Help with Hiss from a reverb pedal?

One of my favorite pedals that I own is the Walrus Audio Slö, but recently, I've noticed that there is a considerable hiss coming from it (I've tested my patch cables, other pedals, power supply, amp, etc.). My first though would be to use a noise gate; however, I know they will clamp down on the tail end of the reverb. Anyone have any recommendations?

Odd. Did it take any hard falls?

Nope, I haven't dropped it. Doing some research into it, i think i found the problem; the FV-1 chip in the pedal itself. Think I have to find a different reverb pedal.

Are you sure? That sounds expensive. Have you reached out to Walrus Audio? They might be able to diagnose the problem.

I might try to sell it if someone wants a Slö. I also found a thread for this same problem, and Walrus themselves said it was the chip causing it: https://www.reddit.com/r/guitarpedals/comments/bq4cny/walrus_slo_and_white_noise_issues/ Thank you for the advice, though!

No problem. If I were you (and you seem to like the Slö), I would try to find a workaround. I mean, it seems this FV-1 chip is all the rage.

Thanks for posting this, I've been thinking about getting a Slö lately so this might be good to know.

So, seedystrums, what was the verdict? Keep or sell?

Probably gonna try to sell to someone who doesn't mind the hiss.

Probably gonna try to sell to someone who doesn't mind the hiss.

It sucks that Walrus Audio couldn't make a less noisy pedal, but I'd hate to see you sell it if it's one of your favorites. I found something that might help:

My first though would be to use a noise gate; however, I know they will clamp down on the tail end of the reverb.

A gated effect loop with a release/decay control might fix the problem without harming the reverb trails. It will delay the onset of the gate for a preset duraion, which you could adjust to match the reverberation time. A cheap one is Electro-Harmonix's The Silencer.

Thanks! I'll see if that will work.

gate and guitar, ugh.... gated reverb though? gate it hard, make yourself Warrant or Poison!!!

EDIT: also, a boutique pedal should NOT hiss.... unless its a high gain fuzz or a CMOS 'dube sound fuzz' type distortion like the red llama, SCOD etc where the hiss is inherent to the semiconductor style.

This pedal seems very similar to my EQD transmisser and depths, sort of between the 2 maybe, I would consider changing up, both those EQD pedals run very silent. just a squinch of background noise on the, its not even perceptible to me through a guitar amp, only DIed when I'm using them on synths

No problem. If I were you (and you seem to like the Slö), I would try to find a workaround. I mean, it seems this FV-1 chip is all the rage.

its veyr easy to program custom algorithms on and it likes low voltages.... I know guys on my DIY groups who are doing 1 offs for themselves with bizzare reverbs and delays etc, it can really do any time based DSP but its limited by its AD/DA.... which may be the source of the hiss if set up improperly or if its not getting the imepdance it wants, dunno... or it could be a garbage buffer or soemthingor a faulty jfet in the input buffer? but in a boutique pedal I would expect the former, for this price a junk buffer is a non-starter and QC should weed out abd parts before building and if the aprt is damaged during construction QC should be good enough to ID that before shipping it out. Even Uli Behringer can do that!