Do all EHX pedals go POP!?

[essexbob]

I've got a Soul Food Bass and a Big Muff Deluxe, both of which give a really loud POP when switched on. I've tried using a battery, different power supplies, different leads, switching on and off a few times and still that pop is there. Do they all do it? From a search on interweb, it seems this happens on the guitar pedals, but couldn't find anything on bass ones.

My whole life seems blighted by electrical pops. If it's not the old Marshall solid state (ditched now, but thanks for the advice, forum people) it's my pedals! Never had a problem with Boss, may go back to them, although the Soul Food is so much nicer.

Cheers,

Bob.

[Groove Harder]

I think it's something to do with true bypass, is it not? My Neo Clone is the same.

[radiophonic]

I had 'thunk' issues with the Bass Soul Food in true bypass mode but I don't remember the Bass Big Muff doing it. Not 100% sure though. The switch on the Freeze is silent. 

[essexbob]

33 minutes ago, Groove Harder said:

I think it's something to do with true bypass, is it not? My Neo Clone is the same.

Yeah, I thought the same, so opened up the Soul Food and switched it out of bypass (well, I think that's what it does) and still thumped. When things are cranked up - and let's face it, that's most of the time - it feels speaker damaging. 

[bobbass4k]

It's a common problem with simple true bypass switching, it's caused by DC offset in the input/output capacitors - I'll spare you all the jargon but essentially when you hit the switch the voltage in these capacitors (which is part of the signal path) changes dramatically very suddenly, which you hear as a pop (kind of like how if you plug a lead into your bass while the amp's on).

It's a pretty easy problem to avoid or at least mitigate and to be honest I'm really surprised these EHX pedals are doing it. I've never heard of a speaker/amp being killed by it though, it's a very quick spike. Short of modding them you could put them in a bypass looper (with a better bypass) so the pedals themselves are always on.

 

[jrixn1]

2 hours ago, essexbob said:

Yeah, I thought the same, so opened up the Soul Food and switched it out of bypass (well, I think that's what it does) and still thumped.

Like the other replies, I thought it was to do with true bypass.  However, if you've flipped the internal switch to buffered bypass then my understanding is that there shouldn't be a pop, if everything is working ok?

Edited October 25, 2019 by jrixn1

[burno70]

A good few years I had a non-EHX pedal which did this. I asked a similar question either on here or TB. Somebody posted that it was the capacitors or something building up a bit of charge. To dissipate it and stop the pops, I used to mute my pedal channel between songs and stomp the pedal a couple of times. It was almost pop-free after that - not perfect, but much better. Might be worth giving a try.

[essexbob]

I'll try the switch thing again @jrixn1. Tried the multiple on and off @burno70 and still pops. I think it's worse on the soul food. I'll try them both when l get home. Shame as they are great pedals but it's putting me off using them.

[essexbob]

9 hours ago, bobbass4k said:

It's a common problem with simple true bypass switching, it's caused by DC offset in the input/output capacitors - I'll spare you all the jargon but essentially when you hit the switch the voltage in these capacitors (which is part of the signal path) changes dramatically very suddenly, which you hear as a pop (kind of like how if you plug a lead into your bass while the amp's on).

It's a pretty easy problem to avoid or at least mitigate and to be honest I'm really surprised these EHX pedals are doing it. I've never heard of a speaker/amp being killed by it though, it's a very quick spike. Short of modding them you could put them in a bypass looper (with a better bypass) so the pedals themselves are always on.

 

Bob @bobbass4k I missed your response earlier. The pop is trouser-flappingly loud. What is a bypass looper? 

I've no idea what I'm doing with the @ thing btw...

Bob.

 

[bobbass4k]

14 hours ago, essexbob said:

Bob @bobbass4k I missed your response earlier. The pop is trouser-flappingly loud. What is a bypass looper? 

I've no idea what I'm doing with the @ thing btw...

Bob.

 

A bypass looper is a super simple pedal thats basically just an off switch for a pedal or chain of pedals that you connect in its effects loop. So in this case you could put the EHX pedals in it and then when the looper is off, those pedals are out of the signal chain even if they're on, so you could have them always on and switch them in/out with the looper. 

Tbh that would be quite an extreme solution for this case, but a bypass looper is quite a handy thing to have around anyways. If they have a true/buffered bypass switch internally that should take care of it completely (I'm not too familiar with these ehx pedals or that would have been my first suggestion).