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Pedalboard Ground Loops

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  • Pedalboard Ground Loops

    I have a medium sized pedal board, ~10 pedals. My previous incarnation was
    Compressor -> Line6 M5 -> Chorus -> Digitech Drop -> Overdrive -> Distortion -> Echo -> Boost
    I'm using an 8-output isolated PS plus an extra outboard One Spot, so the only ground connection between the pedals is the jumper wires (George L).

    The board was fairly quiet, but as soon as I powered up the M5, the OD and Dist would hum like a bass kazoo. Power off the M5, quiet again. (The M5 was on it's own private supply, and I tried two different PS units, no difference). As an experiment, I took a jumper wire and connected various pedal grounds together. I discovered that if I connected the ground of one of the pedals near the input to the ground of one near the output, the hum decreased substantially. So, I'm basically /creating/ a ground loop (two paths for ground current) and it's a lot quieter. How would this happen?

    The M5 has been getting flaky, so I removed it and added a Wah, tuner, and a MojoVibe. Although the monster hum from the M5 was gone, connecting the grounds with a jumper as described above still makes the hum from the dirt pedals noticeably quieter.

    There is about 3 ohms of resistance between the input and output grounds, likely due to all the plug/jack connections.

    Thoughts?

  • #2
    10 pedals, 3 ohms.... interesting. I had to go measure my own pedal board. I have 4 pedals and hardly any resistance in the ground path.

    What about the cables you are using to connect the pedals? Are they short, long, any of them by themselves have higher resistance than the others?

    I would start by measuring the resistance from the input to the output of the first pedal. Then go to the input of the next pedal (so you are now measuring the first pedal plus the first connecting patch cable), then the next, etc etc etc). See if you can find a part of the chain where the resistance is higher. That might tell you that their is one pedal or one patch cable that has an issue with a weak ground connection.

    Just a thought...
    It's not just an amp, it's an adventure!

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    • #3
      Strangely - I am building a pedalboard supply and wondered if diodes could be used to interrupt ground loops???

      I have a 50VA toroidal with two 0-15 1.67A secondaries - and am using this circuit

      Click image for larger version

Name:	PEDAL PSU.jpg
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ID:	838006 (you can click on the image to see it better)...

      I'm not sure the diode on the ground leg of the regulator is the right way around (could just be a dumb*ss mistake but it seems to work)

      Question is: Couldn't the DC outputs be wired in parallel with diodes in between the POS and NEG rails and the individual conductors of the DC outlets (for isolation/protection?) and wouldn't that eliminate a ground loop?

      I hope it's not too stupid a question...

      Best regards...

      YR
      If I could find a way to get away it wouldn't be too soon... Shipwreck Moon...

      Comment


      • #4
        Something like this

        Click image for larger version

Name:	PEDAL PSU 02.jpg
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ID:	838016 (again - click on the image to see it better)...

        PS - I'm using isolated DC outlets so the positive is isolated from the enclosure...

        YR
        If I could find a way to get away it wouldn't be too soon... Shipwreck Moon...

        Comment

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