Radio interference on octave fuzzes

[Bret608]

Hi all,

I guess this isn't necessarily a tech help thread as this refers to working builds that I'm proud of. Anyway though, do folks find that octave fuzz is more likely to pick up the radio? On both my Wolfshirt and my Standard Fuzz, they pick it up but intermittently. I'd say the Wolfshirt probably gets it worse. I heard a hint of it on a Pepperspray once, but very submerged. Sometimes I'll just be playing, and suddenly, wham and it's there. Other times, it'll be there as soon as I switch on the pedal but then go away later. I always play in the same room of my house.

Is this just the nature of the beast? I have a huge radio tower within about two or three miles of my house (I saw searching around that Pryde mentioned that too). I was wondering if anything like enclosed jacks or shielded wire on the in/out would help, or if radio interference is even the same noise that those things would address. Looking forward to hearing your expertise!

Cheers,

Bret

[rullywowr]

Hi Bret,

You have it correct.  Using shielded wire (with the shields connected to GND) and enclosed jacks can't hurt, and most likely will help reduce the chance of picking up stray RF.  How much it will reduce this phenomenon is up in the air until you try it, but it should help somewhat.

[marauder]

Run the input to the board through a 3k3 resistor with a 470pf cap to ground at the board, that'll get rid of any signals over 100khz, ie. radio.  Some people just use a cap, but that can make it worse.

[Bret608]

Thanks Ben--I will definitely try the jacks and shielded cable (provided I can locate some) on my next high-gain build.

Andy, on the 470pf cap, basically one leg connects to the board input, and the other leg to any convenient ground point?

[marauder]

Yeah.

[Clayford]

Or the other option... embrace it and install this ala Dano (bevisaudio)