Stroboflip Mayhem

Brett Lanier · Post by **Brett Lanier** » 30 Sep 2012 7:10 pm

I had a strange occurrence this evening while setting up at a gig. Maybe someone here can shed some light on what was happening for me.

I set up all of my stuff; Emmons into an Emmons volume pedal with 2 outs, one going to a twin reverb and the other to the stroboflip tuner. I turned the amp up and immediately heard very loud feedback, so I turned it down. Tried it again, same thing.

I went behind the amp, checked all the tubes. All good as far as I could tell. Went to try one more time and no sound, also the speaker started freaking out and pushing air like I was playing bass through it on 10.

At that point I gave up on the twin and borrowed the bass players backup rig, a mesa walkabout. Hooked it up to my speaker, feedback. Hooked it up to his speaker, feedback.

Then I tried my tele straight into my twin. Normal, sounded good. So that only left the volume pedal, pickups/steel, and strobe tuner. Ended up being the strobe tuner somehow. Anyone heard of this before? The tuner is going out the second output of the volume pedal, could it somehow be acting as an input? I guess the outputs of the volume pedal are still a variable... The good news is I got to play steel through my amp, with the help of a trusty ole tuning fork.
btw, the tuner powers up fine and appears to be working as normal.

Tim Marcus · Post by **Tim Marcus** » 30 Sep 2012 9:24 pm

I have had strange problems with my stroboflip and have recently deemed it unsuitable for gigs. The steel sounds great tuning with it, but its flaky and I will only use it for sessions now. That is when I really need it anyway.

For gigs, the Polytune pedal works - and has true bypass.

I feel like all of the stroboflib problems come from the grounded power cable. I had so many noise problems with mine that I put a ground adapter in my seat so I could lift ground when I had noise problems. Even having the tuner in the chain - not even in the audio path - frequently led to problems.

Brett Lanier · Post by **Brett Lanier** » 30 Sep 2012 9:42 pm

Tim Marcus wrote: I feel like all of the stroboflib problems come from the grounded power cable.

I always use a ground lift for the power adapter because I always heard a buzz without it.

Judging by what my amp was doing (feedback/no sound/speaker bouncing all around), I feel rather certain that something would have blown in the amp if I'd left the tuner hooked up any longer. I'm really curious as to what was actually happening.

I'll be using the cleartune app from now on I guess.

b0b · Post by **b0b** » 30 Sep 2012 10:17 pm

Was the tuner accidentally set to output a reference tone? That could go back through the wiring of the volume pedal into the amp and be mistaken for feedback.

Paul Sutherland · Post by **Paul Sutherland** » 30 Sep 2012 10:57 pm

I stopped using the walwart because sometimes the tuner didn't work properly when it was plugged in. It was picking up interference or something and couldn't seem to read the pitches. Now I run the strob-flip on batteries, which eliminated the problem. It's one less thing to have to plug in at a gig, and the batteries last a surprisingly long time.

Also, I unplug the steel entirely from the tuner when I play so the tuner can't mess up the tone. Basically I tune with the tuner before the set and touch up by ear during the set if necessary.

I think it's a great tuner. I've never had the buzzing, feedback that you described.

Jack Stoner · Post by **Jack Stoner** » 1 Oct 2012 2:15 am

Best to leave tuners (any tuner) out of the circuit. Only plug in to tune and then disconnect.

Richard Sinkler · Post by **Richard Sinkler** » 1 Oct 2012 4:48 am

I only use use the wall wart if my batteries start getting flaky. Same as Paul and Jack. I don't leave my tuner plugged in either because I was hearing a distortion when I plugged it into my 2nd output on my volume pedal.

David Nugent · Post by **David Nugent** » 1 Oct 2012 5:31 am

IMHO, the Stroboflip was not a significant improvement over its predecessor the Strobostomp (the main reason that I returned to using the latter). Aside from the feedback problems mentioned if left connected, (one of my Strobostomps is currently mounted first in line in my pedalboard and I have never experienced a problem with either feedback or changes in tone thanks to the true bypass feature), it also requires a designated power supply where as the Strobostomp was designed for use with most readily available 9V power supplies. The 'Stomp also features a power output jack which enables it to drive my other effects pedals as well.

Dennis Detweiler · Post by **Dennis Detweiler** » 1 Oct 2012 5:52 am

Get a Sonic Research Turbo Tuner. They build two models. I have the ST-200 and leave it plugged into the guitar with a double male adapter. Programmable, true bypass, .02 cents accuracy, very bright stroboscopic display, lifetime warranty free recalibration, made in USA, half the price of Pederson. www.turbo-tuner.com
There are a couple of youtube users demonstrating it.

Tim Marcus · Post by **Tim Marcus** » 1 Oct 2012 7:09 am

oh one more thing I forgot to mention - when I used my stroboflip in circuit, and hit a note, I could hear a tone very faintly come through the output about a second after the note I hit.

maybe as Bob suggested that tone was really loud and stuck on for you

Brett Lanier · Post by **Brett Lanier** » 1 Oct 2012 7:45 am

That's a good thought Bob, but I don't think that is what was happening. What I heard was ear splitting, high pitched feedback. Also, I got no sound from the steel. I'm not even sure I had opened up the tuner and actually fired it up. I think it was just idling, with the blue light lit up, but not the screen.

Brett Lanier · Post by **Brett Lanier** » 1 Oct 2012 7:46 am

Dennis, I have a turbo tuner on my guitar pedalboard. It's great, just really tough to see in the bright sun.

Marvin Born · Post by **Marvin Born** » 1 Oct 2012 10:47 am

Brett,

It sounds like you had the cable from the Emmons pedal up to the tuner plugged into the Stroboflip output jack, instead of the input.

The stroboflip has a built in microphone that operates when nothing is plugged into the input jack, for acoustic type instruments.

What ever is feed to the input, is then also feed back out to via output jack, so you can have the tuner "in line" if you want. In your case, the mic was on, the mic signal went through the tuner, out the jack and down to the Emmons pedal, which is a pot pedal.

The two output jacks in the pedal are connected with just a piece of wire. {no electronics. The signal from the tuner went across the wire and was mixed with the incoming guitar signal (on the input jack and pot) and then feed to the amp via the other pedal output jack.

When the amp sounded the guitar notes, the mic in the tuner picked it up and started the feed back. You would have the feed back regardless of the position of the volume pedal. You could have unplugged the guitar and still had the problem.

From your description of the connections and the resulting feedback. I would guess this was the problem.

Marvin

Mike Archer · Post by **Mike Archer** » 1 Oct 2012 10:54 am

I never use electronic tuners in line with my rig
its just asking for trouble....
most of these fancy tuners are overkill anyway
I tune Es with tuner from guitar out only
chime in the rest never have tuning problems
Mike

Brett Lanier · Post by **Brett Lanier** » 1 Oct 2012 11:45 am

Thanks Marvin. That's a pretty good guess as to what happened. If the problem is still there next time, I'll contact Peterson. They've been really helpful to me in the past.

I gotta tell you though, since I've been playing a push/pull, I hardly need a tuner. It's incredible how stable it is.

James Morehead · Post by **James Morehead** » 1 Oct 2012 4:29 pm

In defence of the Strobo flip-- I plug my guitar(single-coils) direct into the tuner, then out to the volume pedal(shobud pot pedal with Allen Bradley 500K pot), then out to either my Vibrosonic head or my Twin Reverb head, which sits on the floor next to my changer end of the guitar(it holds my set list and beverage). I leave my volume on "10" on my twin--controlled by volume pedal, and this rig is as quiet as a dead church mouse.

I NEVER unhook my tuner--been this way for 4 years with zero issues. Mine has true bypass, as I had Sue (from Petersen) remove the "evil diode". Once in awhile, I run a cheap $40 analog delay box between the tuner and volume pedal--it takes a square 9 volt battery--still no change in tone or any hum. I never use wal-warts. The tuner is on batteries, and they last very well. I also use George L cables. Send me your Strobo-flips--I love them.

John Ducsai · Post by **John Ducsai** » 2 Oct 2012 12:58 am

That happened to me about a month ago - I had reversed the cords after moving the equipment.

Paddy Long · Post by **Paddy Long** » 2 Oct 2012 2:20 pm

While this is a different beast than the stroboflip, I use the Peterson Stroborack tuner... wired in line the whole time and never have I ever experienced any noise from the tuner.