There’s honestly nothing worse than the feeling of going to jam, and something isn’t working correctly in your chain. It’s a mix of emotions, from sad to angry to just generally a “What the heck?” moment. The next process involved is troubleshooting or searching on the internet for the answer. First and foremost we suggest contacting the manufacturer of the pedal for help. This cuts to the chase by going direct to the source, especially in terms of warranty and beginning the process for repairs (if necessary).This is just a helpful guide of sorts to narrow down areas to troubleshoot on your own prior to moving forward. These are common ways to troubleshoot that apply to nearly every pedal out there.
The first thing to try when anything is acting wacky with a pedal is to isolate it for testing. This removes any other variables and focuses on the cleanest and simplest signal path to troubleshoot. Start with your guitar going out with a confirmed working cable to the input of the pedal, with the pedal having a fresh 9v battery (if applicable, not with minis) and disconnected from your power supply, straight into the amp. If the pedal behaves correctly, then you know the problem was somewhere else in the chain. If the issue is still occurring, document everything you can to better help identify the problem for the tech. If there’s no output, try cutting the footswitch off and on several times, if it comes on occasionally, it could be a bad footswitch. If you turn a knob and the sound seems really odd or has no effect at all, it could be a bad pot. Does the LED cut on? Any small detail will help when you’re going to have it repaired.
Batteries – Some companies ship their pedals with batteries, some do not. Leaving a cable plugged into the input of a pedal will drain the battery, even if it’s not being used. One good idea to practice is if you’re using a power supply to power your pedals, remove the battery to prevent corrosion over time. If you do use a battery, be sure to use a fresh, unused battery
Power – Digital effects especially are more prone to be noisy if you’re not using a dedicated, isolated power source to power the pedal. Daisy-chaining digital effects with analog pedals or other digital pedals will create substantial noise. Isolated power supplies can be a bit expensive, but they’re worth the investment in the long run. If you’re concerned it’s a power issue and you’ve tried it isolated with a battery, then there could be an issue with the cable from the power supply, or with the power jack. Note: Using the wrong power supply can render a pedal useless, and that is not covered under most warranties. Our pedals in particular require a barrel-type (Boss style), center-negative power supply cable. Some pedals have the ability to run anywhere from 9v to up to 18v (and anywhere in between), where some will be rendered useless if run above 9v. Check out this blog for an in-depth detail of which of our pedals can be used at 9v and 18v: https://www.wamplerpedals.com/news/blog/talking-about-gear/power-9v-or-18v
Footswitch popping during activation – If your pedal has recently started an excessively loud pop when you first activate it after moving pedals around on your board, there could be an issue with the impedance the pedal is seeing. For starters, try the first step and isolate it and see if that is taking care of it. If it’s no longer popping, then another pedal in your chain is causing an impedance issue, so try swapping positions on your board could fix it. Bad cables can be the culprit as well.
Crackling Pots – This would signal dirty pots, which can be solved by using an contact cleaner, which is discussed more here: https://www.wamplerpedals.com/news/blog/talking-about-gear/cleaning-the-pots-on-your-pedals
There are a multitude of different things that can go on based solely on the fact that you’re stepping on electronic devices repeatedly, so despite every builder’s best efforts things do fail. This is exactly why we personally offer a 30-day customer satisfaction guarantee and return policy when purchased directly through our website.
Help!! I having severe problems with my tone! I am 62 years old and been playing for 50 years.
I have top notch equipment, Guitars, amps, and pedals including a new Tumnus. Over the last year I have lost all of my tone. Everything sounds terrible (muffled) including the Tumnus. I’ve tried many different guitars and several different amps ( Twin, Deluxe, Classic 30) etc. to no avail. I’ve always had decent tone all my guitar playing life. Now i’m struggling and don’t know where to turn. Its with all of pedals including modulation, delays, overdrives, distortions etc. I’m thinking seriously of hanging up my live band playing gigs because of this issue. I love listening to your pod casts. I really need HELP!
Respectfully, Chris Geiger
It sounds obvious but, well, have you had your hearing tested? Mines not great as I’m getting older and if EVERYTHING sounds muffled then maybe it’s not the gear
Hello. I have a early ‘80’s MXR Distortion +, which I have been in the process of modding. I am having issues with the Distortion pot. It only works between 8 and 10, but is useless anywhere else. I changed the pot a few times, but the problem remains. Please help… any advice you can offer would be greatly appreciated. Thank you.
Hello – I have a new Ratsbane which I’m using with a T5Z. I am getting distortion when the pedal is plugged in but switched off. It happens when it’s the only pedal connected to the amp (and also when daisy-chained to another effects pedal). Tried with different amps too… Any suggestions of how to remove unintended distortion? Thanks!
Hey Tmazz – that doesnt sound right – could you please email a short video of this behaviour to help@wamplerpedals.com and we’ll get it looked into ?
Hello
I love my terraform
But the on/off switch sometimes don’t work…
Why?
Hi, I have a Wampler Tumnus Deluxe. When the pedal is activated, I only get noise. White noise but not pure, sort of dirty white. It’s a little rough and drifts. The switch seems to be fine. This happens with any cable and any battery and with power supply. It happens regardless of the position of the Normal/Hot switch. The Level pot will attenuate the noise all the way off. The Gain pot will change the noise from the dirty white noise (pot CCW) to a strong lower 60 cycle (pot CW) Bass, Mids. and Treble pots have some effect on the noise. The Buffer switch has no effect on the noise. Can this be repaired? Thanks, Fran
i have the same problem. In my Tumnus Deluxe the noise stops eita the gain up to 3 o’clock. Did you have any solution on this issue?
I have a sovereign pedal and love it, the only problem is, I will be hitting the lower strings and the pedal will sometimes muffle or suppress the sound, and It makes me so mad. Can anyone please help
You can try lowering the pickups a bit and seeing if that helps?
I have a faux echo delay , love the pedal but it has recently started a very loud crackle intermittently when the pedal is on. Not related to the pots, I’ve deoxit all the pots and jacks, checked for loose solder and connections. Not sure? Any ideas? Thanks!
Please send us an email – help@wamplerpedals.com – and we’ll see what we can do!
Recently my Tumnus seems to have lost its gain.. All the way up, or all the way down, it has lost it’s mojo in a big way.. Any ideas?