Pickup booster pedal won't work with active pick-ups, and has no bypass

[m-ga]

I've recently purchased a Pickup Booster pedal. I bought it second hand, and it's the old-style appearance (red with stepped lettering).

The pedal works fine with the passive pick-ups on my Stratocaster. I can switch the pedal on and off, can use the gain control, and can get different sounds with the resonance switch.

I was surprised, though, that when I turn off the pedal, I don't get any output at all. I had been expecting true bypass with the unit switched off. Is the unit designed on purpose so that it won't give any output when it's switched off?

The other problem I've had is that when I plug an active pick-up into the pedal, I can't get any output at all. This is with the resonance switch in the off position – I know not to expect the resonance feature to work with active pick-ups.

I've tried to get the pedal to work with an LR Baggs M1 pick-up from my acoustic guitar. I've also tried with a Crafter semi-acoustic which has LR Baggs electronics along with a piezo bridge pick-up and a lipstick neck pick-up. I can't get any output with either guitar. This is really annoying, as one of the main reasons I bought the pedal was to use with these guitars.

Funnily enough, when I first got hold of the pedal, I did manage to get it working with the LR Baggs M1. I was then able to play with a very appealing distorted acoustic sound for about half an hour. When I try to do this again, though, I can't get any output at all, no matter how I adjust the resonance switch and the gain dial.

Is my pick-up booster pedal functioning correctly? If not, is there anything I can do to fix it?

 

[Funkfingers]

Re: Pickup booster pedal won't work with active pick-ups, and has no bypass

Welcome to the forum.

Seems as if your unit is defective.

If you purchased from a shop, consider returning the pedal for a refund. If you bought via eBay, use their Returns Policy. If you bought privately, speak to the vendor. If you get no joy, the pedal case should be hard enough to break windows or teeth.
:naughty:

 

[astrozombie]

Re: Pickup booster pedal won't work with active pick-ups, and has no bypass

no offense or anything but are you sure you're using the correct power supply?

 

[DrNewcenstein]

Re: Pickup booster pedal won't work with active pick-ups, and has no bypass

If it works with one but not with the others, I'd say the stereo jack in those others may be the issue.

Then again, I'm wondering if the unit relies on and only works with passive guitar output, i.e. 250K to 1Meg pots, but when you drop down to the 50-25k pots for actives, you get squat because it's below the input threshold?

 

[m-ga]

Re: Pickup booster pedal won't work with active pick-ups, and has no bypass

Thanks for the replies.

I've just tried it again. I can't get it to work at all now!

I've tried it with five different power adapters. This encompasses all of the power adapters I have. One of them was a universal power adapter, which I tried on both 9V and 12V settings (the back of the pedal states that input should be in the range 9V-12V). The LED will light up in most cases.

Sometimes the LED lights up when the pedal is switched off and when it is switched on, sometimes the LED only lights up when the pedal is switched on. As for sound, I've had the unit plugged into a Fender Stratocaster throughout and have verified (via direct connections to the amplifier) that all the cables I'm using are working. I can't get any sound out of the pedal at all. Apart from one occasion, when it made a very unpleasant and loud buzzing sound.

I've also tried the pedal with a brand new 9V battery. I can't get any output from it that way either.

So, it looks like the pedal is toast. What's confusing me is why it worked at all. Could I have fried it by plugging in the wrong type of power supply? All the power supplies I used were rated at 9V, which is what's specified on the pedal. I don't really understand it.

 

[m-ga]

Re: Pickup booster pedal won't work with active pick-ups, and has no bypass

Another thought – is there anything I could do to repair it? I don't mind getting busy with a soldering iron.

 

[DrNewcenstein]

Re: Pickup booster pedal won't work with active pick-ups, and has no bypass

You also have to be mindful of the milliwatts it requires, not just the volts. As well, the power plug probably has a polarity requirement. Simply sticking any available power supply of just any mVa rating and plug polarity is not good for the unit.

However, you may check the internal board for loose solder joints from all the different plugging/unplugging.

 

[Edgecrusher]

Re: Pickup booster pedal won't work with active pick-ups, and has no bypass

Another thought – is there anything I could do to repair it? I don't mind getting busy with a soldering iron.

The times that the LED didnt light up could have been cause you connected a wrong polarity power supply to it. It needs a center negative power supply. Look through your power supplies if you plugged in a center positive one to it... its toast.

You wont save it with a soldering iron...