Taming high gain distortion noise THE MOVIE

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Charles Ebarb says

The trick, I have noticed, no matter where the “Gain” or “booster” or “High Gain” pedal may be located on your pedal board, 3 things must ALWAYS be considered;
1. Wattage of Amplifier unit,
2. Grounding of the actual pedal
3. Placement of the pedal within the signal chain

Lets talk about the first one for a second…..
The Wattage of the Head unit is very important because, for instance, a 50 watt head will automatically produce it’s own “boost” due to pushing low watts at high volumes. Especially if this head is a tube amp, will you really notice the “hiss”, due to the tubes being fully saturated.
some “hiss” can be eliminated by moving the “Gain” pedal around in your signal chain. this may produce +/- results depending on the pedals location. keep in mind that different places in the chain produce different results.

Number two…..

grounding of the pedal(and just about everything being electrically charged, for that matter) is important due to the unwanted noise. For instance, when connecting your head unit to your speaker cabinet, what difference in “white noise” do you notice when using a guitar cable as opposed to a speaker cable? Consider this simple procedure every time you add, or subtract, from your signal chain, too! it really makes a difference to consider better quality cables versus cheaper, more affordable cables. As well as cable length… using 20 foot cables will wreak havoc on your sound too, but that can be easily fixed with a signal booster… but remember this: The shortest distance between 2 points, is a straight line. In our case, a shorter cable! The last, but certainly the most important thing in grounding to consider is making sure your instrument is properly shielded as well. You would be amazed how bad an unshielded guitar sounds as opposed to a shielded one. It’s also a relative easy fix, too! just shield the pots, or controls, with shielding tape!

Number 3…..

This may seem unimportant, but actually is the most versatile of them all! for instance, move your gain pedal in from, and behind your Wah pedal, if you have one… notice the sound? I did! If you don’t have a wah pedal, maybe you have any other pedal? swap them around in your signal chain, and take note of the different pitches of “white noise” or “hiss”. Consider the “path of least resistance” if at all possible!

Good luck, and I hope this was some sort of help to you!

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  Dennis says

  GREAT stuff!! Thanks for taking the time and being so thorough.

  Dennis