Is it normal to get distortion from a Flanger pedal?

[Burstbucker]

Is it normal to get distortion from a Flanger pedal?

I just aquired an old MIJ Arion SFL-1 Stereo Flanger pedal for next to nothing and I'm actually surpised at how good it sounds but I found that it's very easy to overload the Flanger's input, thus creating a fairly ugly distortion.  This distortion disappears if you lighten up on your pick attack, so it's not a big deal really.

I was just curious if this is common to a lot of Flanger/Chorus/Phaser pedals out there?

[Gringo]

I had a similar problem and this is how it went:

http://www.elixant.com/~stompbox/smfforum/index.php?topic=19340.0

Good luck!

[Mark Hammer]

As the thread indicates, there are essentially two sources of distortion: an improper bias setting for the delay chip, and the built-in soft-clipping circuit to keep the regeneration on a short leash.  Try turning down the regen all the way.  If the distortion still persists, then that would suggest that the culprit is the bias setting.  Normally, as the trimpot is adjusted, it goes from no delay to a distorted delay to clean delay, then back through distorted delay and no delay as you continue rotating the trimpot.   Since the delay chip will distort  when the trimpot is close-but-not-quite, you can expect that the relationship between trimpot drift and distortion is a common one.