I just purchased an Ibanez CS-9 Stereo Chorus, after trying out the Boss CE-5 and the EHX Small Clone Chorus, and I'm pretty happy with the sound. But I'm noticing that it always seems to add a white noise or a hum to the sound, which becomes more noticable as a note fades away.
I'm playing an Epiphone Les Paul Standard into a Vox AD30VT amp, using its AC30 model with its Reverb effect. I've tried it on other settings, and the hum seems to persist when the chorus is switched on.
I was wondering if it was just the Ibanez, so I tried the AD30's chorus effect (without the CS-9) and it too seems to add a white noise hum to the background.
Is that just something chorus does?
No, a good chorus pedal shouldn't add a lot of noise. That said, any FX pedal adds *some* noise, but it shouldn't be all that noticeable if the unit is good-quality and you don't place it ahead of pedals that boost gain or ahead of an amps' preamp that has/is set for lots of gain. Another thing to check is if the noise may be coming from a "wall-wart" type battery eliminator/power supply. I recommend a battery eliminator/power supply like a "OneSpot" or similar type that uses high-frequency switching instead of a plain stepdown transformer/rectifier/filter capacitor circuit like most cheap wall-warts do. Also check for noisy cables by switching out for known good ones.
It's possible that you may also be experiencing ground problems with the AC power that you have the amp and/or pedal power supply plugged into. I've found many many houses and bars/clubs where the AC wiring is bad..either the ground isn't good, or the wiring was done incorrectly and the hot and neutral wires have gotten reversed.
If you find that it *is* the pedal causing your noise problem, and would like my recommendations on a good chorus pedal, I really like the Rocktron Tsunami Chorus. It has a very wide range from very subtle to psychotic. I've found it to be very warm-sounding, and the feature that I really like a lot is the "ambient delay", which I find I leave on all the time. It really fattens the sound a lot, even at very short delay settings where you can't really tell that it's doing anything delay-wise. Plus, it's a very quiet pedal and built very ruggedly.
I've played through a *lot* of pedals in my 35-plus years playing, and that Rocktron unit is a real sleeper, and way less expensive than many other production chorus pedals on the market, and not even in the same universe price-wise compared to boutique models.
Hope that helps,
Cheers!
Strat
Thanks Stratman. I'll try my setup on different AC outlets here and see if I notice any difference. The Ibanez CS-9 is running solely on a battery right now, with the amp being the only thing that's plugged in. I'll try isolating it from my other pedals again and checking that out.
I just bought a Maxon OD-808 today so my wallet needs me to take a break from buying pedals, but I'll keep an eye out for the Rocktron. I tested the three chorus pedals they had at my favorite, and the CS-9 was the one I liked the most, but that could change in the future.
You're very welcome! :D
If you'd like, here's that Rocktron at Musicians Friend. They want $99.
http://www.musiciansfriend.com/product/Rocktron-Tsunami-Chorus-Pedal?sku=154225
Also, if you like the TS-808 type OD pedals, the one that I really like is the Rocktron Austin Gold at $69.99.
http://www.musiciansfriend.com/product/Rocktron-Austin-Gold-Overdrive-Pedal?sku=154226
That's another "sleeper" pedal IMHO. Very quiet compared to most, wide range, and the "Pre-Bass" control is really really effective. One of the things that I find with OD pedals is either too much bass which gets muddy, or not enough bass which makes it shrill and nasty. That Pre-Bass solves that nicely.
Cheers!
Strat
