Hi! My name is Alejandro. I have a problem that's really puzzling me! I don't know were to turn, so... hopefully someone here will know more than I do. It may be easy to solve, but... Anyway, thanks in advance to everyone reading!
The story goes like this: a very talented singer and I were planning to go busking on the subway trains of Ciudad de Buenos Aires, Argentina, just bass and vocals. When I say ON the trains, I mean literally ON the trains, while they go from stop to stop. Don't know if it is anywere else, but it's pretty common here. And it's something I always wanted to do.
Once we got our repertoire ready, we went to test how it will work. At first, everything went great. We had enough volume (I was really worried about that), things sounded nice. Then, suddenly, an extremely loud high-pitched sound came from my amp and stayed there for a while. And it went away. And it came back. And so on.
It came and went unpredictably, and was so loud that it made playing impossible. I've noticed that it mostly appeared when approaching a station (although it appeared randomly as well during the trip from one stop to the next). We then get off at a station, and discovered that the noise was on all the time when staying there (although it fluctuated a little when the trains passed by the station).
Since then I've tried two different amps (both of them battery operated), 5 different cables, connected thru the fx unit (I'm using a Zoom b1xOn) or straight to the amp, changed the 9v battery of the bass, went to different subway "lines" (don't know if that's the right word). Nothing worked. Still haven't tried with a different bass, but I don't have a spare at the time. And due to what we are playing, I need a 6-strings (and I have to play some of the tunes with a capo over fret 13...) which are really uncommon here so I cannot borrow one from a friend. Not that bass players have friends, heheh.
The noise does go away when I turn down the volume pot. It obviously goes up when I boost highs, be it form the amp or from the bass. And nothing comes out when the bass isn't plugged. So my pickups are picking something. What, I don't know. A very big transformer? The always-on fluorescent lightning? I really don't know. But I think I'm the only one with this very problem. There are lots of musicians playing there (few to none bass players, though) and no-one I met has stumbled upon something similar. For my part, I've never heard something like this in my life. Maybe i'ts a shielding problem? Seems unlikely. Maybe the pickups? But it never happened before. And it does not happen outside of the Subway system.
We recorded the sound and, testing it in my computer, I can see that it goes from around 4.5kHz to a bit over 11kHz, and that there are two really big peaks at around 7.77kHz and 8.76kHz. Really big as in 35db over zero. I'm posting the soundfiles in hopes anyone can identifiy what's happening, but please turn your volume down before listening. It's the kind of thing that could damage ears permanently.
So... hopefully someone can clue me on what's really going on. I don't know what to do. The bass I'm using is a Schecter Stiletto Custom 6 with stock pickups and preamp.
As a last thing: I'm not well versed in the english language so... apologies on advance if what I've wrote is confusing! And thanks again for taking the time to read my woes. Have a great day!
The story goes like this: a very talented singer and I were planning to go busking on the subway trains of Ciudad de Buenos Aires, Argentina, just bass and vocals. When I say ON the trains, I mean literally ON the trains, while they go from stop to stop. Don't know if it is anywere else, but it's pretty common here. And it's something I always wanted to do.
Once we got our repertoire ready, we went to test how it will work. At first, everything went great. We had enough volume (I was really worried about that), things sounded nice. Then, suddenly, an extremely loud high-pitched sound came from my amp and stayed there for a while. And it went away. And it came back. And so on.
It came and went unpredictably, and was so loud that it made playing impossible. I've noticed that it mostly appeared when approaching a station (although it appeared randomly as well during the trip from one stop to the next). We then get off at a station, and discovered that the noise was on all the time when staying there (although it fluctuated a little when the trains passed by the station).
Since then I've tried two different amps (both of them battery operated), 5 different cables, connected thru the fx unit (I'm using a Zoom b1xOn) or straight to the amp, changed the 9v battery of the bass, went to different subway "lines" (don't know if that's the right word). Nothing worked. Still haven't tried with a different bass, but I don't have a spare at the time. And due to what we are playing, I need a 6-strings (and I have to play some of the tunes with a capo over fret 13...) which are really uncommon here so I cannot borrow one from a friend. Not that bass players have friends, heheh.
The noise does go away when I turn down the volume pot. It obviously goes up when I boost highs, be it form the amp or from the bass. And nothing comes out when the bass isn't plugged. So my pickups are picking something. What, I don't know. A very big transformer? The always-on fluorescent lightning? I really don't know. But I think I'm the only one with this very problem. There are lots of musicians playing there (few to none bass players, though) and no-one I met has stumbled upon something similar. For my part, I've never heard something like this in my life. Maybe i'ts a shielding problem? Seems unlikely. Maybe the pickups? But it never happened before. And it does not happen outside of the Subway system.
We recorded the sound and, testing it in my computer, I can see that it goes from around 4.5kHz to a bit over 11kHz, and that there are two really big peaks at around 7.77kHz and 8.76kHz. Really big as in 35db over zero. I'm posting the soundfiles in hopes anyone can identifiy what's happening, but please turn your volume down before listening. It's the kind of thing that could damage ears permanently.
So... hopefully someone can clue me on what's really going on. I don't know what to do. The bass I'm using is a Schecter Stiletto Custom 6 with stock pickups and preamp.
As a last thing: I'm not well versed in the english language so... apologies on advance if what I've wrote is confusing! And thanks again for taking the time to read my woes. Have a great day!
