Help, sudden problem with Axe-FX II

bstaley

bstaley

Inspired
I turned my Axe-FX II on last night and there was a horrible hum/hiss/squeal that was overwhelming. The noise was coming through both sets of outputs as well as the headphone jack. I have not updated my firmware for a couple weeks and everything was working fine as of two nights ago. Here is what I have tried:
- Two different guitar cables
- Two different guitars
- About 10 different presets
- Completely disconnect the Axe from every other piece of gear, including my computer.
- Shut computer off so the Axe was the only thing powered on in my room.
- Front and rear inputs both have this noise
- I tried running a long power extension to the other side of my house in case it was power related to that outlet. No difference.
- Disable the Amp block in my presets. The bad noise goes away, but there is a hiss in the background that was never there before.

The strange thing is that if there is no cable plugged into the input the noise is gone. If I plug in a cable the noise is horrible, even if my guitar volume is all the way down. It almost seems as if something has gone faulty with the input circuitry. My Axe has not moved or had anything plugged in differently for weeks. This is very out of the ordinary.

Any ideas what could be going on? Thanks
 
Check I/O > INPUT > INPUT INSTR. Make sure it is not set to 100%.
 
I checked both of those settings and they are fine. Here is a video of the problem. Sorry it is sideways:

 
what does it sound like with the instrument cable plugged into the front, but not into a guitar at the other end?

it's also strange that the Input meters on the front show a constant signal.

oh and THANK YOU for the video/audio! it helps so much :)
 
Chris@KatsuKuriMedia said:
what does it sound like with the instrument cable plugged into the front, but not into a guitar at the other end?

it's also strange that the Input meters on the front show a constant signal.

oh and THANK YOU for the video/audio! it helps so much :)
Click to expand...

The noise is still there when plugged into the front but not into a guitar.
 
just to confirm, you tried Rear Input 1 Left and also set the I/O menu from Front to Rear, correct?

Is there any way you can try Input 2 just to see if there is noise when plugging in a cable there? Probably have to drop an FX Loop block at the beginning of the layout to hear the guitar.
 
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Chris@KatsuKuriMedia said:
just to confirm, you tried Rear Input 1 Left and also set the I/O menu from Front to Rear, correct?

Is there any way you can try Input 2 just to see if there is noise when plugging in a cable there? Probably have to drop an FX Loop block at the beginning of the layout to hear the guitar.
Click to expand...

The FX Loop return (Input 2) seems to work fine. Unfortunately I cannot use the Axe that way as I need it to send signal signal to my poweramp.
 
Did you try in another place ? At home or another place ?

It seems to be a ground problem.

Check ONLY the axe without power amp and power unit.
 
Sounds like a cable or the input ( or some piece of equipment causing interference) to me, I've had similar noise when cable is plugged in with no guitar plugged in on Higher gain patches. Trying a different location is a good place to start , then several cables, you said you tried 2, and it's unlikely something went wrong with 2 of them . Sounds like The input is probably borked, I'd contact support1
 
Thanks guys, I have contacted support. I did not physically move the unit to a different room, but I ran an extension to the other side of my house and listened through headphones while nothing else was turned on in my rack and the Axe was not connected to anything else.
 
bstaley said:
The FX Loop return (Input 2) seems to work fine. Unfortunately I cannot use the Axe that way as I need it to send signal signal to my poweramp.
Click to expand...

Understood, I just wanted to see if it worked, for troubleshooting purposes.

It does sound like a hardware fault, unfortunately :(

Maybe it's just something loose and they can have you pop it open and fix it easily!
 
Just saw the video....this is EXACTLY what is happening to my unit. Thankfully support is going to be able to fix the issue. Apparently its a broken ground in the input jack
 
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