Too hot

[THE HIPPIE]

I use pedals like flanger, compressor with sustain; bass overdrive, reverb. Problem is the signal is too hot and would shriek my amp(feedback).
Shall I just ditch some of the pedals?
What to do to prevent this?

Thanks for any help.

 

[OOZMAN]

uhh... turn the pedals down...

no need for sustain if you have compressor and vice versa. Theyre basically the same thing. Heck if I used over drive I wouldnt even use a compressor coz thats basically what overdrive is, it compresses the signal so much it clips, but in a pleasant sounding way.

 

[Downunderwonder]

I was reading about some pedals having a different circuit earth polarity from standard, causing nasty noises. Not something I understand.

Start adding pedals until it squawks. Take out pedals one at a time to see if it goes away. eg pedals C and F don't play well together.

Maybe it is just excess gain, back off the overdrive! Actual feedback is pretty hard to get from a bass.

 

[Rhon]

ive had this problem with pedals, make sure you have unity gain, (your pedal on is the same volume as the pedal off) if not then you need more headroom in your amp because of all that gain

 

[Plays_For_Dog]

Reverb is probably the culprit. I've tried a few and can never get them to play nice. They're always harsh and tone spike.

Your bass may have something to do with it too. Is it active? If it's pushing a really hot signal, it can excite your pedals and cause them to over react when doing their thing.

Also, as mentioned before, the OD can get wild if it's knobs are set extreme. Spend some time alone with this guy and get him dialed in. Then put the OD back in the chain and see how things are.

 

[PlungerModerno]

ive had this problem with pedals, make sure you have unity gain, (your pedal on is the same volume as the pedal off) if not then you need more headroom in your amp because of all that gain

^+1.

Gain staging is key. There are volume pedals and booster pedal type things you can put in an effects chain... but you never really need to do that. you should be able to start off with (for example) your full chain:

A-->B-->C-->D-->E where A is bass and E is amp for example.
Start off with A-->E. get the volume at a reasonable setting (try to get decent gain on the amp with no clipping or distortion (unless you plan on using that effect all the time)).
Add stages in. Keep the overall gain the same - and the best way to do this is compare perceived volume when the effect is bypassed and engaged.

Keep adding the stages till you've balanced you're entire signal chain. Now as for splitting and side chaining.... That's another layer of dialling in I can't comment on.

As the bassist who would appear to play for dog suggested: Reverb can be a culprit as can flangers, phasers and almost any effect if the EQ and gain staging aren't suited to the entire setup. It only takes one error to drive the entire signal into 'experimental' territory - in the bad way

 

[Toastfuzz]

I run alot of overdrive and fuzz pedals, and I find my amp will squeal with feedback if I have the treble or gain set ON THE AMP too high. But too low and you're muffled, so its an exercise in balancing your amp gain with your pedal volumes/gains.

In my personal setup, if all pedals are on, it squeals and feeds back. I use that for some things. Rather than all pedals set for "unity" gain, I set them so first pedal bumps gain slightly, and each pedal is another slight bump. So while OD+Boost doesnt feedback and just fuzz doesnt feedback, OD+fuzz does, OD+fuzz+boost does more, etc. Also, your bass' volume and tone controls can be used to tame a feedback rig.