Weird mysterious ghost in the machine?

[umdenken]

I just had a strange experience with a sound problem, and once I found out what was going on, it surprised me. I wondered if others had surprising stories like this:

Last night, getting ready to practice with my 'small' (9-piece) jazz band, I connected my bass into my PA as usual, and every time I hit a note, I got a loud high-pitched crackle from the PA horns. I was convinced I must have blown my PA cabs, somehow. The sound was unmistakeable.

But then, the vocalist and recorded material sounded fine, still. (Whew!) I switched to my fretless for the night, and it sounded fine, although, it leant everything a fusion-elevator-music sound, IMO :-) So where was the problem?

Afterwards, I took the time, and traced it to... a new instrument cable with one 90-degree adapter I had just bought. It turns out that that particular plug didn't completely lock in 100% tight into the Fishman Full Circle socket. And, that little bit of vibration (inaudible unamplified) was killing the PA.

Testing out all my cables, I found that the Fishman socket is fairly picky. And, when a cable doesn't lock in tight, it's always a 90-degree plug...

[Eric Rene Roy]

what kind of cable was it? I know if someone has a problem with the RCAto1/4 adaptor on the RS it is either a Planet Waves or a Monster that was the culprit. Seems the Planet Waves is just a wee bit short, and the Monster is a wee bit thin.

Whacha got?

[Brennan]

You must have borrowed my ghost that night. He's usually busy making an amp go out on a gig only to be fine the next day, shorting cables then fixing them, or making pickups crackle for no reason. He doen't do backing tracks though.