Distortion coming from my electronics??

Nagan60 · #1 07-11-2007, 01:49 AM

Hey guys,

I'm practicing with my Fender Jazz and I noticed that whenever I turn my eq up on my bass it starts to distort quite a bit. I noticed it slightly the other day when I was playing, but really noticed today when I had my bass hooked up to my Tascam practice unit. I just got the bass back from having a setup done on it. Is it time to change the battery, or is the pickup height too high and causing the distortion?? I should be able to add a lil bass or treble without the thing distorting like it is.......

luknfur · #2 07-11-2007, 03:00 PM

FWIW:

any bass with a battery that should be the first check -although I doubt that's what's going on here or it would likely be distorting at any settings. May even possibly be due to a new battery they may have stuck in it or just the opposite, 9v instead of 18v so lack of headroom. Never messed with it but I recall a deluxe pre that I've run outbaord has done the same thing running it into some gear. Don't remember what cause I rarely use it. Why the change from the way it was who know's. If they raised the pups doing the setup, that could do it.

Sounds like the signal is simply too hot resulting from the boosting. Like someone forcing food in your mouth faster than you can eat it. Nothing uncommon about it for units that don't have an active input pad. That's where the gain trim tabs typical on Bart pre's could come in handy.

Nagan60 · #3 07-11-2007, 09:12 PM

Ok cool......I know it is something going on. Heck I'm thinking about poppin in a Audere pre anyway. Thanks Luknfur you are the pickup/preamp guru.....anyway I'll figure out what's going on soon or later.....need to do it before Saturday though.

Jumpno · #4 07-11-2007, 09:16 PM

yea check the battery, but are you sure its not your amp? my old amp distortes like hell.

Nagan60 · #5 07-11-2007, 09:19 PM

It's not the amp, I was running it through my Tascam practice thingy....lol. (LOL@thingy) It actually could be the Tascam though......I'll double check it when I play through my rig tommorow to make sure its not the bass. I will be changing my batteries out though regardless.

luknfur · #6 07-11-2007, 11:47 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Nagan60

Ok cool......I know it is something going on. Heck I'm thinking about poppin in a Audere pre anyway. Thanks Luknfur you are the pickup/preamp guru.....anyway I'll figure out what's going on soon or later.....need to do it before Saturday though.

Guru, more like NoClueDude. I have no idea what the internal meanderings of these circuits do but I've plugged/unplugged enough to where I have an idea what happens when you do "whatever" - cause I've probably done it more than once in different ways. So I have some idea of what may be causing "whatever" so how to resolve "whatever."

I'm glad there's guys like DavidRavenMoon and A9X to fill in the blanks - surprised one hasn't jumped in here.