Clipping from Clone Theory pedal???

lunarpollen · #1 09-17-2007, 02:54 PM

Has anyone else experienced this issue? I bought the EHX Clone Theory pedal brand new several months ago, never had any problems with it. But in recent days, I've been noticing a fuzzy clipping occurring.

At first I assumed it was my fairly-new Markbass LMII head, because the fuzz was similar to the amp clipping sound. But no, the amp was fine, the clipping light wasn't coming on, and it would occur no matter how low I had the input level set. It only happens when the pedal is on.

Could it be something in my new (to me) Bergantino HT210s cabinet, maybe? The tweeter distorting? I would think the cab could easily handle more than what it's getting from the LMII (300W @ 8-ohms).

I'm thinking that something has gone wrong with the pedal itself. Might my bass be putting out too much signal for it to handle? It's never happened before recently. The pickups are passive, they are imitation Burns Bass Trisonics. I have Thomastik Jazz Flats on the bass. It's intermittant, but sometimes more frequent than other times. There's no battery in the pedal, I'm running off a Godlyke daisy chain. Any ideas?

JanusZarate · #2 09-17-2007, 03:02 PM

Hmm... this is the first I've heard of that problem. Maybe a bad patch cable?

Try running it alone with your two best instrument cables.

Now, it can distort with a high-enough preamp output, but IME, that's only an issue in the effects loop (if you decide to use it there), and it's not really intermittent. I doubt it's from the bass.

Check your cables to make sure they're okay!

assboglin · #3 09-17-2007, 03:22 PM

I doubt your bass would have enough output to clip the pedal.

I do have a problem with horns in my cabs though. After I've been using a cab for awhile, the horn on it will blow up somehow so that, when my signal is clean, the sound is fine, but if I throw on any gain pedal (distortion, overdrive, fuzz) the horn clips with this really ugly sound. Problem of course goes away when I turn the horn off. Now maybe you've got a bad horn like I've had so many of, but I still don't know if the chorus could cause what my overdrives do... see if you can try a different cab and if that makes the problem disappear.

lunarpollen · #4 09-17-2007, 04:09 PM

MysticBoo, I thought it might be bad patch cables (I've been using flimsy little ones that came with a Danelectro mini-pedal case) so I went out and bought a handful of decent quality cables yesterday. I still had the same problem.

assboglin, I wish I had another decent cabinet to try it out with, it's a high-frequency fuzz type distortion so I doubt I'd be able to hear it much if at all through the old crappy cabinets (a pair of 18's and a cheap SteelSound 2x10) I have.

Now I'm wondering if the pedal might be boosting/adding certain high frequencies and causing the (defective? damaged?) tweeter to distort... I'll play around with things more when I get home from work later....

Lebowsky · #5 09-17-2007, 04:16 PM

maybe try it on an another amp, even a guitar amp should do it

lunarpollen · #6 09-17-2007, 05:21 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Lebowsky

maybe try it on an another amp, even a guitar amp should do it

I think I will try that when I get home... I'll try to duplicate it through a clean setting on my 50-watt Vox valvetronix combo.... if I can't get it to happen there, I bet it's the tweeter in the Bergantino cabinet... bleh...