IF YOU READ NOTHING ELSE, READ THIS!

[touch33]

I was blaming firmware for this, but it's a cable issue: powered speakers will thump when powering off the III if the unit has an FC cable connected to the unit, but no FC on the other end. Power down the III before disconnecting your FC to avoid.

Just stumbled upon this post. Perhaps making sure the SPEAKER power is OFF (and the amps have had a chance to discharge) BEFORE turning anything that feeds the speaker on/off is the correct solution, regardless of firmware/FC connection/whatev? Your speakers will thank you for it – and you won't damage the voice coils by slamming them to their physical limits.

 

[JoeW-NC]

Just stumbled upon this post. Perhaps making sure the SPEAKER power is OFF (and the amps have had a chance to discharge) BEFORE turning anything that feeds the speaker on/off is the correct solution, regardless of firmware/FC connection/whatev? Your speakers will thank you for it – and you won't damage the voice coils by slamming them to their physical limits.

Good advice. Prior to getting the Axe my speakers were hooked up to a mixer that would send a loud reminder if I forgot.

 

[l4mpi]

Just stumbled upon this post. Perhaps making sure the SPEAKER power is OFF (and the amps have had a chance to discharge) BEFORE turning anything that feeds the speaker on/off is the correct solution, regardless of firmware/FC connection/whatev? Your speakers will thank you for it – and you won't damage the voice coils by slamming them to their physical limits.

That's good advice for the general case, but should be unneccessary with the Axe FX as they properly protect the outputs (disregarding any specific configuration issues such as the FC problem described above). It's also impractical in certain setups such as my home studio which uses a III as my PCs main audio interface - personally I'm not gonna press the power switch on the back of my studio monitors 4 times (1x on, 1x off, times two speakers) for each time I turn my PC on and off. And given how often we get firmware updates, the time for switching on/off the speakers for the new firmware restart would add up pretty fast

On the topic of user screwups with the Axe FX, I had this one happen to me on my first gig with the III:
I was still waiting for my FC-12 at the time and thus had to use the MFC-101 with the Axe III via MIDI. I had configured and tested the MIDI functionality during rehearsal. But after setting up at the venue, nothing worked anymore - pressing any button on the MFC had zero effect on the Axe. Well, not exactly zero, because any actions on the MFC would still cause the MIDI LED on the Axe FX front panel to light up, so I thought the MIDI communication was working fine and the configuration in the Axe or the MFC had gone awry, potentially due to the FW update I applied the previous day. Tried various things but couldn't find the issue in the short linecheck time and proceeded to play the gig without a footswitch. Next day back at the rehearsal room everything was working again.
To cut a long story short, the issue was that I incorrectly connected the 5-pin MIDI cable to the MFC at the gig - the MFC has a 7-pin MIDI jack and the 5-pin cable was rotated by one pin to the left. Connected like this the Axe FX didn't receive any valid MIDI commands from the MFC, but the MIDI LED still activated for some reason. The really stupid part about this is that I reconnected the cable during my troubleshooting but must have connected it incorrectly a second time...

 

[maxdown]

One day a sales technician came into my office and said "The System 5000 down at NOAA has failed. You gotta fly down there and fix it". I pointed to the sign. He says "No, they checked all the cables and connectors and they're sure something failed. They're getting telemetry errors". I pointed to the sign again.

A couple hours he comes back all sheepish and says "Uh, yeah, turns out someone ran over the deck cable with a forklift and didn't tell anyone. They replaced the cable and it's working fine now"

That's it .. I'm never going to use a forklift to transport my AxeFX ever again

 

[jasonjewel]

 

[jasonjewel]

I have been called in too often for problems if whoever had just checked the cable, the problem would have been solved

 

[plexi59]

One particularly insidious example are those "low noise" Mogami and Canare instrument cables where, in addition to the copper jacket there's also another rubber-like jacket under the copper. That jacket is conductive as well. I mostly use DIY cables with neutrik connectors, and I didn't know I was supposed to strip that inner jacket too. So over time my main guitar cable developed oxidation to the signal wire and all my amps (including Axe) started to "not have enough gain" no matter what I'd do. This is actually very easy to test for if all your pedals have true bypass (or indeed if you don't use any pedals). Bypass all pedals, disconnect the cable from the guitar and from the input of your amp or modeler, then use a cheap multimeter and measure resistance between tip and sleeve. It should show open circuit. If it doesn't, you got a problem in there somewhere.

 

[Roland]

I think that's why the plug/replug tip works, it's because things gets done then !

We used to call it a picnic: Problem In Chair Not In Computer

 

[Adinfinitum]

I went to an Outfield, The Fixx, and Asia concert several years ago (to see the Fixx even though I’m a prop rocker and saw Asia during their first Tour back in 1982). The Fixx started playing but Jamie West-Oran’s guitar didn’t make any sound. Yep, he forgot to turn his Flextone 3 on and quickly realized and at least got it on just in time it for the next chord.

I also saw Porcupine Tree back in 1997 at a small club in NYC (I mean your typical local pub). Steve Wilson started playing Signify and then he said, “I think my amp’s on fire” in a calm English accent. His tech probably forgot to charge the voltage to 110 from UK voltage. Took an hour to find another amp and restart. Great show though - seeing a great band at the start of their careers. And they didn’t sell out to making pop singles so relatively underground until SW went solo or with Blackfield. He wins the award for most improved vocals over his career.

 

[Rajnar]

Check cables first is one of those classics. Other memorable statements include Harry the Hammond's "Random-vary the components," and my favorite "The circuit is designed to blow to protect the fuses."

 

[plexi59]

"The circuit is designed to blow to protect the fuses."

That's the design philosophy used in early Fenders and Marshalls. They've improved since then. Although some amps nowadays seem to be returning to it by saving a couple of bucks and not including a separate fuse for the high voltage supply.

 

[LukeHarris]

The funny thing is, in most cases the problem is in it and as simple as possible !!

 

[plyall]

One of my techs used to work in the Army. He told me a story about how he got a radio to repair one day and the tag read "Does not work in OFF mode".

I'm ex-Navy and we used to do interesting stuff to the junior guys I once sent a lad for about 3.5 feet of fallopian tube (an an insulator, of course). The captain played along and it was hilarious. Other classics ensued: we had a switchboard on the ship with about 600 fuses. I had him go through the entire switchboard to make sure the slo-blo fuses were in the proper direction Later we had adventures like 'I need about 45 feet of chow line', the 'Mail buoy' watch was established, and we had them on the lookout for Sea bats! Lord - we were awful!

 

[Joe Bfstplk]

I'm ex-Navy and we used to do interesting stuff to the junior guys I once sent a lad for about 3.5 feet of fallopian tube (an an insulator, of course). The captain played along and it was hilarious. Other classics ensued: we had a switchboard on the ship with about 600 fuses. I had him go through the entire switchboard to make sure the slo-blo fuses were in the proper direction Later we had adventures like 'I need about 45 feet of chow line', the 'Mail buoy' watch was established, and we had them on the lookout for Sea bats! Lord - we were awful!

LOL!

I had the exhaust converted over a few years ago in my MINI Cooper S from centered dual-tip to the 'Justacooper' single tip right-side-of-rear-bumper. Brought in a custom tip to be welded onto the end of the pipe - a 2.5" bearing.

Shop owner tells me about his first day working at Mesa Muffler when he was young, on a scorching hot summer day in Mesa, AZ. The older guys sent him out the parts shed to find 'muffler bearings'.

As it turns out, one of the older guys was at that time his employee at his shop, and was the one who ended up working on my car.

When I arrived to pick it up, EVERYONE IN THE SHOP came out to take pics of my car. Hell, the guy had it on his FB page even before I got there.

Every once-in-a-while someone in traffic notices it and waves and hollers 'muffler bearing' and laughs.

 

[plexi59]

Such a wasted revenue opportunity on the part of Fractal to not require yearly replacement of blinker fluid in LEDs.

 

[raccoon]

Working in IT over 20 years I could tell many similar stories.
Out from the Best Off...
2 incidents arrived at our ticket system nearly at same time from 2 female users.
One: my mouse don't work
Two: my mouse-cursor moving without touching mouse
Due to the fact that we knew that they are sitting face to face at their desk my collaegue and me had an idea and went both to their office to watch the scene.
They decided that the mouse model of each of them fits better in the hand of the other and they exchanded them.
But not the cables.
They only moving the mouse over to the desk of the other.

Their face ran red as we both standing there and explaining that this would not work this way.
Still laughing when it comes to my mind...
Happened nearly 20 years ago.
But there are still such people existing these days and today nearly everybody using computers even at home..

 

[Alex Kerezy]

I read it.

 

[Lax]

At a wedding in october, I had to plug and use a multi-purpose setup :
Computer / Music rig with a behringer XR18, axefx2 etc... / Video projection / etc...

Obviously all the sounds were to be routed through the behringer to the DJ's mixer via 2 XLR cables, and the computer screen was mirrored on the wall.
Everything started fine with audio, but I just couldn't shoot the screen ! There was no internet there so I had to use wifi access point with my smartphone etc...tried to reinstall epson drivers etc...

Then I thought about cables, before continuing, as I used the old words 2 is 1 and 1 is none, I tried another hdmi cable...Instant image...FECK !

And wedding was saved Many videos and pictures were shown

 

[Kukulkan]

My longest and most inopportune tech support call ever (with one of the biggest stars) ended with it being a cable: the REPLACEMENT cable was also bad!

 

[fret]

With my Axe-Fx III I've reversed my MIDI In & Out cables more than I'd like to admit. I was spoiled with the Axe-Fx II 5pin all in one MIDI In/Out port.

Oh boy... the Axefx3 doesn't support bi-directional midi? (from the same port)

I was thinking of upgrading...