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VT Bass Deluxe Noise

L

LPStephens

May 16, 2010
34
0
#1
I bought a VT Bass Deluxe back in the middle of July and just used it at home. I loved the tones I could get, but noticed it got noisy the more character I added or used brighter tones. I didn't pay much attention to it because it didn't seem too bad at home because I practice at a really low volume and I had surgery shortly after getting it.

I'm back gigging after healing up and decided to give it a try, but found it is unusable. The noise is overbearing and the sound guy agreed with me that something is wrong with it. We have ruled out the bad signal coming from anything else. I have no noise whatsoever if I'm not using it.

I no longer have the paperwork to return it and it's been 4 months since that I've had it. Is there a known issue with these things? Do you think Musicians Friend will replace it at this time? I feel like I've thrown money down the drain. Just need some advice.
 
#4
Usually these issues are power issues but a good battery rules that out, I do not know the VT Bass Deluxe well enough to tell you if it is just noisy on its own or if your pedal is fudged. Sorry. If it is easy for you to get to a music shop you could try one and see if it functions the same, that is what I would do although I am sure plenty of TBers can speak for this pedal.

Help bump!
 
#5
What are you plugging the VT Bass Deluxe into? An amp, mixer, power amp and speaker?

Does the noise go away when you turn down your instruments volume control?

If into an amp, are you using the instrument level setting and do you have the unit set for unity gain. This means the level will be about the same level as your bass without the pedal.

If using directly to a mixer there are a multitude of ways to gain stage it properly with the mixer. We would need to know which mixer, what type of channel is being used etc.

As the Character control is increased the tone and drive will increase. The more drive the more relative noise. This is normal and an amp works the same way. Increasing treble a great will also accentuate some high end hiss. This is normal as well.

Theses pedals have very low self noise. You also need to consider the signal to noise ratio. How loud is the noise in comparison to the actual signal level.
 
#6
Hey LPStephens. I was experiencing the same thing with my VT bass Deluxe. It was so bad I thought it was broken too. After much investigation I've found that if anything is noisy is in front of this pedal that noise will be magnified considerably.

I traded my VT Bass Deluxe in for a VT bass DI and have found that the DI seems less of a problem in the noise area and that the blend really helps with noise also.

I hope this helps.
 
#7
There really is no difference in "noise" between the two products. If you are using distortion and adding high end that will be exacerbated by any noise ahead of it. Same thing with a compressor. All the blend is doing is subtracting part of the SansAmp signal with the DRY signal.

The OP never let us know how he was using the pedal. My guess is that if he is using the pedal to the board there might be a configuration issue between the board and the pedal. You need to gain stage the pedal and the board to work together. If you are going into a board that is configured for "mic level" and have the pedal set for line level this could overload the board and cause more noise than normal.
 
#8
Turning up the character and treble also turns up the noise floor of the character and treble. You will notice this in anything that produces audio and is simply the way things are.
 

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