Radio Pickup on a Black Ash Clone?

Fingolfen

Fingolfen

Well-known member
I've gotten a question from someone with one of my Black Ash clones and they're getting radio pickup. I've done some reading and it seems like the signal could be entering from a variety of sources, including the guitar, cable, etc. Any thoughts to help him troubleshoot and if it does turn out to be entering at the pedal, thoughts on how to rectify?
 
Fingolfen said:
I've gotten a question from someone with one of my Black Ash clones and they're getting radio pickup. I've done some reading and it seems like the signal could be entering from a variety of sources, including the guitar, cable, etc. Any thoughts to help him troubleshoot and if it does turn out to be entering at the pedal, thoughts on how to rectify?
Click to expand...
How’s the wiring in his casa, pretty old or poorly grounded?
 
I have no help but my very first pedal attempt I bought one of those Craig Anderton books back in the mid 90’s I was like 15. Built one of the distortion pedals. All I could get it to do was pick up a local Mexican radio station out of Woodburn Oregon. I recently had an issue with a breadboarding ruby using a lm386 that also was picking up a similar type of radio station (I’ve moved about 3 miles from where I lived before lol, have to wonder if it was the same one). Anyways, it was a layout issue with the gain pot wire running parallel to the input wire. This was on a breadboard though.
 
I’m not so sure it would be the pedal in particular. The other day I was playing through a high gain pedal and heard an Asian lady preaching. Bypass pedal, no preaching. Next day a couple of guys talking about religion, bypass the pedal, suddenly I lost my religion😜

It just makes what is already there more apparent for my situation.
 
I played a show in Dalton Ga many years ago. We had the local football game coming through our monitors until it was over. Blew a monitor speaker that night, too. Good times.
 
Buddy had a big brick Dano fan tone in HS that picked up AM really well.
Used to listen to Art Bell through his Laney with it
It can absolutely be a grounding issue.
 
I can get radio stations on just about every pedal I have built when it is not in the enclosure if I touch components.
Either the pedal isn't grounded to the enclosure properly (powdercoat) or Input & Output wires may need need moving.
 
Thanks all - I'm fastidious about making sure everything is grounded, but something could have come loose on this one. I'll also check the I/O wires.

If it's not either of those, anyone have a Plan C????
 
Fingolfen said:
Thanks all - I'm fastidious about making sure everything is grounded, but something could have come loose on this one. I'll also check the I/O wires.

If it's not either of those, anyone have a Plan C????
Click to expand...
Faraday cage.
Make sure there's good metal on metal contact on the shell/enclosure, make sure the enclosure is grounded(no paint/powder over spray insulating)and the bottom is snug. Long cracks are worse for RF leakage than holes.
 
I always make sure I have the full Faraday cage going. I'm going to swap him one I've verified the jacks and enclosure are all grounded to each other. I'm guessing the pedal is amplifying a signal coming in from elsewhere in the chain, but I'll re-check his once I have it back in hand.
 
Try a bypass cap of 20pf to 200pf cap across R2. Start closer to 20pf with whatever you have on hand. That should give at least some of the RF an easy path to ground.

Wonder if others have this issue with this build? May be worth scaling the resistors down, if so.
 
I've picked up radio signals while messing with tonebender and fuzz face circuits on my breadboards. Usually it's when the fuzz is cranked, but my guitar volume is turned down. My solution has been to put a small cap, like 50pf or maybe 100pf, on the circuit input to ground. I'm not sure if that would be a great long term solution for something that's already boxed.
 
cdwillis said:
I've picked up radio signals while messing with tonebender and fuzz face circuits on my breadboards. Usually it's when the fuzz is cranked, but my guitar volume is turned down. My solution has been to put a small cap, like 50pf or maybe 100pf, on the circuit input to ground. I'm not sure if that would be a great long term solution for something that's already boxed.
Click to expand...
Same.qs I said post 15. Need to bleed off the RF to ground
Altering the first voltage divider resistors to 1/10th value can help as well if a cap doesn't clear it.
 
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