Very basic board, 10-15 db loss-Why?

dmac1961

dmac1961

Feb 7, 2012
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#1
I'm an admitted pedal nube.
My primary"pedal" for years is a Korg Pitchblack + tuner (battery powered) plugged straight into the amp (GB Shuttle 9.0 usually) no prob.
A couple years ago, I added a Fairfield Barbershop as an always on to give my signal a little heft, powered off a Onespot. Works great. Recently, I purchased a Traynor YBA-200, and after getting it sorted at the tech, I love it, but found it extremely bright. I purchased a Broughton hpf+lpf to tame it, and it worked great. So, I decided to build a small pedal board to house all three pedals and use what I needed depending on which amp I was using. Korg Pitchblack +, to Barbershop, to hpf+lpf, all powered by the Onespot. The trouble is, I get a big drop in signal. All cables are have been metered and are good. The more pedals I unplug, the better the signal strength is. Is this normal? I really like the convenience of a pedal board for different amps, supplied back line etc., but I can't deal with this drop in signal. I believe they're all quality pedals. Is this normal? Do I need to add another pedal to compensate for the loss? Do I just need to ditch the board and just hook up the individual pedals I need for a given situation? Thanks in advance for any advice.
 
#2
20180326_203909.jpg
I know, no pics.......
 
#4
theunknowndude said:
That shouldn’t affect anything being that small... only thing I can think is trouble shoot each connection one by one. My pedalboard with 9 pedals has a small loss of high end but I just compensate get with amp eq, shouldn’t actually be a dB loss and especially not that large.
Click to expand...
I didn't expect that much loss either. I was demoing it with a passive Dingwall D Bird, on a lark, I just tried it with an active bass, and it all works as it should. So it appears it just happens with passive instruments. Is there a fix for that?
 
#8
AndyLES said:
Go through each combination of pedals at a time (shouldn't take too long with that few) and see which one is the culprit.
Click to expand...
I've gone through each, singularly and then added another, tried different orders, and with each successive pedal, there is a drop in volume. This is with the pedals bypassed. Like I said, it all seems fine with an active bass, but the majority of my basses are passive.
 
#11
Jebberz said:
I had a similar trouble. It was a cable that metered good but, I dont know why, drove my signal significantly lower.
Click to expand...
It sounds like a capacitance problem. I know you can't read capacitance without a special meter, but I used a Simpson meter and my patchcables read exactly the same as known working cables. I just didn't think this combination of pedals would load down a passive bass so severely, yet not affect an active bass.
 
#14
dmac1961 said:
I'm an admitted pedal nube.
My primary"pedal" for years is a Korg Pitchblack + tuner (battery powered) plugged straight into the amp (GB Shuttle 9.0 usually) no prob.
A couple years ago, I added a Fairfield Barbershop as an always on to give my signal a little heft, powered off a Onespot. Works great. Recently, I purchased a Traynor YBA-200, and after getting it sorted at the tech, I love it, but found it extremely bright. I purchased a Broughton hpf+lpf to tame it, and it worked great. So, I decided to build a small pedal board to house all three pedals and use what I needed depending on which amp I was using. Korg Pitchblack +, to Barbershop, to hpf+lpf, all powered by the Onespot. The trouble is, I get a big drop in signal. All cables are have been metered and are good. The more pedals I unplug, the better the signal strength is. Is this normal? I really like the convenience of a pedal board for different amps, supplied back line etc., but I can't deal with this drop in signal. I believe they're all quality pedals. Is this normal? Do I need to add another pedal to compensate for the loss? Do I just need to ditch the board and just hook up the individual pedals I need for a given situation? Thanks in advance for any advice.
Click to expand...

That's what the Gain and Vol knobs are for on the Broughton and Fairfield units: set them so that there is no change in volume when the units are switched on and off.

It's commonly referred to as "unity gain" :thumbsup:
 
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#15
dmac1961 said:
The problem is when the pedals are bypassed. I can compensate with the gain or volume on each pedal when activated, but the tone is drastically different.
Click to expand...

Sorry, didn't see this yet: no, that's not normal at all.

I've had numerous issues with OneSpot power supplies over the years, I'd highly recommend something like the Walrus Audio Aetos instead.
 
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#17
I’m having the same problem....put together a little board, and tone suckery occurred. I’m coming to this conclusion: the universe doesn’t mind if bassists have pedals, but it doesn’t want us having pedal BOARDS. Way too guitar-like. We’re meant to keep our heads down and shovel coal. Help load out the PA. Straighten up the green room, that sort of thing. Humility is the key. So keep the pedals, ditch the board, and I think you’ll be fine.
 
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#18
bassbuddy said:
I’m having the same problem....put together a little board, and tone suckery occurred. I’m coming to this conclusion: the universe doesn’t mind if bassists have pedals, but it doesn’t want us having pedal BOARDS. Way too guitar-like. We’re meant to keep our heads down and shovel coal. Help load out the PA. Straighten up the green room, that sort of thing. Humility is the key. So keep the pedals, ditch the board, and I think you’ll be fine.
Click to expand...
I added a buffered pedal and cheated the universe. That said, losing 10-15 db of signal with three measley true bypass pedals seems too extreme to be an issue with lack of buffering. Could be one of those pedals doesn't like being tied to the 1-Spot. But I have separate Broughton H and LPF pedals and they have no issue with the 1-Spot and most other pedals. I don't know...I'm stumped.
 
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#20
BaileyMan said:
I was wondering if a buffer would be in order in this situation. My understanding is that a buffer can help with signal loss over long cables or multiple pedals. I always assumed it was more than 3 though...
Click to expand...
It can be as few as one to lose some signal, but the signal you're going to lose shouldn't cut you down by 10 or 15 db. Mostly it's high end frequencies that you lose and you don't lose much volume at all, if any.
 
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