hey,

i just got one of these and it's from the united states (runs on 117v). I am living in israel so I am using a step-down adaptor that puts out around 115v (should be good enough I think).

When I am plugging the unit to my amp it makes a hum kind of noise even when i bypass it and even when it's turned off!

what could cause this?

Bad step-down converter I think. Try replacing the internal transformer with one that has the same secondary voltages, but a 230V (or whatever the voltage in Israel is) primary winding, that should stop the problem I guess.

Maybe the ground connection in the in/out connectors.
What if you have it disconnected from the wall??? the noise stay there?
Open it up and see if you find something wrong.

Saludos, Marcelo.

Any change of some pictures of the inside of this one?

It looks like you have a bad ground connection on the inside....

Thanks,

Joep

i am pretty sure this is not the adaptor because I have two of them (one is rated at 1amp and one at 1.5) and the supercharger is only 1/8amp i think.

I am pretty sure at least one of the adaptors is grounded very well because I converted it myself and other one came grounded and it even got a fuse and i use it with my amp without any noises.

I think I lost the right elen two open this thing up so I'll go later to buy a new kit and i'll try to post a few pictures of the inside and I'll messure the trans' inside and maybe i'll buy one with the same output (but 220v) and try to hook it up and see what happens.

i tried a few things after opening the unit... what did the trick is to pull out the ground leg from the power cord
now this thing sounds pretty amazing, it's far better than the v-twin I must admit and it can cover about the same range of tones with only 3 knobs (and one is a volume knob).
sure the v-twin is more fancy and got 2 switchable modes and bypass but the distortion is not focused at all and you can eq. it all day long if you want it will still sound like a metal fuzz. I guess some people are looking for that sound but I prefer this unit.

I am sorry but I do not have any digital camera to take pictures of the inside but the good news are that this device is simple as it gets and almost anyone can build a thing like this. the only problem would be the trans' that seems to be custom made for soldano.

everything is 1% resistors (looks like 1/2w) so it keeps the noise level down I guess, although it's not that quite.

the last thing that I find good & bad at the same time is the lack of true bypass in this thing. the good part is that it acts like a booster and it helps you to get much better dynamics when you play.