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Avatar 3 way 15/6/tweet part 2

#281
Greetings. Been jammin' at home with my new TB153 for a couple months. Sounds like a million bucks. Gigged out Sat. night (1st time) and had issues. I played a Yamaha active bass thru a GB Shuttle 6.0. I used a Nady remote system. The cab was elevated about 30" off floor. The lows sounded fine but it sounded like the tweeter or mid driver was blown (very fuzzy). I turned tweeter off - same fuzzy sound. Changed the battery in the guitar because just before dying these produce extreme fuzz. Still no change. Dialed down highs on GB and on guitar (which sucked some volume but still very fuzzy). Before the last song of the gig, I played directly into the GB (by-passed the remote system). This helped alot but there was still some fuzz.

Sunday AM I played direct thru GB again at home (didn't touch any knobs on GB from night before). Sounded like a million bucks again!!! Then it occurred to me: At gig I was using a chorus (as well as the remote). At home I was not using the chorus or remote. Anyone have a similiar experience or care to speculate on what the issue is? Which is more likely, the remote, the chorus, or elevated cab? If it matters, I doubt it matters but just in case, I have the 8ohm version. Thanks in advance for any input.
 
#282
sometimes crappy AC power in clubs can cause all kinds of unexpected amp nightmares. or, something's up with the mid driver that you can only hear when it's up in your ear. but to troubleshoot, always go direct and bypass all stompboxes.

my money's on bad power.
 
#285
Thanks bdplaid and Thundar for replying. Short of buying a $700.00 power conditioner, is there anything you can do about "bad electricity"/ I assume you mean low voltage? Also, I've played that particular room once a month for the last 18 months (using the same GB head but a Carvin cab) and never had a problem. Don't think it's a bad battery because as I said, same battery sounded great Sunday Morning (neighbors who woke up to bass lines from Led Zepplin and Iron Butterfly might disagree!!) Having cab at ear level could be a contributing factor when I was on stage, but not as I moved about the room doing my white boy break dancin'. Any other opinions?
 
#286
Bad electricity could be low voltage, noisy voltage, out of phase, ungrounded... you might go to home depot and get one of those little plug-in things that will at least check for the correctness of the line. it won't tell you voltage (there are other things for that, including using a multimeter), but at least you'll have an idea what you're dealing with.

But if not that, it could be anything you place in the line, including the cable. if the voltage is OK, i'd be suspicious of the wireless, first thing. I hate those damned things... always munge up the sound of the bass. Take everything out of the line and play. reduce it all to the least that's in the signal path. If you've got fuzz-tone when using the bass, the amp and a cable, it's one of those. And it could also be the cable. change each one out to isolate. Isolating things is trial and error, but it's an easy process of elimination. but you have to start with the simplest setup that recreates the problem.

more later.. i think.
 
#287
arcieangelo said:
Thanks bdplaid and Thundar for replying. Short of buying a $700.00 power conditioner, is there anything you can do about "bad electricity"/ I assume you mean low voltage? Also, I've played that particular room once a month for the last 18 months (using the same GB head but a Carvin cab) and never had a problem. Don't think it's a bad battery because as I said, same battery sounded great Sunday Morning (neighbors who woke up to bass lines from Led Zepplin and Iron Butterfly might disagree!!) Having cab at ear level could be a contributing factor when I was on stage, but not as I moved about the room doing my white boy break dancin'. Any other opinions?
Click to expand...

I use these for my computers; work fine:

Invalid Link Removed


Regards,

Mike
 
#289
bdplaid said:
Bad electricity could be low voltage, noisy voltage, out of phase, ungrounded... you might go to home depot and get one of those little plug-in things that will at least check for the correctness of the line. it won't tell you voltage (there are other things for that, including using a multimeter), but at least you'll have an idea what you're dealing with.

But if not that, it could be anything you place in the line, including the cable. if the voltage is OK, i'd be suspicious of the wireless, first thing. I hate those damned things... always munge up the sound of the bass. Take everything out of the line and play. reduce it all to the least that's in the signal path. If you've got fuzz-tone when using the bass, the amp and a cable, it's one of those. And it could also be the cable. change each one out to isolate. Isolating things is trial and error, but it's an easy process of elimination. but you have to start with the simplest setup that recreates the problem.

more later.. i think.
Click to expand...

bdplaid (and Thundar), you are a couple of intuitive fellows. I did as dplaid suggested (replaced everything in the line one at a time) at home, but couldn't reproduce the fuzzy sound that drove me crazy the previous week. Took the TB153 out for 2nd gig last night (also brought back-up cab just in case). The TB 153 sounded great. No issues at all using all the same "components" in line as previous week (same remote, same chorus pedal, same chords).
The kicker was when the lead player informed me as we were setting up that the previous week an "electrician wannabe" as he put it, changed some things in the breaker box as we were setting up. He also added that he and the other guitaist both had to turn their amps WAY down from their usual settings for that venue. PA was also turned way down.
I had failed to mention earlier that the band's previous bassist sat in for a few songs using his own bass. The buzzing was far less prominent when he played. However, he didn't use the remote (which actually increases volume a little). Also, his bass his passive, mine is active. I was sending a stronger signal. I suspect those two issues as well as the "bad electricity" boosted the signal to the point of overdriving the amp. Make any sense? What do you think??? At any rate, the electricity had to be the main contributer. Thanks for your input. You guys here at TB are quite sharp. Also thanks to the others for the links and suggestions for power conditioners.
 
#290
Well I finally bit the bullet and pulled the trigger on one of these . I ordered an 8 ohm in Linex with a cover . It should get here sometime next week , they are waiting on more crossovers . I've wanted to build an fEarful 15/6/1 but couldn't ever seem to come up with the funds . I figure this will get me close enough to satisfy my low end jones . I'll be powering it with an RBI preamp into a Crown Drivecore 1000 bridged . It should rattle the windows some .
 
#292
arcieangelo said:
The kicker was when the lead player informed me as we were setting up that the previous week an "electrician wannabe" as he put it, changed some things in the breaker box as we were setting up.
Click to expand...

Club Boners are famous for this nonsense. Thing is, it can get you killed. I played a place at the beginning of my career that was giving me a shock of full 110 voltage between the mic and bass - when my lip touched the mic and my hands touched the strings, whammo! I put a wind sock on the mic and stayed away from it all night, but then as I was moving around the headstock/one of the tuners touched the mic. BAM! a huge spark (welding arc, actually), and knocked out the power to the whole club. I walked away OK, but my pre-CBS Jazz had a welding scar on the D Tuner.

Seriously, this could have killed me.

so eff those cheap-ass club owners. I really hate them.
 
#293
arcieangelo said:
bdplaid (and Thundar), you are a couple of intuitive fellows. I did as dplaid suggested (replaced everything in the line one at a time) at home, but couldn't reproduce the fuzzy sound that drove me crazy the previous week. Took the TB153 out for 2nd gig last night (also brought back-up cab just in case). The TB 153 sounded great. No issues at all using all the same "components" in line as previous week (same remote, same chorus pedal, same chords).
The kicker was when the lead player informed me as we were setting up that the previous week an "electrician wannabe" as he put it, changed some things in the breaker box as we were setting up. He also added that he and the other guitaist both had to turn their amps WAY down from their usual settings for that venue. PA was also turned way down.
I had failed to mention earlier that the band's previous bassist sat in for a few songs using his own bass. The buzzing was far less prominent when he played. However, he didn't use the remote (which actually increases volume a little). Also, his bass his passive, mine is active. I was sending a stronger signal. I suspect those two issues as well as the "bad electricity" boosted the signal to the point of overdriving the amp. Make any sense? What do you think??? At any rate, the electricity had to be the main contributer. Thanks for your input. You guys here at TB are quite sharp. Also thanks to the others for the links and suggestions for power conditioners.
Click to expand...

Now that I have vented, my take is that the input to the amp had little to do with it. The AC power was overdriving the amp causing the distortion. any more detailed explanation would have to come from one of the more electronics-inclined among us (like the power section was overdriven as opposed to the preamp section, etc.) I do know that guys like Eddie Van Halen have used that trick for a long time to get overdriven sounds - VH used a thing called a Variac to drive something like 160V to his Marshall to get his signature sounds. Thing is, it burns up amps. so you guys might have been lucky that nothing fried. you should tell that clubboner what happened before he gets sued - or at least before you go back and have to deal with it again.
 
#294
bdplaid said:
Club Boners are famous for this nonsense. Thing is, it can get you killed. I played a place at the beginning of my career that was giving me a shock of full 110 voltage between the mic and bass - when my lip touched the mic and my hands touched the strings, whammo! I put a wind sock on the mic and stayed away from it all night, but then as I was moving around the headstock/one of the tuners touched the mic. BAM! a huge spark (welding arc, actually), and knocked out the power to the whole club. I walked away OK, but my pre-CBS Jazz had a welding scar on the D Tuner.

Seriously, this could have killed me.

so eff those cheap-ass club owners. I really hate them.
Click to expand...

This why I now go wireless into non grounded EMGs and mic my amp. Been zapped way too many times over the years!
 
#297
arcieangelo said:
Greetings. Been jammin' at home with my new TB153 for a couple months. Sounds like a million bucks. Gigged out Sat. night (1st time) and had issues. I played a Yamaha active bass thru a GB Shuttle 6.0. I used a Nady remote system. The cab was elevated about 30" off floor. The lows sounded fine but it sounded like the tweeter or mid driver was blown (very fuzzy). I turned tweeter off - same fuzzy sound. Changed the battery in the guitar because just before dying these produce extreme fuzz. Still no change. Dialed down highs on GB and on guitar (which sucked some volume but still very fuzzy). Before the last song of the gig, I played directly into the GB (by-passed the remote system). This helped alot but there was still some fuzz.

Sunday AM I played direct thru GB again at home (didn't touch any knobs on GB from night before). Sounded like a million bucks again!!! Then it occurred to me: At gig I was using a chorus (as well as the remote). At home I was not using the chorus or remote. Anyone have a similiar experience or care to speculate on what the issue is? Which is more likely, the remote, the chorus, or elevated cab? If it matters, I doubt it matters but just in case, I have the 8ohm version. Thanks in advance for any input.
Click to expand...

Were you playing close to a neon beer sign with a transformer running the lights in the beer sign? They have been known to feed noise into a signal. I have a little Fender neon sign at our jam place and you cannot run it without it feeding noise into everything. Have an old Ampeg sign with transformer and it does not affect anything.
Just something to check.
 

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