Pop when I turn my tuner off and on

[ChuckHubbert]

I'm pretty new to the effects game - and I don't need much for what I do. My chain is guitar/bass -> Pitchblack -> CF-7 Chorus -> MXR M80 Bass+ Preamp/DI -> Rolls wired personal monitor -> sound board.

I just swapped this in after using a Digitech RP250. With the RP250, I could use the volume/wah pedal as a mute. I assumed that my tuner would work as the mute with the new set up, but I get a pretty good pop in the system when I'm turning it off and on. All my cables are good.

How can I get rid of the switching pop or how should I be muting my guitar?

Thanks,

Chuck

[teleclem]

Well, it can happen with truebypass pedals.

Some suggest clicking it a couple of times.

[Ro S]

stick it after a buffered pedal?

[stinkfoot]

Switching pops are often caused by DC leaking into the signal line at another point in the chain. Do the pops change depending on if the CF-7 Chorus is on or off? If so, the MXR M-80 would be the prime suspect.

[ChuckHubbert]

Originally Posted by Ro S

stick it after a buffered pedal?

I'm going to expose more of my rookieness ... how do I know if a pedal is buffered or not?

[ChuckHubbert]

Originally Posted by stinkfoot

Switching pops are often caused by DC leaking into the signal line at another point in the chain. Do the pops change depending on if the CF-7 Chorus is on or off? If so, the MXR M-80 would be the prime suspect.

I didn't have/take the time to do much troubleshooting last night, but I'll try to do some isolation and reordering of pedals and see what happens.

[guitarz1972]

Originally Posted by ChuckHubbert

I'm going to expose more of my rookieness ... how do I know if a pedal is buffered or not?

Not sure how to tell by looking at the pedal really, but generally speaking if the pedal is not advertised as "true bypass," "hardwire bypass" or something like that then I think it can be assumed that it's buffered. Others can chime-in if I'm off the mark there.

Most or all of the Boss pedals currently in production have a buffer in them. Your CF-7 probably does too.

[evets618]

Most true bypass pedals do this.

[ChuckHubbert]

Originally Posted by evets618

Most true bypass pedals do this.

Clarification, please? Most true bypass pedals pop? Or most true bypass pedals buffer? Or something else?

[stinkfoot]

True bypass pedals are more sensitive (some would say "prone") to switching pops, because of the way they work. They disconnect the circuit at both ends, which can lead to pops as the circuit is connected/disconnected.

But the actual cause of the pops are equally often to be found outside the pedal that pops - in this case, if one of the other pedals leak DC voltage into the signal line, that could cause the Pitchblack to pop. Turning the CF-7 on introduces its circuit into the signal path (the Digitech Hardwire series pedals are true bypass), which will block any DC voltage that might be leaking from the input of the MXR. If turning the chorus on stops the pops, you will then know that the problem is in the MXR. If it doesn't, you need to look elsewhere for the cause.

[ChuckHubbert]

Ah, thanks for the education. I'm doing my research; the Korg PB is true bypass and the CF-7 doesn't appear to be.

[bobcunningham]

yeah, i had that problem, just had to stick the tuner somewhere else in the chain

[whiteop]

Sometimes it's caused by using a bad cable. Learned that from Mike Fuller and he was right. Try another cable first.

[rhythm]

FWIW, I have a Turbo Tuner, which is a great pedal. But I did notice that mine did not like sharing a power connection with another pedal. I had connected a Y power cable to one of the outputs of my power supply, and one end went to the tuner and the other went to an ABY switcher, which only powered the LEDs. In this situation, my Turbo Tuner would make a loud pop when turned on (but not when turned off), and I noticed a slight bleed-through when tuning. Once I removed the Y cable and powered the tuner with its own dedicated line, all of this went away.

[MrSoGood]

My Pitchblack does the same thing intermittently.