arrgh HELP NEEDED QUICK

Travisthedog

So last gig we did our singer said to me half way through the set that I sounded really muddy with no top end - I bumped the treble up a bit and thought no more of it.

Tonights gig its very evident that when any signal goes through the pedal board ALL the top end and sparkle goes out of my tone. In the break I went through the board as quick as I could trying to isolate a duff patch or if a particular pedal was to blame but nothing made any difference, if the signal went through any pedal on my board it sounds like someone has put a thick blanket over my amp. Gotta get this sorted but tomorrow night as we have a wedding!

Really appreciate any help from those in the know on these things

Ta

leerocker

ear fatigue maybe?

what you running in the front of the amp , thats where you normally lose the top end, i had this problem recently, a good buffered pedal should bring it back up ok , my koko boost did this well, however i only use a wah tuner and phaser up front now and have no high end loss now!

Branshen

what's the board look like?

Travisthedog

Pics incoming

Travisthedog

http://i28.photobucket.com/albums/c239/jonny73/00F799BA-80F6-42D6-96D9-D3900CD29676_zps8hic7t0n.jpg

Modfactor and el capistan have their own power supply. Pedal order is wah, tuner, spark boost, LGW, rat, modfactor, ElCap.

All into the front of the amp

But as I said - I tried to run everything individually to see where the problem might be. I thought it might be the car from the board to the amp as when I used that on its own I thought I could detect a bit of a loss of top, but swapping that out didn't make any difference - what I don't understand is that this has only happened since the inclusion of the modfactor but even when you take that out there's still a problem

stickyfiddle

Mh first instinct was you might need a buffer but at the very least the Eventide has a great buffer. I'm not sure about the others. Still worth going through the MF's menus to make sure it's switched on though. You'll probably need the manual to work out ho!

Otherwise it's the usual fact-finding. If you've checked and double-checked cables try one pedal on its own, then add another and another until you find the point where everything goes muddy.

Alternatively, if it sounds ok with the amp's treble up a bit, don't worry about it- people get way hung up about this stuff!

Roland

If it's not one of the pedals then it might be one of the patch leads.  This is going to sound tiresome, but the quickest way to find the problem might be to take the pedals off the board, one at at time, starting at the front of the chain, and testing the remaining chain each time.

viz

Sure it wasn't the wah accidentally on, set to heel?

Travisthedog

viz;242098" said:

Sure it wasn't the wah accidentally on, set to heel?

Ha!! Yeah done that before mate! No, actually the other thing that was happening was a massive volume jump when engaging the wah ( and the boost in the wah was off.)

I'll have to strip it all off the board today and go through it all - typical though, Saturdays - kids to swimming - kids to football - have to ice a cake and get prepped for my oldests birthday party tomorrow, got a mates 40th birthday tea at 4pm (at his mums! Rock and roll !!!) then gig set up at 6pm - better get on with it

Isn't the boss tuner a buffer?

viz

Sounds like a good day. Remember when you've found the fault you don't have to keep looking for it so it might be quick. Cut out half the pedal chain first, then you know which group it's in. Then halve again. Etc. yep the tuner's a good boost.

digitalscream

viz said:

Cut out have the pedal chain first, then you know which group it's in. Then halve again. 

This is a good shout, but bear in mind that the worst case scenario (from a time perspective) is pedal order. First thing I'd try is the tuner before the wah.

Travisthedog

Thanks guys

Bear in mind though - this isn't a new board - it's been fine for a good while - all I've done is put the modfactor in

digitalscream

Out of curiosity, have you tried swapping the power supply? 

In fact...along the same lines, have you tried the whole rig at home? Could it just be that the mains supply in the venue(s) didn't agree with your PSU and/or amp?

I'm just thinking it's odd that the problem seems to be getting worse over time. That always makes me think valves (which you've ruled out) or power supply caps.

Travisthedog

No not yet - don't have another one! It's a diago power thingy that I use but that's only powering the wah tuner and drives

digitalscream

Travisthedog said:

No not yet - don't have another one! It's a diago power thingy that I use but that's only powering the wah tuner and drives

OK, so...thinking about it logically, it can't be any of the true-bypass pedals because it's got to be something that's in play whether the pedals are on or off. It's got to be a signal cable, power cable (long shot), one of the buffered pedals (I think that's just the tuner?) or the power supply.

Either that, or there's some kind of voodoo going on.

EDIT: Wait...try some contact cleaner on all your signal cables and the pedal sockets.

Travisthedog

Will do!!!

monquixote

I've had some very odd behaviour when a cable was on the way out. It would sound shit and then massively jump and sound fine when I kicked certain pedals on.

Try swapping some cables out.

Nice board BTW.

Travisthedog

Cheers yeah the board is getting there. - I'm really happy with most of it. The final component is a decent distortion - getting to grips with a RAT at the mo

I hope it's not a patch as I made them all myself out of the best bits I could find as I was fed up with shit cables.

ICBM

Travisthedog said:

No, actually the other thing that was happening was a massive volume jump when engaging the wah ( and the boost in the wah was off.)

That sounds like one of two, possibly three things.

1 - faulty wah, probably the switch

2 - (most likely) partially shorted patch cable between the wah and the tuner

3 - (unlikely) faulty tuner, partial short in the input buffer (yes, the Boss is a good buffer)

When the wah is off the "whatever it is" is heavily loading the signal which will take off treble and volume; when you turn the wah on it becomes a buffer so it will cause a volume jump.

UnclePsychosis

What icbm said. Something is heavily loading the signal and when you switch the wah on you are fixing it.

Travisthedog

Straight to amp


Through board

*insert caveat about shit playing*