Switching popping noise

[lento]

Now using a Sustainor 200 in a live set-up and whereas before in a set static situation it was fine, I'm noticing that the footswitching between channels for live work creates popping.
The switches themselves crackle and pop a bit when moved on there own and despite cleaning there's no improvement.
But, the problem of the channel footswitch pop is the main worry and is further magnified as the sustainor goes into a Chorus/Delay,

Anyone have a similar problem and/or a solution ?
A new switch or could the pop be caused elsewhere ?

Happy New Year ...

[rbc]

I haven't used my Sustainor live, but I haven't had any problems with channel switching noise. I have a recent demo up on YouTube:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YsC_MCK ... tion=share

Both of these units have been refurbished by David Ferringer in the last year.

You will hear some switching noise in the demo, but that's my Guitar pickup switch, not the Sustainor. Has yours been refurbished?

The Chorus/Delay is a different story. When I switch mine between chorus and delay, there is a small switching noise. My suggesting is to bypass the Chorus/Delay while switching between modes, assuming that is practical.

[lento]

Hi Bruce
Thanks for the reply.

I had a look at your demo and I think I heard a 'pop' at 1m 05s and 2m 29s as you switched over from clean to distortion. I know you only had your iphone mic but it sounded like it to me. Now imagine this click amplified to normal stage volume. It's particularly relevant on mine going from the edge to the clean2 - and not so much going the other way ........

Yes, it would be a good idea to have it refurbished but it'd be over here as the cost of return postage insured from Europe is pretty expensive
New caps is a good idea anyway (though mine still 'look' good) but I'm not sure whether this alone would be the cure.

The Chorus/Delay popping noise is normal because of only one BBD chip being used.

[rbc]

Mine does exactly the same thing. It was refurbished in November 2013. I made another little demo:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vFK6XiPzj9w

If you have a second Sustainor (or Distortion Generator), you could use the A/B pedal trick with the bypass jacks to toggle between the two. That's documented on page 12 (page 11 if printed) of the Distortion Generator manual. The manual can be found at:

http://www.tom-scholz.com/Manuals/DG.pdf

Best,

--Bruce

[lento]

Yes, that's a good idea regarding toggling between the two ! I do have the Distortion as well.

I'll just add that using the Midi Octopus there was a significant decrease in popping with the Smart Gate engaged, no matter what the threshold setting !
However, when going back to just using the footswitch, the popping was there regardless of the gate being on or off.

[rbc]

Hmmm. Maybe the Octopus has a less pronounced slope when it's engaged.

[rbc]

Actually, you might be able to put an inductor in line to round off the initial (small) surge of current when you close the switch. I'll do some digging and see if that kind of circuit is easy to make.

[GuitarBuilder]

Please note that there's a difference in the circuit between the mechanical switches on the front and the analog switch ICs used for actual channel switching. The Octopus should have no effect on any popping sounds. It's simply turning the analog switches in the Sustainer on and off.