distortion in my low ends

[flowinowen]

I just put on my new String Charger and I have to say after one rehearsal I'm in love with it (I know some of you don't agree). The only concern that I have right now is that I distorted my signal when I dug in on the E string. I call it distorted because my Little Mark 250 head didn't give the clipping light. I didn't have much time to mess with EQs and didn't run a compressor either. I wanted to know if anyone had any suggestions before I spend hours messing with my set up or calling Pierre back.

thanks

[Marton]

Cut the lows a little.

[drurb]

Based on this bit of information, it's likely that you're 1) clipping your driver (the speaker), 2) overloading the front end (pre-amp) of your amp, or 3) clipping the power amp section. The manual for the Little Mark 250 doesn't say whether the "clip" light applies to the front end or to the power amp section. If it's like other amps, then it reads the peak voltage at the input at the front end. If that's the case and the LED is not illuminating, then the problem likely lies elsewhere.

Note that, if it's an overload situation at the front end, then adjusting the tone controls ("eq") will not help. If adjusting the controls does help, then the problem lies further down the chain from the controls. That would leave the power amp or the driver and, in both cases, adjusting the tone controls will help. It should be relatively easy to tell if it's the driver as they make characteristic "complaining" noises.

So, the cure may end up being exactly what Marton said, which is to "cut the lows a little."

I doubt that the problem lies with the pickup itself. If the pickup were the source of the problem, then, once again, adjusting the tone controls would not eliminate the distortion.

[fdeck]

Is it possible, on the String Charger, that the pickup is too close to your strings? When I was experimenting with magnetic pickups, I found that the distance from the strings was an important variable. Too much signal could be distorting the pickup itself, the transformer, or the front end of your amp.