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Dunwich Amplification General Discussion

#3,743
Had some 'sea squeal' from a (compact) WF, occuring when the circuit was blended in, no matter how i tweaked the knobs. The same occured with a Spaceman Nebula, both being new. Interested to know if it can be fixed. At that time, i thought it was related to some electronical hiss depending on how several components interacted and sold them both. Would have kept these for sure if it only required a simple fix, esp the Wizard, killer bouncy fuzz tones in there.

Anyway, 2 days before the Parabellum Drive pre-order batch is opened. Guess the available slots will be hold pretty quickly.
 
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#3,744
monsterthompson said:
I’ve got a big box Wizard and it’s generating a lot of white noise or static. I’ve tried a few cable swaps and power supply changes, but it is still being noisy. Anyone here have thoughts on what could be causing it or what could cure it? I’m thinking I need to send it to Magic for a tune up, but figured I’d start here.
Click to expand...

Tricky. Another thing you could do is open it up and do a visual inspection, no need to know anything about electronics, just to make sure no wires/connections are loose or if there are things in sockets, that those didn't come loose etc. Also, while it's open, put a loop through it and see if the "noise" changes when you touch "stuff" on the inside, with a chop stick/pencil, or wiggle things gently here and there.
If it's not something obvious, to be sure to get to the problem, you might probably need an "audio probe" (and even a schematic to guide you through the signal path).

And while I'm here .... my DIY Bass OD. Dunwich & HR Giger ... that combination was discussed in regards to a custom once, but didn't pan out, so it had to be done with this one.

D-OD.jpeg D-OD-G.jpeg
 
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#3,746
monsterthompson said:
I’ve got a big box Wizard and it’s generating a lot of white noise or static. I’ve tried a few cable swaps and power supply changes, but it is still being noisy. Anyone here have thoughts on what could be causing it or what could cure it? I’m thinking I need to send it to Magic for a tune up, but figured I’d start here.
Click to expand...

Probably a bad connection or intermittently bad connection. You would have to chopstick around for it if that was the exact issue.
 
#3,747
dunwichamps said:
Probably a bad connection or intermittently bad connection. You would have to chopstick around for it if that was the exact issue.
Click to expand...

I had to send it to Magic once before. I can’t recall the exact symptoms but I believe they were a variation on this. I’ll pop the back off and gently prod a bit. I’d really like to get it back on the board :)

Would another pedal/electronics person be able to service the pedal if Magic is unavailable? I’m not sure who I’ve got locally in LA but I’d assume somewhere in this town is a guy who might know a thing or two.
 
#3,748
monsterthompson said:
I had to send it to Magic once before. I can’t recall the exact symptoms but I believe they were a variation on this. I’ll pop the back off and gently prod a bit. I’d really like to get it back on the board :)

Would another pedal/electronics person be able to service the pedal if Magic is unavailable? I’m not sure who I’ve got locally in LA but I’d assume somewhere in this town is a guy who might know a thing or two.
Click to expand...

Any decent tech with experience can do a pedal. So long as you trust them it should be fine.
 
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#3,749
A couple of gut shots from my noisy Wizard.

The first one is the power connection. I’m no electronics guy, but should that solder be connecting the two terminals like that? I’m not sure if that’s a feature or a bug.

The second one shows that the mounting is coming apart so the board isn’t solidly connected, but movement doesn’t seem to be the issue.

With the signal path
Mustang > Wizard > Mackie Mix 8 > Monitors
What seems to be happening is that the gain level is weaker/lower than it should be. With the instrument connected but not playing I get audible white noise. As I turn the gain up after about 9 o’clock all output sound stops but the gain meter on my mixer shows a level jump, which I’m assuming is all super low frequency that’s registering on the meter but not audible. In various EQ/Gain/Low Filter settings I can get some decent sounds but it’s not a high gain fuzz that it should be. Altering the other controls seems somewhat influential, but the gain seems to be where the root of the problem is.



EDIT - Magic confirmed the solder is as intended. He thinks a gain stage transistor might be the culprit. Time to ship.
 

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