Pedal Help!

[StratLover]

I purchased a little fuzz pedal recently, with a built in delay/modulator. I don't have too much time on it, maybe about a total of 6 hours or so, and today I was playing it, and it began doing this high pitched shrieking (not feedback). I turned the pedal off, and it ceased. Fired it back up, and it came back. I was using cheap ass cords I had laying around, so I changed those out to my decent gigging cables, that I've never had problems with. This fixed the problem, for about 5 minutes, then the noise returned.

That's all I had time to do to attempt to fix it. It's an odd situation. . . Any suggestions?

[C0ldFart]

I would have tried the pedal all alone in front of amp with nothing in loop. And powered by battery only.

[Kongels]

carbon battery, get the "heavy duty" cheap ones that aren't alkaline for fuzz.

[StratLover]

I would have tried the pedal all alone in front of amp with nothing in loop. And powered by battery only.

That's the only way I run a fuzz

carbon battery, get the "heavy duty" cheap ones that aren't alkaline for fuzz.

Is this for sure?

[BNS]

Is this for sure?

That's for sure. Non-alkaline batteries only with fuzzes. They are very cheap and sometimes hard to find. I buy 10 at a time when I find them.

[LivewireBlanco]

What's the deal with a carbon battery? This is the first I've heard of this.

[slowpokerhino]

I don't use fuzz but I know many manufacturers (AnalogMan comes to mind) recommend using cheap batteries and definitely not alkaline.

[StratLover]

So if I put a non-alkaline battery in that thing, it should go away?

Another thing to add, it only happens when the modulation/delay portion of the pedal is functioning. There is a blend knob on the pedal for this part of the circuit, and when it is turned to 0, the sound goes away. But, no more delay

[BNS]

What's the deal with a carbon battery? This is the first I've heard of this.

I have no idea what the reason is. I just do what I'm told!

[Kongels]

Yes it is for sure, matters most in germanium fuzz pedals. It might not help one bit in your pedal though. I have seen it fix similiar problems when other guys I know have gotten a fuzz, complained about squealing, gave them a carbon battery and problem solved. Analogman, Monsterpiece, Lovepedal all come with a carbon battery don't they?

[WhoAreYou]

This is an interesting post.

So, is it just for Fuzz pedals I need non-alk? When you talk about carbon you mean Zinc-carbon? For other pedals I can still use Alkaline?

[Kongels]

I use them in any fuzz, treble booster or drive pedal. Lovepedal Dragon (fuzz), COT 50 (Booster) Eternity (od) diaz texas ranger (booster) monsterpiece (fuzz) mxr silicone (fuzz). I don't use all those pedals all the time, mainly COT 50 and eternity. My advice is try both types in a pedal, if one sounds better to you, more dynamic, no squeal, whatever then use that type. Another trick is when your smoke detector battery gets low take the battery out and try it in your fuzz. :) Some guys use smoke detectors to drain them cause they think it sounds better, instant SAG. I imagine in a few years I will test batteries with my multimeter and have a set number they sound best, lol. It never really ends does it, if we spent as much time playing as trying to find that dream tone it would probably pay off more than all the messing around with gear. :lick me

[Riffraff]

It's real. I used to have a problem with an old Boss unit. The fix was switching to carbon batteries.

[VMConvert]

Here's a site got em for 87cents http://www.allelectronics.com/make-a-st ... C/-/1.html

[StratLover]

Sorry to leave you guys hanging on this one, never gave a final verdict. . . And boy do I feel like a dumbass. . .

It was a dying battery. It just never occured to me that a battery dying would cause high pitched squealing, I never even considered it. Sorry to waste your time. . .