POPPING SOLUTION?

[intripped]

try your pedals with different amp/guitar and see if they still pop

[Lbzg]

dont have different amp...

[armdnrdy]

Do you have any friends???

..........with another amp.

[SmoothAction]

Jok3rx's suggestion is awesome. http://www.muzique.com/schem/bypass.htm . Even mammoth sells a clickless bypass kit now
http://www.mammothelectronics.com/Click-Less-True-Bypass-p/035-cltba.htm , although it's overpriced IMO.

[Mike Burgundy]

...no one has given any solution just advice...

No offense, but that's because there is no ONE answer. There just isn't.
There are so many possible causes for this, you need to figure out what's causing *this* particular problem. That's what most advice was about.
You're on the right track now - but it may not be easy.

If the pops go away after a few stomps, that might point to some point in the chain that charges *slowly* (say from a cap that is just a wee bit leaky). I have a compressor like that - one stomp and BOOM, then it's fine for the rest of the night and I'm too lazy to fix it ;P I could imagine a switch with dirty/quicly corroding contacts behaving that way, but that's a long shot.

Be advised that measuring small charges from leaky caps may be difficult. Your voltmeter has a high but finite resistance, it will load down that charge and bleed it off. Analog meters have lower resistance, as do cheaper ones. I've chased a pop caused by a stray bit of charge for a long time before I realized that one.
Clipping a 10k resistor onto the circuit helps - it's just for debugging, so don't worry about the loading compared to a 1M or higher. Use it as a pulldown resistor, clipped from signal to ground on the input, if that *doesn't* fix it, either the problem is somewhere else, or you'll have a voltage there stubborn enough to overcome a 10k bleeder, and you will definitely be able to measure that. From there, move on to output. Etc.
Try the same thing on your amps input.
It's a tedious chore of elimination, and there's more than one way to do it.
Before troubleshooting, use all precautions to avoid pops - pulldown resistors in the right places, DC blocking caps in the right places, grounded effect input on bypass. This is basically what was done in the link you mentioned.
ONLY examine switching with no signal into the pedal. If there is signal, you'll likely get a pop because you're suddenly cutting into the waveform. RG already mentioned that in another thread I think.

1) Eliminate everything that's not strictly necessary first (no other devices/boxes, take out LED indicators, etc.)
2a) if possible switch out guitars/cables/amps
2b) if possible switch out effects - see if they all pop or just some. Figure out what the difference is between those that pop and those that don't.
3) make damn sure youre not switching the effects power on and off by mistake
4) measure for anything unruly - DC on guitar, pedal in, pedal out, amp in. If this yields nothing, it does not mean it's okay - see above.
5) See if there is a correlation between pops and the switches used. Some switches seem to bounce and pop, sometimes.
6) use the alligator clip trick to find out where the problem goes away - then focus on that area.
7) ....and many more. Keep at it.

[R.G.]

Even mammoth sells a clickless bypass kit now

I believe that a "clickless bypass"  doesn't add any clicks of its own. It probably won't remove clicking from other causes.

[R.G.]

OK. How to measure (don't roll your eyes - I will ask everything and some of questions will be dump as a rock I need to find out all I'm doing wrong) that, please explain step by step?
- I have multimeter (cheap one) with out sound alert and without cap tester - ohm meter goes to 2000k and I have diode checker...
Also how to measure input and output on amp?
And I do have cap inside of a guitar (been doing potting and rewiring of my strat). I can't remember what value it is but when we you tell me exactly what to do with it and how to stop possible trouble with it I will go and dismantle my pickguard (will not do it to many times)... :-)

It's pretty simple, at least the first step is.

Get out your multimeter. Set it to measure DC volts. Try it on a 9V battery first to verify that you have the leads plugged in correctly, etc. Plug the black lead into the "com" or "common" socket on the meter, red lead into "volts" or "DC volts". Verify that you do read a voltage between 7 and 10V on the battery when touching the black lead to the battery minus terminal and the red lead to the battery plus terminal.

When you have verified that, plug only one end of a guitar cord into your amplifier's input, the same input you use for testing your pedals. Turn the amp on and the volume down low enough that you can stand the hum which will happen. Then touch the black lead to the unused end of that guitar cord's barrel and the red lead to the tip. Turn the voltage range down to the lowest it will go. Most DMMs go down to 200mV. You should read less than 10mV. If it's more than that, the amp is leaking DC into the input jack.

When you've tested your amp, remove the guitar cord from the amp and plug only one end into the guitar. Do the same test on the end not plugged into the guitar.

[Lbzg]

Ok, I measured it.

I have put multimeter to 200m and it reads -50.0 to -60.0 and it drops down to -0.02 and -0.03 and it stands there a bit and then goes down...is it ok?

[Lbzg]

That is for amp not guitar. I need some more guide to measure guitar coz i tried as you said but it reads nothing.

[Mike Burgundy]

60mV is too much, that will cause trouble further up the line. Looks like we have found something! The voltage dropping is because of the meter bleeding the voltage off.

Edit:
There *may* be more issues, but fix this first. Are you comfortable working on your amp? These are much more complex and carry very lethal voltages, so be aware that it is a different ballgame entirely. It's probably as easy as replacing the input cap though.
What's the amp?
Oh, and the guitar  *should* read 0. That's ok. If it's a passive one (no battery), it won't introduce DC anyway.

[R.G.]

This also accounts for why operating it for a bit makes the popping go away.

[R O Tiree]

It is good, and normal, for there to be no voltage reading on your guitar.

Those voltage readings from your amp, though... They do not seem right at all. Edit - beaten by RG and Mike B

Does your amp have a "Ground Lift" switch? If it does, try it in the other position and take the reading again. If it reads 0.000V, then try the pedal again.

If it does not have a Ground Lift switch, then it would be wise to get it looked at by a professional technician.

[aron]

Go to a music store and try your pedals there. See if they pop there. I sent you a message re: continuously creating threads. I suggest you read it.

One question for experienced builders - What do you guys do first when you find that your pedal pops? What is procedure that you do? Don't just say "I measure everything" better describe how do you do what you do when that happens.

well you guys sure knows how to mislead people

Maybe english is your second language or not. I don't care at this point. Don't demand things - read your posts carefully before posting.

[mistahead]

Step one, isolate the problem, which is not yet done - use differential troubleshooting, based on evidence you've "provided" there is a reason a lot of responses are pointing you towards trying to do this.

It seems you may have done "One amp, one pedal (at a time), one guitar, two short cables" testing - you ended up with multiple pedals popping, I am assuing you were bright enough not to have the whole chain in place when deciding that all those pedals were popping.

So - it seems that in order to isolate the source of the issue you will need to change a control variable (guitar or amp) and run through the tests again - one amp, one pedal, one guitar and two short cables.

You seem convinced that the issue must be with a number of pedals (variables) - Occams Razor requires us gather more data or cannot accept that all those pedals are the most likely problem.

[Lbzg]

Great, than it must be amp or guitar...I was affraid that I'm going nuts. :-)

Ok what to do to the amp that I will fix it? Amp is old squier 10w sp-10 model (i have end up on this one after I sold other - that was not a good idea). :-(


I have noticed something last night that my volume pot on guitar makes popping noise sometimes I touched it more roughly but how can it be, it is new S.D. pot as well as tones two but can it be that some grounding just got loose inside of pickguard? also I will change input jack just to be sure.

[PRR]

Your SP10 amplifier has a leaky input capacitor.

I can't find the internal details of the SP10, and it may not be easy to figure out by examination.

[mistahead]

Occams Razor again - if there are two possibilities with equal evidence the one requiring the shortest path to observation is assumed correct.

In this case we only had equal evidence for the Amp OR the Guitar could have GUESSED the amp due to more components (and O's Razor would have been satisfied) BUT as you observed a similar/another issue with the guitar it is the likely problem.

EDIT: I stand by my methodology even if in this case it turns out I'm wrong - in most cases it will shorten the path from issue to solution dramatically, ESPECIALLY when working with things you are only partially ofay with.

[R.G.]

Methodologies aside, the note about popping on the guitar ices it down. Paul is correct; it is what I suspected, a leaky cap on the amplifier.

The amp should be taken to a tech and fixed.

[duck_arse]

(magic or lies, R.G.)

[Lbzg]

Yes, I also suspect the amp now. You guys are great, sorry again for judging you all.

OK, I'll take pedals to newer amp and test amp first with my multimeter, but can't done it before next 15 days...will try to find quicker solution but don't forget about this tread because I will report back, please keep it in update.

I will go and check my pickguard again and resolder it as S.D. is showing so back to manufacturers setup :-(


Also, what values can be expected from different amps or what values are ok to read from multimeter on such occasion?

What cap do you guys use in your guitar with 3x 500k pots?

I have found that my input jack is little worn off and starts to loose contacts, can this be additional cause or main cause with amps leak?


One question more...I really like to learn it all the way...:-)

Can my popping be due to this factors or it is possible that if something is build from beginning to the end as shown on guide comes out with popping?