Tone Robbed

BlueShox · #1 10-17-2007, 06:25 AM

Need a little bit of TB help.

Anyways, I had a band practice on Sunday afternoon, my set-up was sounding great. Everything sounded perfect, amp, pedal, bass, it gave me this nice, crunchy tone.

I use a Fender P-Special (active), an Ibanez Soundwave 115 combo, a Zoom 506 II and Ibanez Phat Head distortions.

I keep the Ibanez on clean distortion, but on attack one, because that gives me the perfect tone I'm looking for.

Anyways, back to story. Practice over, I come home, start unloading all my stuff. As I'm taking my amp up the stairs, I trip and have to set it down rather heavily. I didn't exactly drop it very high, maybe from about two inches off the ground. Don't have time to plug it in and make sure it's fine, I had to get off to church.

Wake up Monday morning, plug it in, turn on my pedals and much to my dismay, my tone now sounds like a static-like fart, especially on my low C string, which had such good tone the day before. When I turn my pedals off, my amp sounds fine, but when I turn distortion back on, the wet fart is there, and no matter what I do, I can't get back to the tone I had the day before.

I've messed around with the EQ, tried different basses, different cables, different orders in the pedals, and nothing changes it. Is this my amp or my pedal that is causing this screw up?

This isn't the first time either of them have screwed up. About a month and a half ago, I took my amp to the shop because it was having buzzing noises, and the tech guy said screws around the speaker came loose, and that he just re tightened them. This isn't the same type of buzzing it was having a month ago, and plus it's only present when distortion is on.

A few weeks ago, my pedal burned out, and I had to take it to the shop. They spent two weeks scratching their head about it, and eventually replaced something in the electronics that fixed the problem.

I keep pictures of my amp and pedal EQ settings in my camera phone, so I set all those to what they normally are; no help. I've heard some people say to change out all the batteries, so I'm going to try that before work today. Anybody have any extra suggestions?

Any help appreciated. I think I gave enough information, but if I didn't, ask and I'll tell.

assboglin · #2 10-17-2007, 11:16 AM

Does your combo have a horn? I have the same problem with all speaker cabs with horns after awhile. Either they come loose or I blow them up somehow. I just don't use horns any more.

BlueShox · #3 10-17-2007, 12:02 PM

It does have a horn, but I always leave it off.

marshmallow83 · #4 10-17-2007, 12:20 PM

didnt you just post this over on the UG forums?

assboglin · #5 10-17-2007, 12:22 PM

Ok. If it were the horn the unwanted noise would be in the higher frequencies. Would you say the unwanted noise is more in the lower, bassier frequencies? Then it could be your 15" frapping out, and maybe it needs it's screws tightened again.

Also, if you could plug into another amp, even a guitar amp will do, just to see if the pedals cause the unwanted noise on a different amp, that would help separate whether this is a pedal or amp problem. But right now I'm betting on amp.

BlueShox · #6 10-17-2007, 03:19 PM

Plugged everything into a new amp, and it seems to be the peddle causing the noise.

I'm probably just going to return it, this pedal is obviously a lemon. Save up and buy something higher quality, like a Diesel Dawg. I love the Ibanez pedal when it works.

And to marshmallow, yeah I did post it on UG, but after I did I figured I would probably get more help around here.

niftydog · #7 10-17-2007, 04:55 PM

Wow, there's so many variables there that it's hard to work out what might be causing it. Often with difficult electronic faults, secondary faults can raise their ugly head shortly after the unit is repaired. Or, it could be that the techo replaced a faulty component, but didn't get at the root cause of the problem.

Does you amp have any tubes in it?

Zappstorius · #8 10-17-2007, 11:46 PM

If you really like the tone you're getting with the Phat Head, why not just buy another one? I mean their only like $40 new now?

BlueShox · #9 10-18-2007, 08:41 AM

Well, I originally bought it as a cheap alternative to imitate a Diesel Dawg. The Phat Head has a nice tone that I like, but I know that if I saved up and got the Diesel Dawg, it will be exactly the tone I want and probably won't break after a few days of using it.

Vic Winters · #10 10-18-2007, 12:30 PM

Change batteries in the pedals?