Very noisy cricket.

[Hupla]

Right well I've talked about this a good few times on this website and I really wanna finalise what's wrong.

The noisy cricket iv'e built is really distorted but it only happens when I use my Ibanez rg320fm which has infinity 3 and 4 humbuckers. It's not a good distorted of course its, just like the clean signal is getting horribly clipped all the time, regardless of the gain setting.

I'm thinking that the output is to much for the noisy cricket or something, I'm not sure. Is this possible? It doesnt happen with any other amp i've used.

When I use my other guitar in it which has seymour duncan JB and Jazz model humbuckers this distortion disappears. Also when I play music through it, there is no distortion.

So this leaves me to believe the problem lie's with my Ibanez.

Any ideas?

[newfish]

At the risk of seemingly flippant (which I hope I'm not!), just roll your guitar's volume pot back a touch.

Less signal going in should mean less 'peaks' (and therefore clipping) as the signal is amplified.

Lots of distortion / fuzz boxes use a voltage divider at the input as a means of controlling the gain ('fuzz' / 'distortion' in this context).

You'll be doing something very similar here with your guitar's volume pot.

[Hupla]

Thanks for the reply. I tried that and no the distortion still appears all the way to just above it being completely turned down. At this point if i play softly there is no distortion, but if i pick hardly it does appear.

It's really annoying

[chi_boy]

I actually see the same thing from my M-Audio sound card. My Strat has no clipping, but my LP clips like mad. I turn down the volume on the LP and the clipping stops.

Sounds like your signal into the Cricket is too hot, But I don't have one and shouldn't comment.

How do you like the JB / Jazz combo, BTW?  I have a set but haven't installed them.

Cheers,
George

[dano12]

The only thing I can think of is a grounding issue. Could the ground wire on the problematic guitar be dodgy? Are the input and output jacks on your Noisy Cricket grounded?

[Hupla]

The ground wire on the guitar seems fine and i hope the in and out jacks are good because you installed them.  ha Im doing it on the beavis board.

Also chi_boy, Im thinking its the signal. I mean the only variable is the guitar really. Although it doesnt happen on other amps =/

Its a great combo. really old school sounding and is alot quieter than my ibanez.

Anyway, I dont have my other guitar with me so I cant check side by side again but I did before and it was just the ibanez that it happened with.

This is really wrecking my head

[newfish]

Maybe the Ibanez just has too much 'Rock' in it?

[compuwade]

Maybe the Ibanez just has too much 'Rock' in it?

The Noisy Cricket was my first project and I've always used it with my 80's charvel. The output on this guitar is very hot and I've never had a problem. Being there is an input buffer on the noisy cricket, im guessing that there should never be an issue with a hot guitar signal. Of course there's always that one guitar! LOL If you haven't already, I would check the orientation of the mpf102 to make sure that you have it in right. It will still work with it in backwards. Not very well though. But it might work well enough with a low output guitar to make you think the circuit is wired properly. Most of the circuits that you'll find here or those that you'll get into at Beavis Audio have been tested and will work with just about all guitars, so when I have a problem I always assume it's something I did wrong. I'm guessing this is the case also.

-Wade

[Hupla]

No the MPF102 is in right. Ive pretty much double checked everything and rebuilt it countless of times.

So i decided to mod it a bit to get a feel of the circuit. I changed the MPF102 i had in with another kind and the distortion tamed a bit but not a whole lot and didn't go altogether. So then I put in a J201 and again there was a slight change but not what I wanted.
The I took out the buffer altogether and it was terrible ha so one definitely is needed.

This is wrecking my head now. I really want to get this together because Ive wanted to build one from the get go. =/

[punkin]

Any chance you could post a close up pick of the component and solder side of the board?

[Hupla]

Its not on board yet. Still on a bread board. do ya wanna see a pic of that? Im very very sure everything is connected properly

[compuwade]

Its not on board yet. Still on a bread board. do ya wanna see a pic of that? Im very very sure everything is connected properly

I'd love to see a pick of the breadboard. That might help alot.

[Hupla]

Its not on board yet. Still on a bread board. do ya wanna see a pic of that? Im very very sure everything is connected properly

I'd love to see a pick of the breadboard. That might help alot.

I can't take a picture of it until next weekend im not at home atm.

I was playing around with it there yesterday and I thought I solved the problem but it was still sort of there. Hard to explain. Theres always still that really quiet underlying distorted guitar signal. =/ I feel like giving up on it.

Also, I have been using batteries to power it and then i decided to try my boss power adapter, and when I did that I dunno what happened to the circuit it just went haywire. Sounded like terrible fizz and oscilations.

The PSU was reading 9.45 volts and the battery was closer to 8 but i have been using it on it since it was at 9.

I really wish someone could clear this all up for me ha