Anybody find the Fulldrive2 boost noisy?

[sleejay80]

I find the FD2 boost noisier than stacking a clean boost in front to get the same amount of dirt.

Anybody else feel the same about the FD2 boost side?
Any solutions?

 

[guitarz1972]

Mine's not noisy at all, but I run my amp clean. Are you running your amp dirty by chance? The times I've tried gaining-up my amp and then turning on FD2, it definitely squealed with the boost on.

 

[paulvcarter]

Nope

 

[chervokas]

I find the FD2 boost noisier than stacking a clean boost in front to get the same amount of dirt.

Anybody else feel the same about the FD2 boost side?
Any solutions?

Not in the slightest. In fact all the boost side does, basically, is switch the 1M boost pot into the circuit in place of the 500K ohm overdrive pot, changing the circuit loading and delivering more gain, a more saturated tone and, to my ears knocking off some treble. (FWIW the 1M pot on the boost side is typical of something like an SD-1; 500K ohm pot is like a TS.). I really like the tone of the boost side and find it extremely quiet. Maybe you're using the FD2 at extreme gain and output settings?

 

[powermatt99]

I've used the FD2 as my primary OD for years. I've never noticed any noise with the boost even when cranked.

 

[tdk8709]

No noise from any of mine.

Edit: It's probably your power.

 

[sleejay80]

OP here, thanks for your input.

Strangely, the FD2-boosted noise (mostly) goes away when I put my strat in 2nd & 4th out-of-phase position.

Does that mean my STRAT is noisy?

Still, FD2-unboosted + clean boost is A LOT quieter than FD2-boosted.

Got me all confused.

 

[gtrnstuff]

Single coil pickups pick up any EMF noise in the vicinity. Modern Strats cancel out that noise in pos 2 and 4 because the middle pickup is reverse wound reverse polarity, effectively making a humbucking pickup.
The FDII boost side has more gain than the non-boost side. Any time you add gain, the noise floor goes up.
There you have it

There are solutions to make all 3 single coils hum-free. One is Suhr/ Illitch backplate. Works great, requires a non-RWRP middle pickup, or some extra wiring to keep what you have.
The other is Kinman, DiMarzio, Fender or Lawrence noiseless pickups. Sound very close to real single coils. Joe Bardens, and Duncan stacks are quiet, but sound less like stock single coils.

 

[strombie]

No noise from mine. Now my Plimsoul on the other hand....

 

[JackStraw12]

No noise from mine, I've used a FDII since 2007 for dirty tones. Although I switch between settings a lot I've been using vintage mosfet recently.

 

[schrom81]

nope

 

[sleejay80]

So everyone here is saying that,
say you have all knobs at noon,
turn boost on, then mute the strings with your fingers.

You hear no noise, buzz, no anything?

Then my FD2 must be faulty.

 

[AXXA]

Mine makes some noise, but thats just a result of my setup. I run my amp loud and dirty. I run my older model FD2 at 18V, in comp cut, with high volume, but low gain. More gain = more noise, and the noise is worse when I use single coil pick ups. Its not an issue though, its actually one of my favorite pedals ever.

Though the boost adds noise in this scenario, I find it to be pretty quiet in other modes, like vintage mode, even with higher gain settings. Into a cleaner amp with humbuckers, there is much less noise noise, even in comp cut.

Also keep in mind that higher tone settings make more noise.

 

[guitarz1972]

So everyone here is saying that,
say you have all knobs at noon,
turn boost on, then mute the strings with your fingers.

You hear no noise, buzz, no anything?

Then my FD2 must be faulty.

I can check mine out for sure tomorrow and get back to you (I use single coils too, not the noiseless stuff either), but just based on what you've said so far I'd say it kind of sounds like your unit is faulty.

edit - OP, in case I've missed it, what kind of noise are you getting? Squeal, hum, buzz, etc.? Mine creates buzz on 18 volts if I turn ON the FD2 with my tuner (Korg Pitchblack) in front of it.

 

[lupa]

to hear any noise that ONLY the pedal is making you have to turn down the volume on the guitar completely, then any noise you hear with the pedal/boost engaged is noise being generated by the pedal and/or the first gain stage of you amplifier, provided this is the only pedal in the chain, if you have other pedals plugged into the chain they may or may not effect things i.e. buffer bypass pedals can add gain and amplify any inherent noise, other pedals such as compressors(if engaged/on) although "transparent", will do the same, amplify inherent noise.
Buzz from single coil pickups is an entirely different matter. Another potential and mysterious source of noise is patch cables, they can still function but have a minor short in them that contributes white noise. And as others have mentioned your power is another source, I have found that isolated power supplies eliminate any issues. I hope this helps.

 

[chervokas]

to hear any noise that ONLY the pedal is making you have to turn down the volume on the guitar completely, then any noise you hear with the pedal/boost engaged is noise being generated by the pedal and/or the first gain stage of you amplifier,

Exactly.... I don't find the pedal noisy in the slightest, but if you crank the gain on something in your signal chain whatever noise is being generated before that gain stage will be amplified (in addition to whatever noise the gain stage itself is generating).

Like Lupa says, turn the volume knob down on your guitar and listen for the noise -- that noise is being added by the pedal and by the amp itself...when you turn up the guitar, whatever additional noise you hear is being generated by the guitar or by the guitar picking up noise from radition sources in the room and is merely being amplified by the pedal and amp, not generated by it.

Also, if you're hearing buzz with the guitar volume turned down, you might have a ground loop in your signal chain -- are you using daisy chained power? A ground loop happens with there are multple paths to ground in the signal chain and can be a really efficient antenna for picking noise from radiation sources in the room. Also, If you're hearing buzz just from the amp with nothing plugged into it you might have a problem with leaky capacitors or problematic lead dress in the amp itself.

Are you running the pedal on batteries? It's true that noisy power supplies (like switch mode power supplies) can be hum sources and daisy chains can be hum sources. Try running all the pedals off batteries when you're testing to make sure they have isolated, ripple-free DC power. If you get hum with the power supply but not with batteries you know something about the power set up is causing problems.

I suppose it's possible for leaky caps in the FD2 or a broken or bad ground connection in the pedal to be a source of hum or buzz, but these other culprits are more likely.

 

[rico1204]

Only bad noise I hear when I kick the boost on is my playing.

 

[ethompson]

I dont use it really ever but I've never noticed any noise that doesnt go away when turning the guitar down. I run just the guitar, FD (with power and on just battery) and just your amp and see if you still have noise if not add back to you other pedals just use the process of elimination to figure out where the buzz is coming from.