Axe-FX is noisy going through Mesa F-50 effects loop

Lkdog

Lkdog

Power User
Have a used Ultra Axe-Fx I picked up a few weeks ago.
Very very impressed.

Am going through a Mackie mixer and studio monitors with good results at moderate volumes and for recording direct to PC.

Tried using with my Mesa F-50 combo a little bit last night which has a parallel effects loop which bypasses the Mesa preamp.
Couple things I noticed and maybe some people have some tips.

With the effects loop Mix set to max (90%) the signal has quite a lot of hum and noise before any gain is applied from the AXe-Fx signal (not any tube hiss or common minor ground hum).

I have an Unbal cable going from the AXE-Fx Output 2 left channel to the Return on the Mesa F-50.
Have a dummy cable in the Send.

Also the gain coming out of the AXE-FX from the Output 2 seems really high. Cannot give it much juice at all on the Output 2 level control or it gets really loud really fast.

To reduce the noise in the effects loop I then turned down the MIX control level to about 1/4 or 1/3 (maybe 25-35%).
This allowed me a little more range on the AXE-FX output level control.
I am wondering of this is then defeating getting the full quality of the actual processed signal to the Mesa amp.
Tried a few presets looking for a happy medium of effects loop MIX level/ and noise/ and AXE-FX preamp gain.

Obviously need to spend more time, but maybe folks here have some ideas about the best way to proceed here.

Thanks for any thoughts-especially with anyone who has tried this with a similar Mesa combo amp or head.
 
I think your problem might be that you have a dummy cable in the send jack. Try it just with the axe running straight into the fx return and nothing in the send jack.
 
chapelizod said:
I think your problem might be that you have a dummy cable in the send jack. Try it just with the axe running straight into the fx return and nothing in the send jack.
Click to expand...


Ahhhh, much better. :mrgreen: I had been instructed before to stick another cable into the SEND input when bypassing the MESA preamp. Worked that way fine with my POD XT.


I can now put the MIX level on the Mesa up to around 75-80% before I get any noise/hum at all.

Next issue is all of the presets seem to be too dark when I leave the cabinets on.
Turning off the Cabinet on the GLOBAL setting on the AXE-FX seems to get them back to the way I was used to hearing them
through the monitors. Will tweak some more and play with the Global EQ on Output 2 a bit.

Thanks for your help. I guess in this case the dummy cable was acting like a fricking antenna for RFI/EMI! :D
 
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