Please help me. I cant solve this problem

[6tring]

MARK...your right and I'm gonna do that right now. I have a digitech metal master that I'm gonna hook up right now. But what would this prove??

[6tring]

WOW...I'm really glad I found this site. This is the most help I've gotten since wandering around cyber city on my quest for lost distortion. I feel like Harrison Ford in "the fugitive" searching for the one armed man.

Thanks alot guys for taking time out of your day and brainstorming this thing with me. You guys are really great and I truly think the problem will get resolved from the people here.

[sean k]

I had a problem at a gig a while back that perplexed me and the problem was that my Boss power supply is a switchmode and wouldn't function because I was on a power circuit used for lights with a dimmer on it. The weird interaction of high frequency transformer created a no power situation for the switchmode... amp worked and normal 9V supply worked but the Boss supply didn't. Maybe it's something on the power lines themselves...

[6tring]

I had a problem at a gig a while back that perplexed me and the problem was that my Boss power supply is a switchmode and wouldn't function because I was on a power circuit used for lights with a dimmer on it. The weird interaction of high frequency transformer created a no power situation for the switchmode... amp worked and normal 9V supply worked but the Boss supply didn't. Maybe it's something on the power lines themselves...

Are you talking about the overall power from outside? The power that runs everything in my house? Thats what it sounds like your saying.

[6tring]

MARK...your right and I'm gonna do that right now. I have a digitech metal master that I'm gonna hook up right now. But what would this prove??

WOW!! That sounded terrible lol. It still does it before and after the mfx boards.

[Mark Hammer]

Um, the idea was not to insert distortion between your guitar and multi-FX, but rather to insert a buffer stage between guitar and multi-FX; essentially to rebuild the output stage of your guitar, or the input stage of the multi-FX by borrowing something from the pedal.

Ideally, what I wanted you to do was stick a clean device between guitar and multi-FX. That should be either a pedal like a clean booster set for unity gain (i.e., same output level on or off), an EQ set to flat and no boost, a compressor set to minimal compression and unity gain , OR any other pedal which provides a buffered bypass and set to bypass.

I'm trying to figure out if the wiring of your guitar is such that the multi-FX is seeing something at its input that it was not designed to see.

Ideally, with such a buffer inserted between guitar and multi-FX, there should be NO difference between what the multi-FX sees from the active guitar or a passive one. I'd suggest building one, but I think that jumps us several steps ahead of where you are right at the moment, so the inserted pedal is a compromise.

[6tring]

Dugh, my bad. I get it now. I'll get one from my buddy tonight and try that out too.

[sean k]

Well, either outside the house or something in it. I told my story because it was a time when something outside my system was wrong but I thought it was something in my system.

In a sense it has to be something outside simply because you had an old thing and a new thing exhibiting the same problems and the likelyhood of them both crapping out in the same way at the same time is very very slim, but it has been known to happen.

The overlying symptom seems to be that you get ten minutes of playing then the problem occurs and gets worse (quite?) slowly. This hints at a gradual build up of something that then triggers something within your circuitry to shut itself down. Very problematic.

Lets suppose that a part of the distortion system involved a VCA, analog, and just before it a normal voltage amp and for some reason the feedback loop of that amp was tuned to some outside above hearing frequency, but the tuning was bad so it only amplified the oscillation very slightly but after ten minutes the oscillation was big enough to have the VCA shutting down the volume... but your equipment is digital...

Given that it had a time when it started then the likelyhood is something from outside.

You've got to get hold of Zoom and try and get schematics of the analog circuitry and look for a difference in the clean and nasty circuits, if there even is one in a digital pedal, and let Zoom know your problem as they may very well be quite interested.

[6tring]

In a sense it has to be something outside simply because you had an old thing and a new thing exhibiting the same problems and the likelyhood of them both crapping out in the same way at the same time is very very slim, but it has been known to happen.

Actually 3 units which makes the odds even greater, but your absolutely correct.

You've got to get hold of Zoom and try and get schematics of the analog circuitry and look for a difference in the clean and nasty circuits, if there even is one in a digital pedal, and let Zoom know your problem as they may very well be quite interested.

Ya, I guess I'm gonna have to do that next, and digitech.

Thanks Sean

[Ronsonic]

Maybe dumb questions but let me try; Are you running all this off a skinny extension cord and sucking down the line voltage when you go for the brutalz? Does it mess up when using headphones alone?

Do you have this stuff so gained up with so much awesome sauce that it is just choking in the analog stages? If you roll back the volume on the guitar does it get better?

When it packs up roll the guitar volume off for a moment and then bring it back up - better? Try the guitar volume off for about a minute or two and see if it improves. Does it get better if you turn it off and back on?

Are you using a TRS (stereo) cable to plug your active guitars into the units (that can cause merry hell)?

Are your active guitars leaking a DC offset onto the output? This would likely make your volume pot sound scratchy all the time.

All of these lead to actual technical issues, really.

[6tring]

Maybe dumb questions but let me try; Are you running all this off a skinny extension cord and sucking down the line voltage when you go for the brutalz? Does it mess up when using headphones alone?

Hey there Ronsonic, no such thing as a dumb ? (at least thats what someone told me lol). Straight to the wall, yes all 3.

Do you have this stuff so gained up with so much awesome sauce that it is just choking in the analog stages? If you roll back the volume on the guitar does it get better?

No, No

When it packs up roll the guitar volume off for a moment and then bring it back up - better? Try the guitar volume off for about a minute or two and see if it improves. Does it get better if you turn it off and back on?

No, no, YES as a matter of fact it seems to for about 3 min.

Are you using a TRS (stereo) cable to plug your active guitars into the units (that can cause merry hell)?

No

Are your active guitars leaking a DC offset onto the output? This would likely make your volume pot sound scratchy all the time.

I dont think so cuz its all 3 of em' that has the problem. But how would I find that out?

Thanks a million

[6tring]

Ideally, what I wanted you to do was stick a clean device between guitar and multi-FX. That should be either a pedal like a clean booster set for unity gain (i.e., same output level on or off), an EQ set to flat and no boost, a compressor set to minimal compression and unity gain , OR any other pedal which provides a buffered bypass and set to bypass.

What about 1 of these?

[bigfinger]

battery

I don't know how yours active PU are powered, but may be are you replacing only one of multiple batteries?

A friend of mine had a problem like this on a Taylor with 2 AA battery. Replacing only the first one, the preamp was working good for some minutes only.

Hope to be useful, excuse for my English

bigfinger
italy

[Mark Hammer]

[quote=6tring;155039]

Ideally, what I wanted you to do was stick a clean device between guitar and multi-FX. That should be either a pedal like a clean booster set for unity gain (i.e., same output level on or off), an EQ set to flat and no boost, a compressor set to minimal compression and unity gain , OR any other pedal which provides a buffered bypass and set to bypass./QUOTE]

What about 1 of these? (LPB-1)

http://www.guitarcenter.com/Alesis-P...99-i1389441.gc

An LPB-1 is fine, but I'm not sure it provides buffering between input and output when the boost isnot on. Probably your best test at the moment would be a simpe Boss pedal of any type, but in bypass mode.

[J M Fahey]

I don't fully understand the SMS type explanation at the beginning, yet something "seems" to stick out about all of this:
1) 3 different guitars, same symptoms, let's cross them out.
2) 3 different pedalboards, same symptoms, let's cross them out.
3) 3 different sound transducers (different speakers and headphones) , same symptoms, let's cross them out.
4) 3 different headphones, same symptoms, let's cross them out.
Excuse me for being so boring, but on impossible cases the only trick that gave me consistent results was to make a written list of everything possible, check them one by one and tick them off unless finding that one really doing something.
Running in circles is bad for your health.
Going on:
5) In all cases you play through the same (unspecified) amplifier. <--SUSPECT
6) In all cases the problem appears when you play heavy, loud, very distorted sounds. <--SUSPECT
I would Scope the speaker out to begin with, and then the amp Line Out to check where the presumably blocking stage lives.
After that, I'd Scope plate by plate to find the culprit.