Boss DD-3 Noise and... (Page 1 of 2)

THIS is something I too have noticed with the Ceriatone HRM  I have moved my boss rv5 to the jubilee because using both delay and reverb sucks serious tone, kept the DD3 for the ceriatone with just a slapback delay and I can live with this
IMO the jubilee has a much better fx loop, compared to ceriatone . This is the reason a DUMBLEATOR was made for the original dumbles and is supposed to really bring the amp alive! I will look to making one in the future.

Alex IF you are looking for a dumbleator there is a Guy at ceriatone forum who is looking to sell some he made.

"Everybody's entitled to my opinion.

I was thinking the same thing, it sounds like it may be more of an effects loop issue rather than the pedal itself. Joe is always talking about what a good effects loop the Marshall Jub has.

I was just going to say the same thing. I use Nik's Kleinulator with my OTS and it's great. Having said that I use my DD-7 in front of the amp (last in the fx chain) with my Ceriatone JTM-45 BB and no problems whatsover.

There is still signal loss over distance.  It doesn't matter what kind of cables you use.  Plus the way your fx loop works is exactly how it sounds.  Its a loop, so yea its actually 10 meters in just the loop (5 send, 5 return), plus you patch cables, plus the cables to and from your amp and guitar.  The loop is in the line of the guitar signal, its just located after all the power and pre-amp stages (after all of the gain) - thats why delay sounds better in the loop, its delaying the overall sound.  Its not delaying the guitar signal and then forcing it through all those gain stages.  If you played a straight up clean amp, you actually be able to put the delay out front.  No matter what pedal you use its still going to loose signal b/c of the resistance of the cable.  I use the DD-3 and and 20 footers in both send and return for the practicallity of it as well.  They are Mogami and it still sounds good, just not as bright.  What a tube buffered effects loop like the Dumbleator does is boost the signal back up.

Ben

Be careful - sometimes a good buffer is better than a true bypass switch, especially switching a delay. Often true bypass switches create a switch "pop" and if that is additionally delayed... ... PLOP pop pop.. p...

Here are my tabbed songs by "Smokin' Joe": http://www.jbonamassa.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=7236
I LIKE MUSIC!

I know I am in the minority on this but I just don't like boss pedals everyone I tried has just been noisey and sucked the tone, even with good cables in front or in the loop.

Second the loop on my Jub does give me a volume decrease when I run a delay there, I don't know why I have even had the Loop looked at. Its not a huge loss but none the less if I run the delay in front its much louder. Delay can be a real pain for me my band has a song really delay driven - think U2 Streets - and man I have tried a few different ones and the small Guytone MD2 delay is the best I need to get another one of those.

Thanks guys for all the replies.
Yes I think its the loop of the ceriatone. I use the DD-3 for a very long time now
and had never any issues with other amps. But since the basic sound of the 2550 is
really amazing I try solve it with a dumbleator or as Joe suggested, try to get 1:1 ratio by an amp tech.
Its a serial fx loop by the way.

Alex

  Alex, part of the problem your referring to is common with a lot of Boss pedals. It's an issue with their buffering design.  Depending on what version you have, it could be as simple as upping the impedance in the buffering section.   Do other pedals do the same thing in the loop?

   Also, as already mentioned, ask Nik about the loop.  Specifically, ask him what it would take to up it's output level.  It's not a hard problem to fix.  A trimpot or a pot wired up to control it's level would be a good start but ask him where to wire something like that up to save the hassle with trying to reverse engineer the amps layout.  I've never poked around that model so I don't have any ideas for you on where you could start.   

  As for the noise, you can make some changes to the pedal to quiet the noise...but again, that's dependent on what version you have.  Read this link to figure out which one you have...http://www.stinkfoot.se/andreas/diy/articles/DD3.htm

   Most other common Boss pedals only require a few bucks in parts and some time to get some get some real good sound out of them.  If modding is not your gig, the previously mentioned Keeley is a great way to go.  Best thing about Boss is their are pedals are cheap and found everywhere so when you spill beer on it or it gets ripped off,  you can get another one easily. 

The only 'boutique' pedals I own are a CE-2 clone (NEVER taking my origional out of the house-not worth the risk) and a couple compressors that I've built myself so I don't have to spend $400 for a pedal, like that new TS808 handwired pedal Ibanez recently put out.