Hey guys and gals,
i was rooting through my attic the last day, and found one of my dads old guitar pedals. Its an EQ pedal, somethin which i never had used before. Now it still works, and its still in one piece. Which is good considering the pedal is at least 20 years old. The pedal is Century SGE-9 Equalizer.
Now what i need help with:
playing with this pedal, there is a huuuuuge hum noise that comes off it. my setup is guitar to pedal to amp. when the pedal is off, all is well, when the pedal is activated it creates this huuuuge hum and hiss noise from the amp (which obviously is more predominant on the Gain settings)
Now how would i go about restoring and cleaning and making this pedal work liike a charm again?
also note, if i have to replace parts like resistors or capacitors, that wouldn't be a problem. or wud leavng the pedal sitting in a pool of methalated spirits for a while, then letting it dry out, be just as effective?
cheers for the input!
Hi TrueDoom and welcome to GuitarNoise
First, did you make sure to use a fresh battery? EQ pedals will often makes noise and even squeals with a low battery.
Those sliders should not be set to max, they will absolutely make noise in that position. Start off with all sliders in the center, this is called "flat" neither boosting or cutting any frequency. Each slider controls a certain range of frequencies, on most 7 band EQs you have 100Hz, 200Hz, 400Hz, 800Hz, 1.6kHz, 3.2kHz, and 6.4kHz. Now looking at the name of that pedal, it may be 9 bands, in which case each slider will control an even smaller range of frequencies. But those sliders are really nothing more than volume controls for each frequency band.
There is also usually a scale shown on the side, most EQ pedals will cut or boost a frequency up to about 15 decibels. And most EQ pedals also have a Master volume slider.
Just adjust each slider until you get the tone you are after. There are endless ways you can adjust them.
The pedal can be used for a volume boost for solos. You can push each slider up equally maybe 7-10 decibels (higher than that and they make lots of noise usually). Also boost the Master volume. Now step on the pedal for a nice volume boost without changing your tone.
Some people do just the opposite. They set their amp to max volume for their solo sound. Then they cut each frequency on the EQ to bring the volume down. When they want to solo, they cut the EQ off to get the max volume from their amp.
So, lots of stuff you can do with these pedals, adjust your tone, or even use them to boost or cut your volume.
As far as what's wrong with the pedal if it is defective, I don't think anybody could answer that unless they looked at it, or tested it with a meter.
If you know something better than Rock and Roll, I'd like to hear it - Jerry Lee Lewis
heya! thanks for the reply.
wow i had never thought of using it in the way of settin my amp to near max (usually about 75%, amp usually works best at that) and then using the pedal to cut down the volume.
as for the battery,well i tried a fresh battery staright out of the packet, and i tried a powersupply. same results with both,
the pedal isn't defective as such, i just think its very old and needs some TLC to bring it back to perfection.
when the sliders are moved usally there is a scratchy noise, like there is dust in between them or something, or maybe its a loose wire. i will try a good cleaning of it first and let you know how i get on :)
It may contain electrolytic capacitors, which dry out and fail with age -- sitting in a hot attic will exacerbate that failure mode. The largest and most vulnerable electrolytic caps usually are in the power supply circuits to suppress noise and hum. Other larger 'lytics might be audio path DC blocking caps. Failure of either type could make hum and noise worse -- esp if using an AC adaptor. Electrolytic caps of that era usually look like a plastic-covered aluminum cylinder -- often the plastic covering is blue, gray or yellow and marked with either "+" or "++++++" ... or "-" "-------" to indicate polarity. They may stand up on the board (both leads on one end) or be axial -- (one lead in each end) and lie on the borad. They almost resemble little batteries, as the ends are bare aluminum. If any are swollen, or actually seem to have popped and spewwed a bit of paper, they are surely dead. However, even normal appearing 'lytics can be defective. If you are up to component replacement, I recommend you start with the electrolytic caps.
-=tension & release=-
