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Smooth Hound Innovations Digital Wireless Guitar System


Dood

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  • 2 weeks later...

Finally found an issue!

I put the receiver on my Pedaltrain Nano and powered everything with a Diageo daisy chain thingy. Used the polarity reversal cable for the first time.

As soon as I stomped on the fuzz pedal I got an irritating wow-wow-wow underneath the bass tone. Swopped the fuzz pedal for another and got exactly the same problem.

After five minutes of frustrated pluggery, it occurred to me that I had the receiver (with polarity reverser) as the first unit in the Diageo daisy chain, i.e. the other pedals received their power after it had passed the Smoothound.

Swopped the power around so that the receiver became the last in line and the problem went away.

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A power supply with isolated outputs would not show this problem. Its because you are reversing polarity on a daisy chain and I think you are running into ground problems.
I don't know if it's really fair to call it a problem of the product (unless you consider the choice of polarity with regards to other fx pedals, flawed...?)

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[quote name='Happy Jack' timestamp='1444223936' post='2881301']
Oops ... except accidentally at the end. :lol:

I meant to call it an issue.
[/quote]

Ha ha. The politest non-complaint ever.

EBS is right, the noise is caused by a ground loop between the receiver and effect pedal but it's not specifically down to the choice of centre-positive supply.
Daisy chain supply shared between digital and analogue pedals is a common cause of noise. [url="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NweK7wVh_LQ"]Here's a video[/url] on the subject.

Other well known wireless manufacturers say that you can only use the supplied adapter or an isolated supply like those from Voodoo Labs. In hindsight, I was a little rash when I said the receiver doesn't need isolated power because of the potential for this effect.

Different rigs may vary but the safest ways to avoid ground loop noise like this is to use the supplied adapter or an isolated power supply. BTW I would recommend reading reviews before investing in one of the low cost 'isolated' supplies because I understand that some are more isolated than others.

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Understood, but just to emphasise the point that all I had to do was to plug the pedals in using reverse order.

Putting the receiver & polarity inverter [i][b]after [/b][/i]the other pedals completed cured the ... erm ... issue.

Now all I need to do is find a fuzz pedal that doesn't wreck the bottom end of my tone. :rolleyes:

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[quote name='Happy Jack' timestamp='1444230863' post='2881387']
Understood, but just to emphasise the point that all I had to do was to plug the pedals in using reverse order.

Putting the receiver & polarity inverter [i][b]after [/b][/i]the other pedals completed cured the ... erm ... issue.
[/quote]

That's good to hear. It's possible that that is a real fix but a word of caution. The loudness of ground loop noise depends on the resistance in the connections. That resistance can change when you unplug things and plug them in again. I don't know that happened in this case but it's possible.

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Well after ordering a Smooth Hound I received it within 24 hours. I immediately noticed the quality of the build. It's strong and rugged which is what you need in a gigging band. Plugging it in it worked straight off. I didn't notice any time delay for tethering with it. If there was a little more treble in the tone I didn't notice it, although Alembic's are pretty zingy to be honest. Will try my ACG's tomorrow, but don't expect to notice anything there either. The receiver is really quite tiny and light, the guitar transmitter also small and has the feel of a quality item. All in all I am very very happy with it and can recommend it to the members. Previously I had used an Ashdown Freebass but stopped using it as I didn't like the tone modelling aspect, and the batteries had a pretty short life. I don't think anyone will be disappointed with this, and I am itching to use it in anger on stage. Chris (rednose200)

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[quote name='SmoothHoundChris' timestamp='1444230521' post='2881380']
EBS is right, the noise is caused by a ground loop between the receiver and effect pedal but it's not specifically down to the choice of centre-positive supply.
Daisy chain supply shared between digital and analogue pedals is a common cause of noise. [url="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NweK7wVh_LQ"]Here's a video[/url] on the subject.

[/quote]

I got a real problem adding a fisher FX (which is digital) to my other effects which included a B3 (also digital). Taking either out of the loop worked as did running either of them on batteries. Got an isolated power supply here (£20) - problem gone.

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[quote name='Bobthedog' timestamp='1445985034' post='2896012']
Mine has just arrived. Sadly I will not get a chance to play with it until Sunday.

It is also missing the Microsuction tape, any ideas as to a good replacement?
[/quote]

Hi Bobthedog,
Very sorry to hear that. Not sure how that happened. There'll be some Microsuction tape in the post tomorrow.
Regards
Chris

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[quote name='SmoothHoundChris' timestamp='1445985217' post='2896016']


Hi Bobthedog,
Very sorry to hear that. Not sure how that happened. There'll be some Microsuction tape in the post tomorrow.
Regards
Chris
[/quote]

Chris, thank you! That is customer service. Yup, there was just the sellotape (gluing the pages together) but not a huge issue.

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