Is there anything I can do to lower the noise floor on this thing? Or is it just the nature of this pedal with the Ge and all? Don't get me wrong the thing sounds absolutely fantastic, it's just the noisiest pedal on my board.
define noise. mine is dead quiet as far as hiss/hum/buzz, but it feeds back very readily, and that IS the nature of the pedal.
A lot of hiss just sitting still and switched on. I feel it's probably just the nature of the circuit. It seems more trebly than most pedals so maybe it's that making it more apparent. I can deal with it cause it's such a cool sound but it will be a little challenging recording it.
Mine operates very quietly. Did you happen to socket the transistors to try swapping those?
Also, which version did you build? I have built the "albini" version with madbean's recommended mojo parts. It has almost NO treble. in fact it is almost a sub octave fuzz. I just used the ge diodes, and an alternate "no diode" mode. they sound the same except ge is quieter and there's clipping.
Built the Albini using all the recommended components. I socketed the trannys and the diodes. Both clipping diode sections and non clipping stage exhibit same relative noise level.
Thing is it sounds very much like the sound I hear on the shellac stuff so I like quite a lot and I'm reluctant to change out the components.
I'll try to get a sound clip and some pics after a bit. Maybe it's my crappy wiring job.
Mine's not dead quiet ... with single coils. Humbuckers there's a little bit of noise but it's not horrible. Rolling back the tone knob kills hiss entirely.
You might have a leaky transistor, or you might try putting the PNP in backwards. I did that to prevent oscillation, but it also reduces the total gain at the input by quiet a bit, which could reduce any amplified noise originating from your guitar.
When I initially put the pedal together I had the PNP in backwards and it was so quiet as to be wrong.
I sat down to record and maybe I'm just being to anal. It's noticeably noisier than some OD pedals I have but then for kicks and giggles, and cause I forgot I had it, I pulled out an un-modded DS1 - and wouldn't you know it they are about the same as far as noise.
I think it could be the tin tranny but I guess I'm relegated to the fact it is what it is. I can put up with the noise for the tone it produces. I did play only with single coils so I'll have to try my Paul and see what that produces.
Thanks for the suggestions.
I have a fair amount of noise in my pedal as well. I notice very little when I run it out of a chain but it definitely picks up noise if I am running it in a longer chain of pedals.