Fuzzy low strings through FRFR on clean or bypass

Milchek

Member
Hey guys, so I recently picked up a Laney LFR-212 and have been testing it out. I noticed on clean presets that my lower strings (A E and low B) there is strange kind of fuzz, the guitar doesn't sound as clean coming out of the LFR. Through headphones straight out of the axe fx I don't hear it and the guitar sounds crystal clear on all strings, but for some reason, the lower strings have this hum/fuzz when going out through the LFR.

It surprised me, because this is supposed to be a FRFR so I was expecting the same crystal clear cleans I hear through my headphones.

Obviously, distorted presets sound great and all, but I'm not sure if it's a dodgy cable (the XLR mic cable i'm using between the axe fx and the LFR is brand new) or if there is something wrong with the cab itself.

Anyone else encounter this kind of issue before?

EDIT: Output 1 is set to -10, guessing +4 is OK for this speaker as well?
 
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Hey guys, so I recently picked up a Laney LFR-212 and have been testing it out. I noticed on clean presets that my lower strings (A E and low B) there is strange kind of fuzz, the guitar doesn't sound as clean coming out of the LFR. Through headphones straight out of the axe fx I don't hear it and the guitar sounds crystal clear on all strings, but for some reason, the lower strings have this hum/fuzz when going out through the LFR.

It surprised me, because this is supposed to be a FRFR so I was expecting the same crystal clear cleans I hear through my headphones.

Obviously, distorted presets sound great and all, but I'm not sure if it's a dodgy cable (the XLR mic cable i'm using between the axe fx and the LFR is brand new) or if there is something wrong with the cab itself.

Anyone else encounter this kind of issue before?

EDIT: Output 1 is set to -10, guessing +4 is OK for this speaker as well?

I bought the dynacord ax12 frfr when I bought my axefx3. it never sounded good to me and began to wonder if I had done the right thing. There were various settings on the dynacord and I tried changing it various settings to no avail. In the end, as a last resort, I reset it to factory settings, which I guess meant there were no settings in play at all and...wow ... there it was. This may not apply to you but if you do have settings to play with try bypassing or factory reset. It may just help. Good luck
 
My guess would be that either you're overwhelming the bass frequencies or you have a gain-staging issue, maybe both.

The fact that you don't hear it in headphones might be because the headphones don't have the bass response to make it obvious.

Try using the Low Cut in the cab block. Raise it to around 100Hz to start with and see if that helps.

Also, try lowering the Output 1 knob on the front and then changing Output 1 to +4.
 
try connecting your phone/ipod/mp3/ipad directly to the laney through the aux in. if that sounds ok, then connect to the axe (with a preset that is just in>out) and play some music. like all troubleshooting, you've got to try and eliminate variables. then try some factory presets. set the axe to +4, but also try -10 just in case. make sure the switch on the back is set to FRFR. set the axe and the laney to half volume.
 
try connecting your phone/ipod/mp3/ipad directly to the laney through the aux in. if that sounds ok, then connect to the axe (with a preset that is just in>out) and play some music. like all troubleshooting, you've got to try and eliminate variables. then try some factory presets. set the axe to +4, but also try -10 just in case. make sure the switch on the back is set to FRFR. set the axe and the laney to half volume.

I did just the AUX in straight to the cab, sounded fine, didn't try the AXE approach. Also switched between -10 and +4, left at -10 for now (I'm still not sure if the Laney is OK for +4 yet - can't find much info on that).

My guess would be that either you're overwhelming the bass frequencies or you have a gain-staging issue, maybe both.

The fact that you don't hear it in headphones might be because the headphones don't have the bass response to make it obvious.

Try using the Low Cut in the cab block. Raise it to around 100Hz to start with and see if that helps.

Also, try lowering the Output 1 knob on the front and then changing Output 1 to +4.

Yes, so basically, Input Gain was too high, lowering this from 1.6 to 0.6 helped a lot and then also using low cut in the cab block also worked. In the end I opted for using the global EQ to cut some lows out + lowering the Input Gain on this particular guitar. The fact that it was only on the lower string was the giveaway that I had just not set it up correctly.

So, if anyone reading this encounters the same problem where clean channels have some fuzz on low strings, try lowering the input gain in the Settings -> IO page and also try using a global EQ in settings or a low cut in the cab as others have suggested.

Thanks for the help, everyone. I'm new to FRFR, my previous setup was AXE FX -> Matrix -> 4x12, which didn't really need any other configuration on the IO side. Anyway, all sounding awesome now!
 
Update

Although the low cuts worked and also lowering the input gain worked. The issue here presented itself again when I tried to plugin AUX cable and listen to music through the speaker. The muddy/fuzz low end was definitely there.

You can see and hear it here https://www.dropbox.com/s/2st5ha3e9cn3za0/laney-lfr-212-aux-test.MOV?dl=0

Is it a dodgy speaker?

I've contact the store to take it back so they can see and will also contact Laney as I'm not sure what the fault is here but I know that a simple AUX in of a pure acoustic guitar should not product those low end farts like that.
 
An update on this, for anyone else looking to buy the Laney LFR 212: it turned out to be a dodgy speaker. I contacted Laney with some video clips and they said it was not right and to take it back. I took it into the store and they did a quick AB test and replaced it with a new one.

MUCH better now. No low end fart and no need to cut lows or mess with any of the settings, it pretty much just works out of the box as it should and sounds great.
 
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An update on this, for anyone else looking to buy the Laney LFR 212: it turned out to be a dodgy speaker. I contacted Laney with some video clips and they said it was not right and to take it back. I took it into the store and they did a quick AB test and replaced it with a new one.

MUCH better now. Now low end fart and no need to cut lows or mess with any of the settings, it pretty much just works out of the box as it should and sounds great.
Voice coil was probably rubbing. Happens a lot.
 
Didn't matter much in the end, had to send the second unit back also since one day the volume just completely disappeared.

I turned everything up on the AXE FX and on the back of the LFR212 to get some volume and could hear it again. Then it would just randomly return back to the previous loudness but since I turned everything up it boomed.

Laney advised that it could be oxidisation on the emulation switch on this one and to try a couple of things there (in case anyone else faces a similar issue)

In the end, I took it back and got a refund. In fairness, for the price point It really sounded great - when it worked, but 2 units with issues in a row is either extremely bad luck or a sign of production problems, and I guess that might have something to do with the pricing on it.
 
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