stopping my pedal from clipping?

[wshines1892]

I recently received an EHX Small Clone, which I am enjoying very much. However, it seems that when I use my P-bass, is clips at lower notes. I tried using it with my jazz bass, which is lower output, and the problem disappeared.

Is there any way to correct this problem by swapping out something in the pedal?

edit: I've tried the pad switch on my BDDI to lower the gain a bit, but it's still there.

 

[rratajski]

Lower the volume on your pbass or use a volume pedal

 

[Taylor Livingston]

There is a trimpot in the Small Clone for biasing the BBD (analog delay chip). The bias may have come a bit out of the sweet spot, which can lower headroom. You can carefully, slowly adjust this with a jeweler's screwdriver, to see if you can get it sounding cleaner.

You won't break anything by messing with this, however there's a fairly narrow range where you'll get any sound, and without an oscilloscope it can be very tricky to set it perfectly just by ear. You just want to try the area right around where it already is set. In other words, there's a chance you could make the distortion worse and have a hard time dialing it in better than it already is. But again, you won't break anything, so if you have the patience you should be able to tune it up.

 

[wshines1892]

Could it be the result of a dying battery by any chance? I did accidentally leave it plugged in, but not on, over night, and I understand this can cause some battery drain?

 

[Ray man]

Are you using the clone after or before the BDDI?

Try both ways. Does the problem go away if you use the clone first and the BBDI second?

 

[Taylor Livingston]

Could it be the result of a dying battery by any chance? I did accidentally leave it plugged in, but not on, over night, and I understand this can cause some battery drain?

Yes, that could definitely be the culprit.

 

[rratajski]

Yes, that could definitely be the culprit.

Ding!

 

[wshines1892]

Yup, battery was it. I haven't ever had to run a pedal off battery for any extended period of time and didn't know the effects of dying batteries on the circuit. I picked up a 1 Spot battery clip converter for 2 bucks, and away went my problem.