Build Your Own Clone Message Board

Hi everyone,

I just finished my first build, the five knob compressor. The pedal seems to work fine on the clean channel of my amp but on the distortion channel there is huge amount of static noise when it is on. I've tried it with both a power adapter and a battery so I'm pretty sure it's not my power source itself. Any suggestions to help me figure it out? I can post some pics if you need to see it. Thanks

You will get some extra noise from a compressor if you have it turned up.

Its job is to make the quiet parts louder, and the loud parts softer, so that also includes noise. Dose the about of noise change with that about of compression you use?

Thanks for the fast response. The noise stays the same when the attack and tone knobs are changed, but it goes away almost completely when the blend knob is zeroed. It increases slightly as the sustain knob is turned clockwise, but in the last little bit of the sweep it jumps up a lot louder. The sustain pot seems to have a couple of rough spots in it when it is turned also.

The blend knob zeroed is full compression, so the compressor side of the circuit is quiet, good. I guess you're getting more noise from the non-compressed side of the circuit? Could be something is up with that part of the circuit.

Also, what amp do you play? Is the distortion channel usually noisy?

It's going into my uberschall which is usually about dead silent in both channels. do you think the noise could have anything to do with the rough spots in the pots? The sustain, attack, and level knobs all have slight rough spots in various parts of their travel.

I have a few pedals (mostly compressors actually ) that have rough spots in their rotation. I'm not sure if a compressor lends itself to being more sensitive to rough travel from a potentiometer??? A compressor can exagerate noise that is already there. It shouldn't sound like night and day though. Is the noise mostly from the blended signal?