Fighting for strong signal and low noise pedal chain

[zacaoamargo]

I have good pedals, some of them with true bypass and some buffered. I use Fulltone and George L's cables only. I get a rich tone whenever I plug my guitar directly in the input jack of my amp, but I have never experienced the same using my pedalboard between them. I don't know what else to do to improve my gear and avoid such tone sucking.
Help?

Thanks from Brazil!

 

[fallout-labs]

first thing you need to do is find out where the tone sucking occurs. George L's are a ok cable, but if you are using them as solderless its quite possible you don't have a solid connection on one of the cables.


try adding pedals one by one, and find out when the tone begins to "suck"

post your results, and we'll go from there!

casey

 

[zacaoamargo]

I have tested all of them. They are quiet, with no noise operation. But I can only suppose
they are well built because I have observed all the manufacturer's rules and notes aiming to get the best from these cables. If I consider they are not well built, I must assume they are not so easy to use as I first supposed they were.
The main question is the following:
Is this tone lost normal whenever I use so many pedals as I do (Thirteen)? My pedals are good individually...
Another question:
Is it REALLY possible no tone and volume loss using the same number of (good quality) TBP and buffered pedals? If yes, I will consider to purchase new cables (Divine Noise, Fulltone, etc). If not, I will consider to use a more versatile booster with active bass, Mid and treble controls...
I'm really disappointed with my results using George L's.

Thanks from Brazil!

 

[guitarz1972]

The main question is the following:
Is this tone lost normal whenever I use so many pedals as I do (Thirteen)? My pedals are good individually...
Another question:
Is it REALLY possible no tone and volume loss using the same number of (good quality) TBP and buffered pedals?
Thanks from Brazil!

To answer your main question, I don't know if it's "normal" but certainly the more pedals you add into your chain the more likely you are to have problems. So that leads to answering your second question: Yes, it's most certainly "possible" to experience any number of changes in your sound in terms of tone, volume etc., given the number of pedals you're working with.

You say you've tested all your pedals individually, and that in one long chain you're having the problems. Have you tried adding your pedals one by one until you begin noticing a change?

Can you name your pedals in order? Maybe some folks can chime in, given more specific information.

edit - I guess what I'm saying is, you really can't assume it's your cables yet. It could be 2 or more of the pedals interacting together, and/or the pedals interacting with your cables. It may not matter very much how great your cables are; you're trying to track down a signal issue here and it may not be just any one thing.

 

[zacaoamargo]

I have never tried adding one by one. I will do it.

 

[zacaoamargo]

Guitar > Road Rage Buffered ABY > Keeley Compressor > Fulltone CLyde Deluxe > HBE UFO > MIAudio Crunch Box > Keeley TS9 > Xotic AC Booster > Keeley Looper (TC Nova Modulator) > Psionic Audio TRIAD (TRIAD loop > Diamond Memory Lane 2 > Eventide Timefactor > Eventide Space) > amp

 

[mjtripper]

I notice you have a few digital pedals in your chain. If they have one have you done the input calibration on them? The Nova does, I think you hold the manual button for a period to put it into calibration mode. It can make a big difference in the noise floor of digital pedals.

It can also be two things gone wrong such as a bad patch cable and a pedal so it can take a while to swap things around and find the problem. I would test all the cabling first, maybe with the looper. Plug into the looper and then the amp and make sure you are fine, then plug each patch into the in and out of the loop on the looper and turn it on. It should sound exactly the same, if not you have a bad patch. Sometimes with patch cables if the shield and cable just barely touch the cable will work but will loose high end.

 

[Madsen]

Guitar > Road Rage Buffered ABY > Keeley Compressor > Fulltone CLyde Deluxe > HBE UFO > MIAudio Crunch Box > Keeley TS9 > Xotic AC Booster > Keeley Looper (TC Nova Modulator) > Psionic Audio TRIAD (TRIAD loop > Diamond Memory Lane 2 > Eventide Timefactor > Eventide Space) > amp

how are you powering this setup?

 

[Hugo Da Rosa]

A bit confused as to what the issue is here. Tone loss is different from volume loss as well as different from added noise. There are solutions to all of those but they are independent from one another and if you are facing all of those problems, then there may not be any particular piece of equipment you could buy to solve all of it.

Could you be a little more specific? Are you losing volume running into your board? Are you losing high end through the board? What kind of noise are you getting? Hiss? Buzz? White noise?

 

[swellguy66]

If the cables aren't bad then obviously a bad power supply. PP2 or nothing!