pantherairsoft Posted August 20, 2009 Share Posted August 20, 2009 Hi guys... hope you can help... Firstly, tonight I was rearranging some pedals on my board and got a small electric shock off the strings on my bass!. I thought nothing of it. Then I got another, and another and so on. This happened when running 4 pedals off the 6 pedal daisy chain from my diago power station. After I got the shocks I started to notice that when i take my hand off the strings (break the circuit I was creating) there is a slight hum coming through the amp. After a little investigation, this gets louder when I touch the metal on any of the pedals of jack leads in the chain from the diago power supply. I wondered if one pedal had an issue and so unplugged all but one, going through each in turn, but no matter which pedal is connected this still happens. Connecting the bass direct to the amp it does not so I know the bass is not causing it. Do I assume that my diago powerstation has just decided to die on me? Is there an issue caused by not connecting all of the sockets on a daisy chain (surely not!?). Can anyone help? Secondly. I received a EHX Bass Blogger today. The manual says it will not work in a daisy chain. My Micro synth does not, but that also requires a specific power supply, unless I use a gig rig virtual battery. I was told by a chap in a local shop that sells EHX products that the smaller pedals just need the polarity reversing. I picked up a few reverse polarity converters for next to nothing, but that does not seem to work. If its in the daisy chain, it cuts the power to all the other pedals. If its in the daisy chain with the polarity changer, all other pedals work and the signal goes through its bypass, but when I turn the pedal on it cuts the signal and no LED. In anyone else's experience does the Bass blogger require a gig rig battery as well? AND... Could trying that pedal with the diago of been what has killed it!??? Help me!!!! Shep Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bobbass4k Posted August 20, 2009 Share Posted August 20, 2009 (edited) Sounds like a dodgy ground, most likely your diego is dodgy but it could conceivably be in the daisy chain , and you're right, not conecting all the daisy chain plugs shouldn't be an issue. As for the bass blogger, someone will probably correct me but I believe you can't daisy chain the XO EHX pedals because they need an isolated supply, not just because of the polarity Edited August 20, 2009 by bobbass4k Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pantherairsoft Posted August 20, 2009 Author Share Posted August 20, 2009 (edited) This is correct unless you have a gig rig virtual battery... but I didn't know the Blagger was an XO pedal!!!! Its its not called the Bass Blogger XO... is it? is that where I went wrong!? Also... micro synth and bass blogger require a 9.6v power supply. if I buy gig rig batteries for them... will the diago power station that runs at 9v still power them? Edited August 20, 2009 by pantherairsoft Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bobbass4k Posted August 20, 2009 Share Posted August 20, 2009 I think its an XO, it was relased at the same time with the new enclosure size, 9v, graphics etc, probably doesn't have XO in the name because it's a new pedal not a new version, but I'm probably wrong Definitley sounds like a bad ground, your best bet would to power everything by batteries, to figure out if it's the diago or a pedal Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pantherairsoft Posted August 20, 2009 Author Share Posted August 20, 2009 I thought I would try changing the the daisy chain as I had an old one spare and that seemed to work. To prove it that it was the problem I swapped back to the one that came with the power station... and theres no problem now! I', wondering if the daisy chain had come loose very slightly or something. Have had a good play and doesn't seem to shock me now.... What I did notice though was.... If i plug the bass straight to the amp, no pedals at all involved, but the pedals are still sat there powered, if I touch any of the pedals, i seem to create a circuit from them to the amp and then I get a loud buzz, even though they are in no way connected to the amp... WOuld this imply there was a grounding issue somewhere still? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Silent Fly Posted August 20, 2009 Share Posted August 20, 2009 (edited) [quote name='pantherairsoft' post='575874' date='Aug 20 2009, 06:01 PM']Firstly, tonight I was rearranging some pedals on my board and got a small electric shock off the strings on my bass!. I thought nothing of it. Then I got another, and another and so on. This happened when running 4 pedals off the 6 pedal daisy chain from my diago power station. After I got the shocks I started to notice that when i take my hand off the strings (break the circuit I was creating) there is a slight hum coming through the amp. After a little investigation, this gets louder when I touch the metal on any of the pedals of jack leads in the chain from the diago power supply. I wondered if one pedal had an issue and so unplugged all but one, going through each in turn, but no matter which pedal is connected this still happens. Connecting the bass direct to the amp it does not so I know the bass is not causing it. Do I assume that my diago powerstation has just decided to die on me? Is there an issue caused by not connecting all of the sockets on a daisy chain (surely not!?). Can anyone help?[/quote] I had a customer with the same problem (small electric shocks, hum...). Every problem went away when he changed his switching power supply with a linear one. In your case it might be a problem with you PSU that has a fault. I would suggest you contact Diago to find out if they had other customers with similar problems. [quote name='pantherairsoft' post='575874' date='Aug 20 2009, 06:01 PM']Secondly. I received a EHX Bass Blogger today. The manual says it will not work in a daisy chain. My Micro synth does not, but that also requires a specific power supply, unless I use a gig rig virtual battery. I was told by a chap in a local shop that sells EHX products that the smaller pedals just need the polarity reversing. I picked up a few reverse polarity converters for next to nothing, but that does not seem to work. (...)[/quote] I agree with bobbass4k. Some pedals need an isolated power supply. I haven’t seen the schematics of the EHX Bass Blogger so I can’t be sure but this is what usually happens. Some pedals internally, use a power supply circuit that creates an internal ground reference (let’s call it ground2) that it is not at the same level of the ground of the power supply. In other words there is always a fix voltage between the “real ground” (fixed by the PSU) and ground2 (generate by the pedal). All the other pedals in the chain don’t have the circuit that generate ground2 so the in/out jack sockets are all connected to the same “real ground” fixed by the same PSU. For one pedal, the in/out jacks are connected to ground2. Then the pedals are connected in chain, all the grounds are connected. However, because in our case there is a fix voltage between the “real ground” and ground2, electric current starts to flow between the two different ground levels creating a short-circuit. It should be clear why inverting the power supply does not resolve the problem but might be the best thing to do to fry the pedal. Edited August 20, 2009 by Silent Fly Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pantherairsoft Posted August 20, 2009 Author Share Posted August 20, 2009 Cheers for the detailed reply. Oddly, I can't recreate the issue now! It seems to of stopped!!!! Maybe the daisy chain was loose or something. If It happens at all again I shall contact diago immediately Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FenderAmpeg Posted August 26, 2009 Share Posted August 26, 2009 I agree 100% with the grounding comment. Now for the XO issue, Iv'e used a Little Bass Muff, Stero Electric Mistress, Germanium OD all in a daisy chain series of some sort. The only issue I ever had was with the OD, when I touched the case I would get a local radio station (chat radio and not a good one at that) traced it back to a grounding issue and now gone. So my take is there should be no problem, but I have never used the blogger so not for sure on that one. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
harvey1-8 Posted August 26, 2009 Share Posted August 26, 2009 I get an electric shock from the strings on my precision when I touch the case of my lap top. It's the only bass I get it from. Never had that problem with my Diago power supply though. EHX pedals have always been a bit of a bastard to power, I've had a few in the past but always sold them on. I tend to avoid them now. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pantherairsoft Posted August 29, 2009 Author Share Posted August 29, 2009 Well it been almost a week and no sign of a static shock again which I can only put down to a good thing! I changed the daisy chain over and have also started to unravel the coiled extension lead out completely when using it. Fingers crossed we are all sorted! :-) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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