My guitar or amplifier only produces clean sound even with pedal

[venomx924]

I don't know what's wrong since I'm a newbie in the realm of guitar and stuff so a help would be helpful

Here's the thing.. I have a MG10 Marshall, Epiphone Les Paul Traditional, ZoomGX21, and a stock guitar jack that comes with MG10..so I bought 1 for my Multieffects. After that I learned some new important stuff and how effects works thanks to the Multi effects. Here's the problem, after playing a song suddenly the amp only produces clean stuffs so I thought my pedal was broken so I saved and bought a BOSSME-25.. then used it for a day to check if it'll work.. I can't notice the distortion or OverDrive. so I returned it and got a BOSS DS-2 hoping that it's going to be the answer.. And luckily I still get thesame result.. Tomorrow I'll head to the store and going to pick up the guitar gigbag I reserved and will get an extra jack.. I forgot to mention that I will bring my 2 jacks I and will get an extra one to see if the jacks are the problem.. I really want to play so bad but cant use the pedals ..
I hope that my amp isn't broken and most of all my beloved guitar ISN'T the problem.

I would really appriciate any help and I will watch this thread until I get to sleep
Thank you.

[jmaf]

If your pedals are cranked and you still don't get distortion, the problem is either the cable or the guitar.

[venomx924]

Is there a way to test my if the guitar is broken.. if it's broken its only the pick up right?
My pick up is a humbucker btw don't know what the exact model it is.

[jmaf]

Is there a way to test my if the guitar is broken.. if it's broken its only the pick up right?
My pick up is a humbucker btw don't know what the exact model it is.

The best way is if you had a friend's guitar and cable. Test your guitar with his cable. Then test his guitar and your cable. Either one will fail and you'll know which is bad. Now to find out exactly what is wrong in the guitar, you should probably look for a repair shop if you've never done it before.

[venomx924]

I don't have a friend that plays guitar yet... so I'll buy a cables, should I buy 2 or just one, I will also bring my cables and ask if I could check if something is wrong with the cable.

[jmaf]

I don't have a friend that plays guitar yet... so I'll buy a cables, should I buy 2 or just one, I will also bring my cables and ask if I could check if something is wrong with the cable.

Sure. Another idea is, most music shops are really receptive about new players having doubts. So if your amplifier isn't too big, you can carry it and your full gear bag over to the shop where you've been buying your stuff and I'm sure someone there will let you test their test cables, as well as other amplifiers and guitars.

[venomx924]

I bought my Guitar on guitarcenter, my ZoomGX21 and MG10 on Amazon and my BOSS on Futureshop. I hope they'll let me test it on future shop :P
thanks man I will test the cables tomorrow

[Chuck H]

I think there may be some error in the signal chain. There's almost 0 chance that ALL those distortion units were bad and they should produce distortion on their own no matter what the amp settings are. In other words, nothing about the amp can keep a distortion unit from making distortion. Have you read the user guide for the distortion units you've tried? You could research gear and settings for known players on line for some idea of how some players set up their gear.

[venomx924]

I think there may be some error in the signal chain. There's almost 0 chance that ALL those distortion units were bad and they should produce distortion on their own no matter what the amp settings are. In other words, nothing about the amp can keep a distortion unit from making distortion. Have you read the user guide for the distortion units you've tried? You could research gear and settings for known players on line for some idea of how some players set up their gear.

what is a chain signal? All in all I tried 2 multi effrect and a distortion pedal but it oonly produces clean and yes i read the manuals . But idon't know what's causing the problem

[Chuck H]

"Signal chain" would be something like , guitar-cord-distortion box-cord-amplifier input-amplifier effects loop out-cord-multi effects unit-cord-amplifier effects loop in, then to the amplifier power stage and speaker.

If the distortion feature of any working distortion unit is not making distortion then that unit is not properly set up to make distortion. Even if your guitar has low output modern distortion units should still be able to make distortion.

Do the amplifier and guitar work properly with just a cord between them and no extra gear at all?

I understand that your frustrated. But, the fact that your not getting distortion from the distortion units points to user error and not gear failure.

The standard first tech support question in cases like this would be "Is the unit plugged in?" You get where I'm going. Do you see all the indicator lights and displays that the units are working properly, and still there is no distortion? Does anything change when the units are in use? Do other features on the multi effects seem to work properly? Have you tested your guitar with another amplifier? Do you know anyone with more experience using electric guitar gear?

[jmaf]

venomx924, adding to Chuck H's tips, some of these multieffects units have input and output volume settings on the digital screen thingy. If one of those is at or near zero, and your pedals came after the multieffects, then your pedals aren't getting enought signal to distort. That's an issue with your "signal chain". Also, as you play, you'll learn that the order in which you hook things up in that chain matters....but that's something you'll grasp on your own.

I'd say something simple is causing your blues...or lack thereof - Don't worry, try to find assistance from nerby friends. If you let folks here know where you are, maybe there's someone in this forum in the same region who is able to help out.

Also like I said yesterday, *some* stores have really friendly folks there.

During vacations a long time ago, I befriended a guitarist at Sam Ash in Florida. He'd assist me with everything, let me try the most expensive Les Paul's in store, showed me all the expensive amps and so on. Needless to say I bought all my gear with them as a form of saying thank you.

[Brad1]

If you hear the guitar as normal straight to the amp with all cables tested, it can't be the guitar, it can't be cables and it can't be the amp. They are all working, obviously. The guitar, itself, or the amp itself, do not make effects decisions. If it's passing signal, it's not the cables, and they make no effects decisions. They either work, or they cut out/crackle/have low volume+noise/etc., or don't work at all.

If you have the guitar plugged into the effects, and the effects into the amp input, and you hear normal guitar but no effects, it's the effects. They either don't work and are passing straight signal anyway (doubtful), or they are not set properly.

Turning the Level and/or Distortion knobs of that DS2 should cause a difference. It needs a good battery. It needs to be stomped "On", as indicated by the LED above the knobs.

If your guitar is working through an amp, it should have no problem working through that box. It can't get any more simple. Those Zoom and Boss multieffects could possibly have created confusion...but that DS2 is so simple, even a caveman could do it.

Brad1

[venomx924]

Thanks to everyone, I just bought 2 new cables and it's working

[venomx924]

I changed the cables and it worked like a charm .
My signal chain is like this right now.
Guitar>Cable>DS2>Cable>Ampli

[Brad1]

Were you curious enough to check each of the old cables just from the guitar to the amp? Maybe one of them is still good?

Apparently, it's fixed, but I don't understand how it can pass uneffected normal signal with a bad cable, and not react at all with effects on.

after playing a song suddenly the amp only produces clean stuffs

Out of curiosity, tell us how each of the old cables sound straight from guitar to amp, as compared to the new ones?

Brad1