on my amp. Plugged the Hao into the blender section and turned it on... POP!!! Capital B Bad noise on turning on that section...

The bypass signal is every bit as clean as I want my bass signal to be. I've tried 3 P-basses with it now... No difference once the pedal is on... so I'm thinking it's the circuitry. There is more background noise once the pedal is on but this pitch makes the device unusable in the studio or live IMO (just saying!). Thanks bongomania! Your FAQ is awesome but I feel a bit peeved about this pedal. I have written JHS but no reply as yet...
 

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