Overdrive pedal creates LOUD signal noise when paired with my Chorus pedal

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dogbertx

Aug 17, 2022
26
14
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#1
I just got a new chorus pedal (MXR Chorus Deluxe) and when I tried it out with my overdrive (EHX Glove OD) this very loud signal comes through my amp. I noticed this only happens when I engage the overdrive pedal in some way. The overdrive comes before the chorus in my signal chain. I bought this pedal second hand and I noticed some signal issues with it initially but it was nothing noticeable. For some reason when I use it with my chorus pedal, this signal issue becomes a huge problem. The sound is so loud and disruptive I have to immediately turn off my amp and pedals.

My question is, can this signal/noise damage my chorus pedal in any way? Would putting it after the chorus pedal in the signal chain prevent any damage to the chorus pedal? Because the signal is quite loud, I do run some risk of hurting my amp, but it's a cheap practice amp, and I'm frankly more concerned with my very expensive chorus pedal.

Has anyone experienced a similar issue? Is it fixable or is my overdrive pedal toast? I checked the input and output jacks from the exterior and they both seem fine.

Thanks!
 
#2
dogbertx said:
I just got a new chorus pedal (MXR Chorus Deluxe) and when I tried it out with my overdrive (EHX Glove OD) this very loud signal comes through my amp. I noticed this only happens when I engage the overdrive pedal in some way. The overdrive comes before the chorus in my signal chain. I bought this pedal second hand and I noticed some signal issues with it initially but it was nothing noticeable. For some reason when I use it with my chorus pedal, this signal issue becomes a huge problem. The sound is so loud and disruptive I have to immediately turn off my amp and pedals.

My question is, can this signal/noise damage my chorus pedal in any way? Would putting it after the chorus pedal in the signal chain prevent any damage to the chorus pedal? Because the signal is quite loud, I do run some risk of hurting my amp, but it's a cheap practice amp, and I'm frankly more concerned with my very expensive chorus pedal.

Has anyone experienced a similar issue? Is it fixable or is my overdrive pedal toast? I checked the input and output jacks from the exterior and they both seem fine.

Thanks!
Click to expand...

Very little chance of the OD damaging the Chorus IMHO.

Does this happen with just the OD going right into the amp?

OD might be driving the Chorus input stage into clipping due to higher output level from the OD depending on your settings.

If the Volume knob on your OD is really high, try turn that down and see if it helps. Swapping the two pedals so Chorus is first might solve the problem as well if the output from OD is just to high for the Chorus, but modulation into drive pedals can be iffy, and definitely sound different than drive into modulation.

Other things worth looking into are making sure each pedal has it's own isolated power supply.

Sounds like the OD might be a little temperamental to begin with though, and could have other issues going on.
 
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#3
gh0st42 said:
Very little chance of the OD damaging the Chorus IMHO.

Does this happen with just the OD going right into the amp?

OD might be driving the Chorus input stage into clipping due to higher output level from the OD depending on your settings.

If the Volume knob on your OD is really high, try turn that down and see if it helps. Swapping the two pedals so Chorus is first might solve the problem as well if the output from OD is just to high for the Chorus, but modulation into drive pedals can be iffy, and definitely sound different than drive into modulation.

Other things worth looking into are making sure each pedal has it's own isolated power supply.

Sounds like the OD might be a little temperamental to begin with though, and could have other issues going on.
Click to expand...

When it's just the OD by itself, sometimes i'll notice the tone/volume gets kind of dull if I move the pedal by pressing on it to turn it on. Moving the knobs sometimes does this too. It seems like something internally might be going on and when the pedal is moved or pushed on, the problem occurs.

It's only when I have it engaged with my chorus pedal turned on that I get this really loud signal. The pedal has a flanger built into it, and the motion of the flanger gets combined with this loud signal from my overdrive. For what it's worth, I can usually use both pedals with no problems and it sounds fine. But if I stomp the overdrive off/on it will sometimes create this sound.

In terms of volume, I keep the overdrive low to compensate for the gain. My bass signal that goes from the OD to my chorus should not be very hot/loud.

You mention an isolated power supply. I just use a daisy chain power supply that plugs into 1 socket. Is that bad? Should every pedal have it's own individual power supply? I have another OD pedal that I use with the chorus and daisy chain and have no issues using them together.

Thanks for your help.
 
Last edited:
#4
dogbertx said:
You mention an isolated power supply. I just use a daisy chain power supply that plugs into 1 socket. Is that bad? Should every pedal have it's own individual power supply? I have another OD pedal that I use with the chorus and daisy chain and have no issues using them together.
Click to expand...

Try running both pedals on batteries first. If you still get noise then the problem isn't the power source.
 
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#5
dogbertx said:
You mention an isolated power supply. I just use a daisy chain power supply that plugs into 1 socket. Is that bad? Should every pedal have it's own individual power supply? I have another OD pedal that I use with the chorus and daisy chain and have no issues using them together.

Thanks for your help.
Click to expand...

Sounds like it shouldn't be a volume issue from the OD then.

Isolated power isn't always required, but occasionally you can run into pedals that just don't play nicely with a shared power supply on a daisy chain, and with a buggy glitchy pedal, that's even more likely to occur.

With the OD being weird when touched, adjusted, etc, you might have something shorting out internally, and causing issues through the shared power daisy chain.

I'd try run the chorus on a 9v battery or on a separate power supply if possible, and see if that stops the noise.
 
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#6
gh0st42 said:
Sounds like it shouldn't be a volume issue from the OD then.

Isolated power isn't always required, but occasionally you can run into pedals that just don't play nicely with a shared power supply on a daisy chain, and with a buggy glitchy pedal, that's even more likely to occur.

With the OD being weird when touched, adjusted, etc, you might have something shorting out internally, and causing issues through the shared power daisy chain.

I'd try run the chorus on a 9v battery or on a separate power supply if possible, and see if that stops the noise.
Click to expand...

Yeah your power supply theory seems pretty likely. I'm gonna buy a battery tomorrow and throw it in the OD and see what happens. Thanks again for the help!

In the meantime, if anyone has any other theories or ideas please share them.
 
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#10
Think about the mechanics... it may just be an exaggerated case of 'normal'.

If you look at some bass sounds in a wave editor, you might see some strong asymmetry. Overdrive may fix that but only by clipping. Now consider the chorus, the split sound will act like detuned oscillators, cancelling one moment, reinforcing the next. 3-line choruses are better, the phases separate to prevent excess peaking and nulling, and you get a fuller sound.

If you have any strong reinforcing peak in the chorus, it may be clipping in its own output stage, so the extended duration of a clipped peak can be long enough to be heard as nasty, not just part of normal overdriven sound. This can happen if the resulting clipped peak is longer than about 7 ms because it starts to have audible artifacts in the spectrum you hear as pitch.

If this is why you're getting loud unwanted sounds in it, try reducing the amplitude sent into the chorus while still maintaining the amount of clipping you want from the overdrive.

You could also try putting a series 10 microfarad capacitor in the signal path between bas and overdrive, or overdrive and chorus, to remove any DC offset if there is one.
 
#11
dogbertx said:
When it's just the OD by itself, sometimes i'll notice the tone/volume gets kind of dull if I move the pedal by pressing on it to turn it on. Moving the knobs sometimes does this too. It seems like something internally might be going on and when the pedal is moved or pushed on, the problem occurs.
Click to expand...

Do you mean dull like less overdriven brightness? If it's erratic there is a fault, but it might just be a dodgy potentiometer. If you bought a used pedal it's probably worth replacing the pots on general principle if they act anything less than they should. Cleaning them is just postponing a bigger failure, replacement is much better.

If there is any sign of bending in the metal surface it probably got stomped hard, so there might be dodgy solder joints too.
 
#12
If the issue is intermittent with that particular OD, and only with it, I’d say something might be wrong with that OD.

You should try to get it to happen just with the OD by handling it while switching it on and off repeatedly. That would prove it is the OD pedal and not some odd interaction.
 
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#14
Rolling Thunder said:
I'd you have hiss in your signal, modulation like chorus (and especially flanger) will be like a spotlight. I'm going to guess it's the OD. Sometimes things don't play well together.
Click to expand...
My thoughts exactly. Like I love my reverb and I love my fuzz pedal. But put them both together and you get some very strange interactions. Chorus and reverb and phasers all make use of delays and in the case of reverb repeats. I feel like the chorus would produce all sorts of strange unpredictable effects when it’s being fed a very “noisy” signal from an OD.

OP have you tried a buffer or something like that in between the pedals? That might help reduce the problem. But that’s not the sort of thing everyone build into their pedal board.
 
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