Bad wiring?

ColinGWood · #1 03-13-2010, 05:42 PM

So i played a bad kegger the other weekend, and when I played with all my stompboxes bypassed, it was fine, but turning any of them on would stop any signal from getting to my amp.

Is this just because of the old bumpkin house I was playing in and it's archaic wiring?

Was no biggie, the room sounded so nice I fell in love with dry tone again.

cheapbasslovin · #2 03-14-2010, 12:18 AM

I'm guessing your effects power supply wasn't plugged in.

ColinGWood · #3 03-16-2010, 01:47 PM

Yea man, cause I'm stupid like that....

of course it was plugged in! to every outlet in the room!

Taylor Livingston · #4 03-16-2010, 02:19 PM

But your amp worked? Pedals don't draw as much current as a big amp, so if the amp worked on the same wiring, the wiring wasn't the issue.

ColinGWood · #5 03-16-2010, 02:22 PM

Yea the amp worked, and the pedals *worked* in the sense that their lights turned on and such, and the signal bypassed them fine and I could play clean.

However, with every pedal I would engage, my signal would be somehow lost.

It was an old house out in the country, and when I got home my signal chain worked and continues to work fine.

googs1971 · #6 03-16-2010, 02:51 PM

There is no such thing as a bad kegger.

Munjibunga · #7 03-16-2010, 03:05 PM

That would never have happened if you were using Tara Labs power cables.

Munjibunga · #8 03-16-2010, 03:06 PM

Seriously, were you running your effects through the effects loop in your amp?

Taylor Livingston · #9 03-16-2010, 03:09 PM

Here's another question that will likely offend you, but is there any chance that when you plugged your bass and amp into the pedalboard, you did it backwards (bass into end of chain, amp into beginning of chain)?

We've established that there was nothing wrong with the power. Your amp worked and the LEDs came on. Pedals don't work backwards when on, but when true bypassed, they're just a wire so they work even plugged in backwards. I know it might hurt, but at this point I'd put a buck on this being what happened.

I do things like this all the time, and I design electronics, so it's not a bash to your tech-savviness.

cheapbasslovin · #10 03-16-2010, 04:56 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ColinGWood

Yea man, cause I'm stupid like that....

of course it was plugged in! to every outlet in the room!

I didn't mean that you were stupid, just that your troubleshooting may not have started with the most likely issue. This was the most likely thing I could think of. Smart people do stupid things all the time, it wasn't meant as an assault.

ColinGWood · #11 03-17-2010, 01:30 PM

Amp worked on any outlet.

Effects worked in the manner described above, on any outlet.

I was not using my effects loop, and was not wired backwards. It was

Bass > my 5 stompboxes > Active input (SWR workingman 4004)

We got there early in the day and so had hours to jam before, and I spent much of those hours staring blankly, switching outlets, cables, taking effects out of the chain, etc... only to be followed by more blank staring.

I'm guessing it might be my power supply or something... my guitarist's pedals all worked fine. I'm sure THAT fact is going to make this mystery unsolvable

ColinGWood · #12 03-17-2010, 01:33 PM

But again, like I say... after playing in our carpeted, panel roofed-basements, I could get this old wooden room just a BOOMIN. It showed me how little I ACTUALLY need my effects. There is nothing better than fat, punchy bass tone

ColinGWood · #13 03-17-2010, 01:35 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by conical johnson

so it's not a bash to your tech-savviness.

Haha... no worries, i HAVE no tech-savviness!

Munjibunga · #14 03-19-2010, 01:16 AM

It's the power supply.

dmusic148 · #15 03-19-2010, 01:44 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Munjibunga

It's the power supply.

lol....Sorry, I have nothing to add. Well....
Seriously, what you've described is actually impossible. For it to be true, every one of your pedals must have malfunctioned at the same time, and later, un-malfunctioned.
Just out of curiosity, do you use an actual 'pedal board?' One that keeps the pedals connected and in a particular order? Can you guess why I would ask?

BassBrass · #16 03-19-2010, 09:34 AM

And the technical term is "faulty wiring". That'll mess things up right there.

pbd · #17 03-19-2010, 09:38 AM

could be that something is dirty in your pedal board. Clean your pedal board cable plugs with a clean cloth and some electronic cleaner or some rubbing alchohal. Also, take each plug and plug it in and out of the jack a couple of times, whipping each time you do it to clean the jack on the pedals. You can also clean all the power supplier cables and jacks for your power supply too.

This is worth doing regularily as preventitive maintenance

Todd