Noise Problem With EH Soul Preacher

[grrrrrant]

I have an original EH Soul Preacher that a friend gave me.  The pedal works but when turned on, it is very noisy.  Any suggestions on how to fix it?  Also I would like to install an LED to see when it's on or off, how?

Grant

[Mark Hammer]

Most simple compressors are noisy in the exact same way, because the amplify whatever they see at their inputs unless told otherwise.  Easiest fix is to assure that your input signal is as quiet as can be.  Feeding the Soul Preacher a buffered signal would probably help too.

[aron]

Mine used to get louder and louder until you hit a note. Then it went silent for a few seconds, then it started "working".

[grrrrrant]

This might sound stupid because this is a stompbox forum but would running it after my POD XT Live be a good idea?

[Mark Hammer]

A perfectly reasonable question.  Probably not a wise or productive choice.  Three reasons.  First, the farther downstream you park a compressor, the more cumulative hiss there is in the signal path for that sucker to boost the moment you stop playing (unless there is a noise gate or other noise reduction device ahead of it).  Second, chances are pretty good that one of the things you use the POD for is to generate distortion or overdrive tones, and since those will already have much of the dynamics milked from them, there is much less for the SP to respond to (ergo, not much audible effect unless you make a point of NEVER using any dynamic-restricting effects on the POD in tandem with the SP).  Third, I find it hard to imagine that the XT-Live has NO compression function on it, or that whatever compressor it has is somehow worse than the SP.  That's not a slight at E-H.  rather, we've come a long way in the 25 years between when the SP was designed and when the POD was designed.