External fuzz + Kemper

Hey Abirk, welcome

Are you using the Distortion loop? Where is it placed? What about the rest of the chain?

Quote from abirk

Hi there
I´m having a bit of problem getting my Kemper working with an external fuzz stomp box.
When I put it into the fx loop, it sounds rather poorly, and not at all like in the real world, and when I put it in front of the Kemper it sounds great, but there is a loud humming noise. What to do? Anyone experienced this and found a way around it?

At the moment I´m trying to get the internal Muffin fuzz to sound as good as the external one, but I miss a betterlizer-function...
By the way, the external is a Stomp Under Foot, green russian muff clone.

I hope someone can help

Anders
Denmark

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Hey Anders,

This is most likely not the fault of the Kemper, in fact you were benefiting from the Kempers Noise Gate which kept the noise down, but sadly you can not get a great muff tone placing a muff in the Kemper'e Effects Loop or any amps effects loop. It is well documented and I can certainly verify from a life time of use, that Fuzz pedals do not like anything in between them and the guitar ie: first in line before amp and other effects. Actually a Muff and a Fuzz are not exactly the same beasts hence the different name but still what does not change is order of gear. Some Fuzzes and Muffs can work after other effects but still always before the amps Preamp section.

Normally speaking, all distortion type effects pedals are placed in line before a preamp (between the guitar and amplifier). It is extremely uncommon that one would put a distortion based effect in an effects loop. Fuzzes and Muffs (obviously depending on make and model) are fairly noisy pedals. I use external fuzzes and will continue and to deal with noise levels I use a bypass looper and a ISP G-String Decimator noise gate pedal which is extremely affective in controlling unwanted signal noise.

Again I would not try to place the Muff pedal in the effects loop of the Kemper it was not designed to be used like this. It should go in front and if the pedal is really noisy the choices are simple, Check for grounding issues in the guitar, use a noise gate, find a muff that is has a lower noise floor, or if you are using Single Coil PU's try noiseless PU's or the Ilitch noise canceling pickguard.

Fuzzes and Muffs are not all created equal check out this Gilmourish, Bjorn has done a great job of putting together a list of popular muffs and fuzzes and rating them on many criteria including noise.

http://www.gilmourish.com/?page_id=273

Kitrae is also an amazing source on Muffs check out his page too.

http://www.kitrae.net/music/music_big_muff.html

Cheers!

Quote from abirk

Oh, it was placed in X and Mod.

I'd always place a distortion effect before the Stack section.

Does the humming noise go away when you turn the volume on your guitar down or does it stay?
Are you using single coil pickups?

Yeah, move the loop to the Stomps section, and check that your Clean sense is set high enough (barely touching the red on the LED when you strum hard).

Chances are (among other things) that the incoming (into the pedal) signal level is too low.

Also, is the pedal supplied via Mains or via batteries?
If you use an external power supplier that might be another reason for the noise.

Quote from abirk

And thanks for the links, Elcap420

A.

Glad that the problem is solved and that the links can be of service. Both Kitrae and Bjorn are great sources for those who love fuzzes and muffs and all over great tone. I give a high recommendation to give their sites a complete read

Does the hum go away when you touch the strings or (please report about both) close the guitar volume?