Musicians Roadhouse

Hi All,

Apologies if this has been addressed before, and I am happy to be pointed in the right direction if the answer is out there.

I've had my 50W VM Combo for a couple of weeks. I am extremely pleased with it. Superb piece of kit. It wasn't until the other night that I decided to introduce my pedalboard into the line, and suddenly I get a LOT of noise coming from the amp (especially worse in Amp high-gain mode). The noise is there even when pedals are inactive. My pedal board is simple and I have tried to resolve the issue by isolating cables and guitars. I never experienced this with my AC30.

My setup is USA Strat with humbucker in the bridge. Fulltone OCD and MXR Micro amp in the guitar/amp chain. I also have a DIY delay in the FX loop. I am using a Gator 9V distributor for the pedals. I have tried each pedal seperately with no link cables etc and a complete change of cables. The only thing I have not tried is to run a pedal from battery. I have also tried this with a Telecaster Deluxe with P90s and I get the same result.

Is it acceptable to run these pedals in the guitar chain, or should I run them through the FX loop?
Could this be related to single coil pickup noise?

EDIT: Been doing a bit more digging. It might be a ground loop problem? I have no idea what this is? Also I am running both the FX loop and the front FX from the same supply, which also might be a problem? I will do some more testing tonight.

First a little noise in HDR is normal with overdrive pedals, but it should not be to the point where it affects the amp. I would run all those pedals in front of the amp withe the MXR first followed by the OCD then the delay. I know all those pedals to be good and not noisy.

Also the Gator is a good power supply and should not add to the noise. So what I would suspect is either your wall outlet or the electronics in your guitar. Many Strats can be noisy if they do not have shielding inside the compatment that houses the pots or you have some very noisy single coil pickups on your guitar. If you can try your guitar with other amps with your chain. I would start with having a good guitar tech look at your Strat.

I use some of the same pedals as you do with a Gator and my Strat has very little noise. I have the fat 50 pickups.

Try running all effects in front of the amp and disable the loop. If the noise (hum?) disappears you probably have a ground loop issue.

Read this for more info and how to battle it:
http://marshallvintagemodern.com/viewto ... f=2&t=1344

I had a quick play around last night and I think the answer is to simplify my setup and go back to the beginning, rather than trying to shoe-horn my old setup into my new amp. The VM seems a lot more sensitive (in a good way) than my AC30.

I hate to admit this but I don't think I need both the OCD and the MXR. The more I play the VM with just a guitar and cable, the more I love it. What a wicked amp this is, and I haven't even put my Les Paul through it yet.

What are the thoughts about FX-loop vs front of amp? Do people tend to favour one or t'other or use both? With the AC30 I used to put modulating (or timing) based FX through the loop and my OD/boost in front and it worked ok, although cabling is a pain.

Delay, chorus etc does sound a bit "better" in the loop but I'm not sure it's worth the trouble in a band situation, maybe ok in a studio or at home.
I just run mine into the input.
Chain is - Boss Tuner - Boss Wah - Xotic RC - Xotic AC - Boss Chorus - Boss Delay - Boss Line Selector

Ok so lunchtime today (I'm working from home) I ripped out the entire pedalboard and rebuilt it using a single chain in front of the VM, therefore not using the FX loop at all. Thus; Vox Wah > MXR Dyna Comp > OCD > Delay > MXR Micro Amp > VM. It seems a little better on low dynamic but there is still definitely something still there on high dynamic. Could it be something to do with the mains multi-block the 9V distrib is feeding from?