Crackling Sound When Playing

Solitudezoso

Solitudezoso

Member
I own the axe fx 2 XL. I run into this problem from time to time. The problem is a crackling sound that I believe is not caused by anything in the presets themselves. When this problem occurs it affects ALL presets. It sounds like a crackling, hissing, loss of tone sort of thing while playing.

I also don't believe it's an update issue either. Sometimes it seems like the problem resolves itself possibly after reseting the axe several times but still can't tell. There's no clipping or CPU over load problems. Anyone else experience this?

It's a real stressor cause when this doesn't happen everything sounds amazing of course and when it does I can't figure it out for the life of me. Would really appreciate the help thanks!
 
sprint said:
Possibly static electricity buidup in guitar pickguards/electronics cover(s) which can make a crackling sound when the guitar back rubs against you or when you brush against the pickguard . Solution - rub dryer static sheet or equivilent on pickguard and electronics cover(s) to remove static.

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It doesn't seem to matter which guitar I use though. I have 3 guitars I think are in good shape. It kills me cause everything about the axe fx was sounding just fine the other day. This problem has lasted longer than the other times.
 
sprint said:
Possibly static electricity buidup in guitar pickguards/electronics cover(s) which can make a crackling sound when the guitar back rubs against you or when you brush against the pickguard . Solution - rub dryer static sheet or equivilent on pickguard and electronics cover(s) to remove static.

Click to expand...



I was having the exact same thing with 2 of my Strats.
I ended up putting an anti static dryer sheet under each pick guard = problem solved!
Definitely a weird problem.
It all may have started when I polished the guitar.
I don't recall what wax / polish I used when the trouble began.
 
The most recent change I did make about two days ago was download some preset packages from Silent Underground Studio. Seems like reputable Axe fx related channel/website. Uploaded the presets + IR cabs that were in the zip files. They sounded incredible! Then for some reason the next day I run into this crackling loss of tone problem.

It's been about the second day straight now so I thought okay I'm gonna just delete all those presets and IR cabs. I did that and updated to the newest firmware. Still same result, no resolution. Again, this is not the first time something like this has happened. This happened a few other times and it seemed like it resolved on its own strangely enough. But this is the longest it's been going on.

I hear this though my studio monitors and PA. Could there be an internal problem with my AXE. It turns on like normal, appears to look normal both the front panel screen and axe edit. This is really irritating because at this point I rely on my AXE gear for almost all my gigs and I have some gigs coming up so please if you're reading this, please feel free to chime in.
 
Just sent a message to support thought I'd upload an audio via sound cloud on here as well see if anyone can make this out in the mean time. And btw when this problem happens, when I hear it on a PA especially there is no body, loss of tone, when this doesn't occur, sounds beautiful. Sounds full and powerful almost like a mic'ed cab on a stage.

 
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Hi, just curious if you ever solved this problem? Because I'm having the exact same issue and it's driving me crazy. I've ruled out static, even though it really sounds like a crackling. Any tips on fixing it?

Solitudezoso said:
Just sent a message to support thought I'd upload an audio via sound cloud on here as well see if anyone can make this out in the mean time. And btw when this problem happens, when I hear it on a PA especially there is no body, loss of tone, when this doesn't occur, sounds beautiful. Sounds full and powerful almost like a mic'ed cab on a stage.

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Fleece said:
Hi, just curious if you ever solved this problem? Because I'm having the exact same issue and it's driving me crazy. I've ruled out static, even though it really sounds like a crackling. Any tips on fixing it?
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Try new/different cables.
I have found faulty cables to be a source of this "cracking" in the past.
 
I don’t know if this is your issue but I had a similar popping sound that was intermittent. It turned out to be a setup issue where my low A 7th string on my 7 would vibrate on the lower frets when fretted and muted. I adjusted the relief and raised that string a 64th and it solved the problem. It drove crazy because it was happening on 2 guitars. It was an artifact created by my attack and string muting due to too low action and not enough relief.
 
Chewie5150 said:
Are you using any active electronics on your guitar? battery? any guitar plugged in, same result?
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I think I've identified my problem. I could've sworn I could replicate the problem when plugging my guitar(s) directly into the unit, but it appears that my Shure GLX-D wireless system may have developed some kind of issue, because the problem goes away if I'm plugged in directly.

It still baffles me, but I'm happy to be 95% sure it's not my Axe. I'm almost certain, however, that I've heard the crackling/popping before I ever owned my Shure GLX-D, so I'm still a bit puzzled.

Others have described it as well. This recording, not my own, is pretty accurate to what I'm hearing -- it's like a clicking or tapping.:

I hate to get rid of the Shure, but none of the other channels or frequencies seem to solve it. <shrug>
 
Hey I know I'm late but if anyone is still having issues when plugging in direct then my suggestion would be to check the knobs for output 1 and output 2, they should NOT be maxed out or all that close for that matter, i somehow bumped my output 2 to 11 and when i dialed it back, and voila!
 
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