Bad Stone Phaser Popping Noise?

DesVegas

Good morning good people,

I'm really interested in buying a EHX Bad Stone BUT i have read there is a loud popping when engaging and even heard it on some of the demo's on yewtube.

Has any one got one? Does it 'pop' for you?

juansolo

No, but then I built mine

DesVegas

@juansolo has your's the manual mode too?

juansolo

Yup (click the Facebook link in my sig, it's the first thing on that page currently ).

DesVegas

Clever laddy!

DarnWeight

I've got one, and yes, it pops fairly loudly.  Been meaning to open it up and see what I can do about it.

DesVegas

dammit!!

lasermonkey

100k resistor from PCB output to ground may cure any popping.

shawn

I have one. It pops loudly like a SOB. Funny thing is about 20% of the time it does not pop as quite as loud, but still loudly.

I'm using an AC convertor, haven't tried it with a battery yet. i'm probably going to try the suggested resistor fix above.

Anyway, it's a great pedal, at a great price. Does have a little dirt, or distortion in the cycle sometimes, which is ok, and does sound great with a distortion running into it.

Great price around $70.00. If I had to, I'd buy it again, and I'm a modulation freak, so that's saying alot!! It's a great pedal. 

DarnWeight

Found this link at audiofanzine, which clarifies the switch layout, and where the resistor needs to go...

...I'll give it a go this weekend and report back.

DesVegas

I ended up buying a pop free small stone instead.

Happy camper!

ICBM

Buy a pedal with a proper switching system and stop supporting the nonsense of crap 3PDT switches.

Even if you want true bypass you can do it with optical switching.

DarnWeight

DarnWeight said:

Found this link at audiofanzine, which clarifies the switch layout, and where the resistor needs to go...

...I'll give it a go this weekend and report back.

Confirmed.  Popping has been duly eliminated!  Really is a lovely sounding phaser once this is sorted.

lasermonkey

You have to wonder why something so well-known as an anti-pop, pull down resistor would be omitted by any pedal building company, especially as it's so cheap and easy to implement. Truly baffling.

Shark_Eyes

@ICBM Is it 3PDT switches that make a loud mechanical clunk when pressed? Can these bed replaced easily?

@DesVegas is this going to replace the Small Stone?

DesVegas

@shark_eyes i'm happy with my small stone (for now. . )

i would love for all my pedals to have the same switching as the mini spark boost, soft momentary and latching in one footswitch.

ICBM

Shark_Eyes said:

@ICBM Is it 3PDT switches that make a loud mechanical clunk when pressed? Can these bed replaced easily?

No, it's inherent to mechanical latching switches - DPDTs and the old SPDTs do it as well. Some are worse than others.

Breaking more often is an added characteristic of 3PDTs though. Whether they can be replaced easily or whether it's a total pain in the backside depends on how the pedal is designed and built.

Given that optical bypass is now accepted as being 'true', there is absolutely no reason true bypass can't be implemented using a Boss-type momentary switch and flip-flop circuit - even if you want a traditional metal switch it can still be a soft momentary type.

Shark_Eyes

@ICBM Thanks for that, I'll do some research, the switches on my Disaster Transport Snr are really loud mechanically.

@DesVegas Glad to hear.