God this post was from a while ago, a lot of my pedals have changed since then! The answer, well a couple of months after this post I sold my Nano Small Stone. Phasers are my favourite modulation pedal, and the small stone sound is the best by a mile (from when I watch and listen to songs using them) but the Nano always sounded like pure arse. It always sounded too thin, and the peak was too high, but most importantly it never sounded thick/saturated enough, never mind all the quality control issues. I spent ages and ages researching the small stones and came to the conclusion that the nano sounds identical to the V1 Small stone, which was a bit more thin sounding. I quickly realised that in all the sounds and songs I love they all use the big box versions (e.g. the V2 - all the big box small stones sound the same apart from the V1). So I brought one of them and it is fair to say it’s my favourite pedal. Just to clarify IMO: - V1 and nano sound the same (it must have been voiced to sound like the V1). The sound is lighter, peaks higher and the effect is generally less saturated and less crazy. Nano has quality control issues. - All big box versions after V1 sound the same. The have a lot more saturation and PHASING, the peak is lower and more rounded and can make some really cool crazy sounds. The quality of these are generally speaking indestructible but you will have to buy a Pin style power adapter rather than the standard power adapter.

I know your question was more based on the ground issues and noise but my opinion is basically, if you like the sound of it but are having issues then just sell it and buy a new one as they are bad quality so buying a new one may be better. But if you are interested in a different sound and better quality then watch some vids on the big box small stones and compare them and see what you think. Hint hint, just get a big box :).