Smooth hound - problem resolved

fandango

Finally got myself one of these Smooth hound wireless do-das at this year's Birmingham Show over the weekend after spending too much time playing twister with cables (driving me nuts) over the last few months.

But ... there's a "but" ... and it's to do with overdrives, fuzzes etc. After connecting up the new unit, I got buzzing (flies all green an' buzzing, the torture never stops) with my Seymour Duncan 805 overdrive and Thorpyfx Veteran Germanium. This through a Princeton Reverb and through a THR10 practice amp.

So, reviewed the setup, and took them (805 and Veteran) out of the chain, and lo .... no buzz. What gives?

The setup is unplayable with Smooth hound AND either/both the 805/Veteran, so can anyone suggest what to do so I can re-integrate the two dirt pedals without the bzzzzzz?

@SmoothHoundUK
@thorpyfx
@not_the_dj ;- including you because you mentioned a while back that you suggested that there were some issues between the Smooth hound and vintage fuzzes.

ArchtopDave

No idea why, as I do not use these pedals. I have had a Smooth Hound for over a year, and found it has worked well. Why not ring Mr.Smoothound, if I remember right his name is Chris - he's very approachable, and I'm sure would be happy to discuss things with you.

ThorpyFX

Long story short, the Germanium veteran is a modified version of vintage fuzz. The reason people love this circuit is because your instrument becomes part of the circuit and interacts with it. A pickup is a complex beast with  varying inductance, resistance and capacitance according to how you play.

when you place a buffer or a wireless unit (which has a buffer built into it)between the guitar and this pedal then you take away the interactive element that crafts the fuzzes sound. Aside from that they just don’t work well together, depending on the buffer you can end up with effects from a tad of brightness through to whistling, screams etc... now the smoothound  can have the virtual  able length adjusted so I’d suggest you try this to see if it improves.


pm me if you want to discuss it further.

p90fool

I'm not surprised, they really do rely on a subtle interaction between your guitar and the pedal circuit. 

The only pedal I have a problem with is a Varitone-in-a-box type thing I use occasionally.

The buffer in my Line 6 G10 renders the effect useless, but then it has a set virtual cable length. 

Bellycaster

I've got this issue, I've gone through it at length on here and with Chris at Smooth Hound, the Wireless is great, but there are certain things it doesn't seem to get along with and my Suhr Rufus is one of them. I'm selling the Rufus reluctantly now as I love using my Smooth Hound for Gigs, the pedal is redundant.

It's just one of those things I'm afraid.

skaguitar

I bought a smooth hound a couple of months ago and have used it once at a gig...never had any problems with using my pedals with it and it is a well built unit that does what it says on the tin..but... I didn't like the feeling of being disconnected from my amp and pedal board...weird eh..? so with that said I'll be selling the smooth hound if anyone is interested.

pmbomb

Presumably this is a generic wireless side effect rather than Smooth Hound specific?

ThorpyFX

pmbomb said:

Presumably this is a generic wireless side effect rather than Smooth Hound specific?

Correct

fandango

Much appreciate the comments so far.

Have reintegrated the 805 without bzzzzz, but the Veteran ....

ThorpyFX

fandango said:

Much appreciate the comments so far.

Have reintegrated the 805 without bzzzzz, but the Veteran ....

Does the veteran buzz without the smoothound?

fandango

With a little assistance from Thorpyfx, I've resolved the bzzzzz, and now it bzzzes no more.

Thanks to all who chipped in above.

mrkb

fandango said:

With a little assistance from Thorpyfx, I've resolved the bzzzzz, and now it bzzzes no more.

Thanks to all who chipped in above.

What was causing the buzz?

fandango

mrkb said:

fandango said:

With a little assistance from Thorpyfx, I've resolved the bzzzzz, and now it bzzzes no more.

Thanks to all who chipped in above.

What was causing the buzz?

Not sure, but resetting the patch leads whilst double-checking the pedal sequence, and ensuring separation of power leads from audio leads might have had something to do with it.

fandango

fandango said:

mrkb said:

fandango said:

With a little assistance from Thorpyfx, I've resolved the bzzzzz, and now it bzzzes no more.

Thanks to all who chipped in above.

What was causing the buzz?

Not sure, but resetting the patch leads whilst double-checking the pedal sequence, and ensuring separation of power leads from audio leads might have had something to do with it.

I should add that all the pedals worked and still work properly on their own, with each other and now with the Smooth Hound.