Line 6 Echo Park delay -- hiss?

[elicross]

I just got a Line 6 Echo Park from eBay, and I'm trying to figure out if it's defective or just an inherently noisy pedal.

Anybody have one of these? Have you noticed a lot of hiss, even when it's on standby? I've heard of these pedals having problems with hum if you don't use a battery or an official Line 6 wall wart, but the problem I'm having is a hiss, like a tape hiss. It's loud enough to be audible when I record, even when I'm playing.

This happens even if the Echo Park is the only pedal in the chain.

I'm hoping it's not just an inherent problem with all Echo Park pedals, because otherwise I really like it. I think it does a fantastic slapback echo in particular.

Before I'd realized there was a problem, I ordered a power supply for it. That's supposed to come Tuesday. I'm hoping that using the power supply will somehow get rid of the hiss. If it doesn't, I guess I'll call Line 6 and see what they suggest. Maybe they'll say "Oh, yeah, that's a known problem with some early Echo Parks -- send yours to us and we'll give you a new one." (Probably not, though.)

If Line 6 can't help, I guess I'll have to reluctantly give up on the Echo Park and look for another good, cheap delay. (And I guess I'll be out the price of the pedal *and* a power supply. I could turn around and put it back on eBay, but then I'd be selling my problem to someone else.)

[juniorspecial]

Selling your problem to someone else is kind of like pimping, isn't it?

[Cogs]

The hiss you are hearing is really a high-pitched screech as your signal careens & skids through all that digital crap.
lol
Seriously, every Line6 product I've owned (& even some I still own) made a lot of noise. I figured it just goes w/the territory of cheap effects. POD, Roto Machine, Space Chorus, all of them.
*edit* Selling a broken or defective pedal would suck. Selling a cheap POS for what it is makes no nevermind to me.

[juniorspecial]

OK. I'll put on my practical advice hat:

Just go to your local Guitar Center. They almost always have a Line6 Echo Park set up and ready to go for demonstrations. If it's not already set up, they will set one up for you to try. Just go and try that one out, and see if it's better or worse than the unit you have.

Make your decision on your unit after you obtain this new data.

[elicross]

That's a good idea. If the dedicated power supply doesn't help, I'll try that. I'm hoping against hope that the power supply will fix the problem, because I don't know of another delay with the Echo Park's features anywhere near its price range.

The Digitech Digidelay is cheaper, and it at least has tap tempo -- but it doesn't automatically do triplets or dotted eighth notes like the EP. Still, that may be what I end up with if I can't resolve my noise problem.

[Cogs]

I had a Digidelay but I couldn't stand the dual purpose footswitch necessary to use the tap-tempo feature.
What particular features does the Echo Park's have that you like? I've used a Boss DD-5 for awhile now. I like the fact that it takes an external momentary switch for the tap. The DD-6 was like the Digidelay; but now the DD-7 is back to the external switch.

[elicross]

Well, I think the Echo Park does an excellent slapback echo; very full and reverb-y without overwhelming the original notes. And I like the fact that you can tap quarter notes to set the tempo, then get quarter-note, triplet, or dotted eighth-note delays based on that same tempo. I also like the "ducking" delay that lowers the volume of the repeats while you're playing, so you can use lots of repeats without burying the original notes.

I haven't really messed with the mod knob much, so I don't know how much I'd use it, but it seems like a cool idea.

[Homer]

I own the Behringer EM600, which is a clone of the Echo Park. The Behringer is a very noisy pedal, so I guess the echo park is one, too.

[NeoFauve]

This is something Kap'n posted in my "Affordable Ambiance" thread a few weeks ago. I don't know if the noise he's describing is hiss or hum.

The Echo Park sounds really good. It's got tape emulation, and some nifty features, like tap dotted 8th notes, for easy rockabilly slapback.

Early versions had noise issues. Some experiementation on my part showed that clock noise polluted the power-supply line, and that generated noise in other effects*. Pretty weird. I imagine they must have fixed that by now.

*I did some experiementation that showed that if you powered the Echo with a power supply, and used a 1/4" plug stuck in the inlet to power it up, but had it out of the signal path powered by the same power supply, the signal chain became noisy.

[elicross]

I vaguely remembered that post, but couldn't find it (I guess because I was searching for a thread with "delay" in the title ). I'd love to think Line 6 has fixed the hiss problem and that I just got an earlier model and Line 6 will replace it. It did come with a warranty card, so I was able to register it when I got it.

The power supply should come today. If it doesn't fix the problem, I'll call Line 6 and see if they can and will do anything for me. I really do like this pedal, and the next-cheapest delay with comparable features seems to be the $250 TC Nova.

[NeoFauve]

I did a little local, hands-on shopping.
The delay I've pretty much settled on, unless something else really rings my bell, is the MXR Carbon copy. It sounded great, and was real easy for me to get along with.
I tried some used stuff, a Dano Wasabi (ehh) and a Dano "Reel Echo."
The Real Echo sounds great, but it's got funky old-school type controls, and I couldn't get the "sound on sound" feature to do anything. That could have been my dumb-assery though.

I'm putting off . . . the delay, for now- get it?
I tried a used Marshall Reflector, and discovered pretty quickly that reverb is the sound I want to have first. Got that one for a decent price and it sounds great with the Prince G.

[Kap'n]

This is something Kap'n posted in my "Affordable Ambiance" thread a few weeks ago. I don't know if the noise he's describing is hiss or hum.

Hiss, rather than hum or clock whine - which you can find on some analog delays. A high pitched bleedthrough that's variable by the delay time

[elicross]

Yeah, it doesn't have that bees-on-speed sound like a clock whine. It just sounds like old-fashioned tape hiss.