Pedal Issues

[bassista]

Hello,
I have a pedal train set up with 6 pedals on it. Sometimes my sound cuts out or a buzz happens. If I play live the thing that usually fixes the issue temporarily is lightly smacking my Ibanez DE7 Echo/Delay peday. I tap the side where the pedal cable connects to it. Sometimes it makes things worse but eventually it fixes and I can finish the show.

Could someone please help to point me in the right direction. Is it very likely that this pedal is the issue....is it a simple maintenance thing like getting it cleaned and checking the connection? I'm really hoping that this is common issue and that this will fix it.

Any tips would be much appreciated! Thanks!

 

[Stylee Mousse]

Could be the cable to or from the pedal, The power supply cable to the pedal or the pedals jacks.

can you make it fail by messing with the patch cables?

 

[bassista]

Hi thanks. I bough new patch cables to try and fix the issue, but it's still happening. I don't know how tough these DE7 pedals are but if after tapping all the other pedals and connections this one makes the most noise and crackles so thinking the issue is there. I doubt it's the patching as I have replaced them few times already just to eliminate that possibility. Thanks

 

[Stylee Mousse]

Most Ibanez pedals, including the tone-lok series are pretty tough. But all pedals can have problems.

I'd take it out of the pedal board and plug through it alone to an amp (low volume) using known good cables and if possible whatever power supply you use with it normally.

Physically manipulate that jacks and PS connection and see if you hear the cutting out or buzz. That can help isolate where the problem is. If the cables are good and this still happens it's possibly one of the pedal's jacks intermittently losing ground connection. Also un-lok the knobs and turn them up and down. A dirty pot, particularly the vol could be dirty and intermittent. Sometimes just exercising the pot (turn up and down a lot of times) can clear whatever was causing that.

If it runs on battery it could be a loose battery connection too.

If none of this surfaces anything you could open it up and have a look but if yer not familiar with audio circuits it not too likely that you will be able to see anything there. Could have a cracked or poor solder joint, usually at a pcb mount pot, jack or switch connection.