Dumb question: can there be TOO many pedals plugged in?

[James Bond]

This is probably a dumb question, but as much as I might know about amps and effects, I know very little about how electronics work within them.

I don't use that many effects, so I've always run all of them direct instead of using the effects loop just for convenience sake. Plus, Wah and Whammy effects seem to cut through better direct anyways, as far as I can tell. Now, I got an MXR Dyna Comp for Christmas. The pedal works fine, but I noticed after I added it to my pedalboard, I was getting a lot of crackling and overheating from my amp (a JCM 2000 half-stack).

I just had it re-tubed when a tube blew last month (after I heard/had similar crackling and overheating problems) so I'm positive it's not tubes again.

Now, I was jamming with a friend the other day without any pedals and noticed that there wasn't any crackling. The amp worked fine. I unplugged a few pedals, leaving only my tuner, a Phase 90, and a Delay plugged in, and that also worked fine. The crackling only seems to happen with all plugged in, even if the pedals aren't engaged.

So, my question is, can there be too many pedals in front of the amp? Was the Dyna Comp the final straw for how much my amp could handle?

I checked and replaced some of the small patch cords connecting each pedal. My long patch cords for my guitar to the board and from the board to the amp are also fine.

[Chewbacca]

I've already seen pedalboards with more than 20 pedals with no line selectors and working properly.

If your problem is a severe loss of signal you could try using a line selector or a dedicated buffer unit.

I also had this crackling problem twice: first time I reconected the cables, nothing. I waited some time and it eventually disapeared.

Second time, I found that there was some kind of problem with my BOSS NS-2 I had to resolder the jacks, problem solved.

Right now, I'm running seven pedals together (one of them is a Philosopher's Tone gold compressor), 2 of them (modulation) through the NS-2 's effects loop and everything is working fine, though my amp is a solid state Peavey Envoy 110.

How many pedals are you running together?

Compressor should add volume without adding any grit and making your sound frequencies a little more uniform, not that crackling has something to do with overdriving your sound...

[James Bond]

This is my setup:

Tuner > Wah > Whammy > Compressor > Phaser > Chorus > Delay

Very basic, and not as many pedals as I've seen other players with. Initially I thought a problem with the compressor similar to what you described with your Boss pedal, but it works fine with my practice amp so I have no idea.

I might try running the chorus, phaser and delay through the effects loop and see if that makes a difference.

I also thought maybe the compressor might draw too much power from the board's built-in power supply (for example, the Whammy is too strong for it) but that's how I powered it to try it out with my practice amp and again, it worked fine.

[saint_seiya]

A lot of pedals will result in a loss of tone quality unless you buy expensive ass pedals lol. I also had the cracking problem and i found out it was one of my pedals having low battery so... , also use good patch cables, not cheapos.

[Chewbacca]

Well it really may be something concerning the pedal's power supply.

Yes, indeed, Too many pedals can result in tone loss, especially if the PB consists of many True Bypass pedals, that's why it's always a good idea to have a decent booster/ buffer bypass/ EQ pedals in your board.

Tell me, is this crackling something like your hunky chunky distortion being turned into a mild drive? (this may be caused due to low power on a pedal, EHX Big Muff Germanium 4 recreates this thru the bias knob, it may also be caused due to some conection problem) or is it more like someone activating a killswitch while you play (usually caused by poor conection)? Or does it sound like a strong, crackling hum ocurring ALONG with your playing, it may be caused by a large distance between amp and guitar (long cables + lots of TB pedals and a high impedance/ low output guitar, usually vinage style guitars)?

You said you used your rig with your practice amp and had no problems with it. Did you use the whole Pedalboard with it? Is it a Tube Amp?

The tubes started to overheat even when they were disengaged? That's really weird. I can only think of a higher voltage running thru the amp. They may overheat if you let the amp running for too long too...

Tubes may overheat if you push them too hard, playing really loud, that is. A tube that goes beyond its capacity will eventually start clipping your sound (overdrive) and may get damaged as well, something that can cut out your sound.

You could also try making a rebias on your amp.

[AxlisOld]

Guitar-Wireless-Wah-Amp...that is all. My amp has built in chorus.

[James Bond]

^ Simple but effective.

Thanks for the replies guys!

Well it really may be something concerning the pedal's power supply.

Yes, indeed, Too many pedals can result in tone loss, especially if the PB consists of many True Bypass pedals, that's why it's always a good idea to have a decent booster/ buffer bypass/ EQ pedals in your board.

Tell me, is this crackling something like your hunky chunky distortion being turned into a mild drive? (this may be caused due to low power on a pedal, EHX Big Muff Germanium 4 recreates this thru the bias knob, it may also be caused due to some conection problem) or is it more like someone activating a killswitch while you play (usually caused by poor conection)? Or does it sound like a strong, crackling hum ocurring ALONG with your playing, it may be caused by a large distance between amp and guitar (long cables + lots of TB pedals and a high impedance/ low output guitar, usually vinage style guitars)?

You said you used your rig with your practice amp and had no problems with it. Did you use the whole Pedalboard with it? Is it a Tube Amp?

The tubes started to overheat even when they were disengaged? That's really weird. I can only think of a higher voltage running thru the amp. They may overheat if you let the amp running for too long too...

Tubes may overheat if you push them too hard, playing really loud, that is. A tube that goes beyond its capacity will eventually start clipping your sound (overdrive) and may get damaged as well, something that can cut out your sound.

You could also try making a rebias on your amp.

It's not so much a loss of tone as it is just lots of crackling/farting noises in the background. If I'm playing it's fine because that drowns it out, but if I stop playing then aside from the usual amp hiss I'm also getting that crackle sound mixed in. The tubes, like I said, were also way hotter than usual. Ironically my tone was absolutely killer because of the heat, but again, the crackling noise didn't sound good at all. Even though it's a 100 watt amp I always have the VPR (virtual power reduction) switch pushed in and still only play at maybe 9-10 o'clock volume max. I did try it without the VPR switch and still no difference.

I meant I had just used the compressor pedal with my practice amp to see if that in particular was the problem, but it worked fine. It's a little solid state Laney amp.

I'm starting to think it might be a power issue. What would you guys recommend for a power supply if that's the case? I know Boss makes one as well as some others.

[Chewbacca]

^ Simple but effective.

Thanks for the replies guys!

Well it really may be something concerning the pedal's power supply.

Yes, indeed, Too many pedals can result in tone loss, especially if the PB consists of many True Bypass pedals, that's why it's always a good idea to have a decent booster/ buffer bypass/ EQ pedals in your board.

Tell me, is this crackling something like your hunky chunky distortion being turned into a mild drive? (this may be caused due to low power on a pedal, EHX Big Muff Germanium 4 recreates this thru the bias knob, it may also be caused due to some conection problem) or is it more like someone activating a killswitch while you play (usually caused by poor conection)? Or does it sound like a strong, crackling hum ocurring ALONG with your playing, it may be caused by a large distance between amp and guitar (long cables + lots of TB pedals and a high impedance/ low output guitar, usually vinage style guitars)?

You said you used your rig with your practice amp and had no problems with it. Did you use the whole Pedalboard with it? Is it a Tube Amp?

The tubes started to overheat even when they were disengaged? That's really weird. I can only think of a higher voltage running thru the amp. They may overheat if you let the amp running for too long too...

Tubes may overheat if you push them too hard, playing really loud, that is. A tube that goes beyond its capacity will eventually start clipping your sound (overdrive) and may get damaged as well, something that can cut out your sound.

You could also try making a rebias on your amp.

It's not so much a loss of tone as it is just lots of crackling/farting noises in the background. If I'm playing it's fine because that drowns it out, but if I stop playing then aside from the usual amp hiss I'm also getting that crackle sound mixed in. The tubes, like I said, were also way hotter than usual. Ironically my tone was absolutely killer because of the heat, but again, the crackling noise didn't sound good at all. Even though it's a 100 watt amp I always have the VPR (virtual power reduction) switch pushed in and still only play at maybe 9-10 o'clock volume max. I did try it without the VPR switch and still no difference.

I meant I had just used the compressor pedal with my practice amp to see if that in particular was the problem, but it worked fine. It's a little solid state Laney amp.

I'm starting to think it might be a power issue. What would you guys recommend for a power supply if that's the case? I know Boss makes one as well as some others.

These are quite nice options.

MXR MC 403

http://proguitarshop.com/t-rex-fuel-tank-chameleon.html

http://proguitarshop.com/gator-g-bus-8-us-power-supply.html

[James Bond]

Thanks! The second one has a decent price and should do me nicely with the 9V and 18V options.