Noisy Electro Harmonix Germanium Overdrive

taylornutt · Post by **taylornutt** » Tue Sep 29, 2009 4:12 am

I have a very clean , quiet signal chain on my pedalboard except for my Germanium Overdrive

Once I engage it, if I touch the pedal with my foot I hear radio stations going through it.

Any ideas?

I have it isolated with a 1Spot from my other pedals.

benecol · Post by **benecol** » Tue Sep 29, 2009 8:41 am

Others here will disagree, but I've had nothing but noise problems with my OneSpot - does it do the same with a battery in it?

ultratwin · Post by **ultratwin** » Tue Sep 29, 2009 12:31 pm

DO NOT USE the One Spot if you're planning on running anything vintage-ish, like a Uni-Vibe clone, Treble Booster, or Fuzz Face and/or clone with it. A digital-switching power supply like One-Spot etc will introduce noise, rain or shine. They all need either a battery or DC power from a regulated transformer, and (as little as I know about electronics) I think it's rather safe to say the sensitive input stage of the rather simple Germanium Overdrive circuitry will react similarly to the above.

I use either a Voodoo Labs PP2 or One Spot on all but my Fuzz Face clones, which do just fine with batteries...besides, < 3mA of current draw means batteries will last a very long time.

taylornutt · Post by **taylornutt** » Tue Sep 29, 2009 3:21 pm

I read some reviews of this pedal and some people said it works great on batteries but noisy on power supplies

I plan to purchase a pedaltrain pro and a Voodoo Labs pedal power 2, but it won't be any time soon.

I like the Germanium OD, but's very sensitive and it's hard to dial the tone I am looking for. It's either static mess or a bland OD.

I will keep tweeking it, but I may sell it and have Mike build me a pedal. His pedals always sound good.

stewart · Post by **stewart** » Tue Sep 29, 2009 3:26 pm

you could also try one of those VIRTUAL BATTERY things. not cheap though.

aen · Post by **aen** » Tue Sep 29, 2009 3:36 pm

benecol wrote:Others here will disagree, but I've had nothing but noise problems with my OneSpot - does it do the same with a battery in it?

Never had a problem.

ultratwin · Post by **ultratwin** » Tue Sep 29, 2009 10:32 pm

aen wrote:
benecol wrote:Others here will disagree, but I've had nothing but noise problems with my OneSpot - does it do the same with a battery in it?
Never had a problem.

That's because you and your creations are living noise. And we like things that way.