Ground/power issue - JHS Little Black Buffer (Vero)

Joben Magooch

Well-known member
Hi all, a bit of a strange issue here. I assume it is something with my buffer's ground wiring, but I am not totally sure...

I'm getting power from a Truetone CS7. All of the ports on it are tested and working properly on their own. I have one of the ports with a splitter cable plugged into it, just supposed to turn one output into two, super simple. One side of the splitter is ground lifted, one has regular ground. The two pedals I have plugged into the splitter are my Vero buffer and PedalPCB Minidrive (supposed to be a compressor but it's just a placeholder for the time being). Both pedals work fine on their own as far as I can tell - I've had the Minidrive for YEARS and no problems, Vero buffer is new but hadn't noticed any issues either, except for perhaps some weird interactions with certain pedals but I think that is not totally unusual.

ANYWAYS, I plugged both into the splitter and the splitter into the CS7 and...no power to either. I had the Vero Buffer plugged into the "normal ground" side of the split, and the Minidrive into the ground lifted side. So I tried swapping this around - Vero buffer to "ground lifted" side of the splitter and Minidrive to "normal ground" side. Now both pedals work just fine! However...if nothing else is plugged into the splitter, with the buffer plugged into the "ground lift" side, it won't power on. Another plug has to be inserted in the normal-ground side of the split in order for the ground-lifted buffer side to power on.

As far as I can tell now everything is working properly but I didn't know if this is normal/expected or if perhaps there is an issue with the buffer grounding? It's perfectly quiet and no unusual noise or anything, but I don't know, just found that a bit strange. The buffer is using those plastic isolated jacks (they don't ground to the casing themselves (these style) but I don't know if that would have an impact here or not. I can't remember for sure at this point but I thought maybe I ran a wire to ground to the enclosure too.
 
my best guess is one side just connects power and then the ground is transferred by way of the ground from the jacks connecting the pedals to avoid a ground loop, so I think its working as expected, needing the second unit there to complete the circuit.
 
my best guess is one side just connects power and then the ground is transferred by way of the ground from the jacks connecting the pedals to avoid a ground loop, so I think its working as expected, needing the second unit there to complete the circuit.
I think you are probably right about that, makes sense the more I think about it....But i am still perplexed as to why neither pedal would work if the "sides" were flipped...
 
Back
Top