Fro
Experienced
OK, the short story is that my Axe Fx was changing patches on it’s own. Now I’ll try to give you all of the info on the equipment, and the longer story.
I have an Axe Fx II Mk I that’s my main unit, and I have one as a backup. I have an MFC Mk II for my main unit, and an MFC Mk I for the backup. I just picked up a used MFC Mk III from a local store. I put the MFC Mk III into my backup pedal board and semi-retired the Mk I.
We had rehearsal tonight, and I used the backup Axe Fx II and the newly acquired used MFC Mk III that’s on the backup pedal board. The pedal board also has 2 expression pedals on it. I’m connecting to the pedal board via an EtherCON cable. I tested out this setup with the MFC Mk III at home, but this is the first time using it with the band. The intention was to eventually put it in the main board, but I wanted to put it through its paces first.
Almost immediately into practice, my patches started changing on their own. When the patches changed, it seemed like they were going down incrementally. Not all the time, and not quickly. Just occasionally.
My MFC is set up so that the bottom 2 rows (1-10) are patches. Everything else is IA switches. 11 through 15 are Drive 1, Drive 2, Delay 1, Delay 2 and Phase. 16 is Pitch, and 17 is Graphic EQ set as a boost. The expression pedals are plugged into 1 and 2, one attached to Wah and 2 attached to Volume. I’ll attach a picture so it’s easy to follow my explanation.
When I hit the Lead patch (switch 8), halfway through the solo it jumped to switch 2, my Fender patch, and then to switch one, my Vox patch. When I was on my “More” patch (switch 4), it jumped to switch 3, and then 2. When I used my “Phase” patch (switch 6), it moved to my “Wah Lead” patch (Switch 5). When I used my “Special” patch (switch 10) it moved to switch 9. That’s just what I can remember.
I thought at one point when we were quiet, and the bass player played a note, it switched. But then it didn’t happen again.
I hooked it up when I got home, and now I can’t get it to do it. I’m kicking the pedal board, and dropping it and inch. I’m tapping all around the top of the board. I’m jiggling cables, jiggling the EtherCON jacks. I’m tapping around on all of the buttons on the Axe Fx. I’m kicking the Axe Fx case and banging it on the ground. I haven’t played through it yet since I’ve been home. I’ll do that tomorrow when I can crank it up.
We play out so often that we hardly ever rehearse, and it may honestly be months before we do practice again. So I’m only left to keep messing with this at home or at a show. I’m not ruling out anything at this point. Luckily, I have duplicates of everything, so I can replace any piece of the chain one by one to troubleshoot. But I want to get it to do it again before I start the troubleshooting process. What am I missing?
I know that the new MFC is on a newer Firmware. Both of my other MFCs are on some very old Firmware, FWIW. My Axe Fx is on Beta 7. I have been gigging with Beta 7 on the main unit. I did use the backup unit last week at practice, with the old pedal board, and it didn’t do it. My first guess is new pedal board, but I would have expected it to switch patches if I banged it around. Now that I think about it, I’ve been changing patches by hand at home because I’m sitting on the floor with it. I was using my feet at practice. But it was changing patches at practice without my feet being near it. Hmm.
Any thoughts?
I have an Axe Fx II Mk I that’s my main unit, and I have one as a backup. I have an MFC Mk II for my main unit, and an MFC Mk I for the backup. I just picked up a used MFC Mk III from a local store. I put the MFC Mk III into my backup pedal board and semi-retired the Mk I.
We had rehearsal tonight, and I used the backup Axe Fx II and the newly acquired used MFC Mk III that’s on the backup pedal board. The pedal board also has 2 expression pedals on it. I’m connecting to the pedal board via an EtherCON cable. I tested out this setup with the MFC Mk III at home, but this is the first time using it with the band. The intention was to eventually put it in the main board, but I wanted to put it through its paces first.
Almost immediately into practice, my patches started changing on their own. When the patches changed, it seemed like they were going down incrementally. Not all the time, and not quickly. Just occasionally.
My MFC is set up so that the bottom 2 rows (1-10) are patches. Everything else is IA switches. 11 through 15 are Drive 1, Drive 2, Delay 1, Delay 2 and Phase. 16 is Pitch, and 17 is Graphic EQ set as a boost. The expression pedals are plugged into 1 and 2, one attached to Wah and 2 attached to Volume. I’ll attach a picture so it’s easy to follow my explanation.
When I hit the Lead patch (switch 8), halfway through the solo it jumped to switch 2, my Fender patch, and then to switch one, my Vox patch. When I was on my “More” patch (switch 4), it jumped to switch 3, and then 2. When I used my “Phase” patch (switch 6), it moved to my “Wah Lead” patch (Switch 5). When I used my “Special” patch (switch 10) it moved to switch 9. That’s just what I can remember.
I thought at one point when we were quiet, and the bass player played a note, it switched. But then it didn’t happen again.
I hooked it up when I got home, and now I can’t get it to do it. I’m kicking the pedal board, and dropping it and inch. I’m tapping all around the top of the board. I’m jiggling cables, jiggling the EtherCON jacks. I’m tapping around on all of the buttons on the Axe Fx. I’m kicking the Axe Fx case and banging it on the ground. I haven’t played through it yet since I’ve been home. I’ll do that tomorrow when I can crank it up.
We play out so often that we hardly ever rehearse, and it may honestly be months before we do practice again. So I’m only left to keep messing with this at home or at a show. I’m not ruling out anything at this point. Luckily, I have duplicates of everything, so I can replace any piece of the chain one by one to troubleshoot. But I want to get it to do it again before I start the troubleshooting process. What am I missing?
I know that the new MFC is on a newer Firmware. Both of my other MFCs are on some very old Firmware, FWIW. My Axe Fx is on Beta 7. I have been gigging with Beta 7 on the main unit. I did use the backup unit last week at practice, with the old pedal board, and it didn’t do it. My first guess is new pedal board, but I would have expected it to switch patches if I banged it around. Now that I think about it, I’ve been changing patches by hand at home because I’m sitting on the floor with it. I was using my feet at practice. But it was changing patches at practice without my feet being near it. Hmm.
Any thoughts?
