Korg tuner interferance

M

malenko

Member
Had my XL a week now, WOW!!! Thats for another post if I can stop playing it! Trouble is I got a brand new Korg Pitchblack rack tuner to go with and I'm picking up interferance from it, mainly when it lights up.
At first it was OMG it's the XL but thankfully not as I narrowed it to the tuner.
I thought it could be the old cable I was using from the tuner to the Axe Fx so I bought a new one. Just tried it, still same.
But whats really weird is if I plug guitar direct to Axe, turm the tuner of and have a lead plugged into it, I still get the inteferance even though its turned off! Unplug the cable from the tuner, it stops.
Any ideas folks?
 
+1... loop, my Peterson stroborack had a horrendous buzz when I had my triaxis rig. Internally on it there is a ground lift jumper that is set to auto, the auto mode would sometime work, I switched it to lifted all the time and that fixed it. Might try a 3 to 2 prong plug adapter, might have to shield from the rack rails.
 
I'm not electrical minded so if you were to explain it, I probably won't understand but would really appreciate some solutions.
Like I said the weirdest bit is that even with the tuner turned OFF, with a lead left plugged in and NOT connected at all to the Axe Fx, I still get the interferance sound. It's not a hum either, more like a digital interferance sound.
Ive tried switching the ground lift on the Axe Fx also but no better.
Whats worse is that the Korg tuner advertises itself as not colouring the sound yet when it is plugged in, it has a terrible impact on the sound.
The new lead I bought for between the tuner and Axe is balanced but my guitar lead is not. Would it help to have both were balanced?
Also they are not in a rack yet as I ain't built it, so the tuner is just sitting on top of the Axe, even if I move tuner away from it, it still happens.
 
Nothing wrong with the tuner on the axe fx but its a lot easier to see the korg pitchblack from a few feet away, plus it is always on so you do not need to get close to the axe to switch it on.
 
SORTED!

After getting in touch with Korg, they finally decided that yes it probably is a ground loop and gave me the most obvious solution that I had to laugh and was slightly embarrassed I had not thought of it. So I thought I'd let you all know in case you may run into similar problems.
Basically change the running order to, Guitar -> Axe FX -> Axe FX Send -> Pitchblack Pro. So plug the Output 2 L into the input of the Pitchblack (or any other tuner), in the I/O page of the Axe, change Output 2 Echo to Input 1, turn the front panel Output 2 knob all way up and hey presto. The tuner is getting a dry signal of the guitar and the Axe is getting a direct, unchanged signal from the guitar with no noise form the tuner as it's not returning into any of the signal.

Cheers
 
malenko said:
SORTED! After getting in touch with Korg, they finally decided that yes it probably is a ground loop and gave me the most obvious solution that I had to laugh and was slightly embarrassed I had not thought of it. So I thought I'd let you all know in case you may run into similar problems. Basically change the running order to, Guitar -> Axe FX -> Axe FX Send -> Pitchblack Pro. So plug the Output 2 L into the input of the Pitchblack (or any other tuner), in the I/O page of the Axe, change Output 2 Echo to Input 1, turn the front panel Output 2 knob all way up and hey presto. The tuner is getting a dry signal of the guitar and the Axe is getting a direct, unchanged signal from the guitar with no noise form the tuner as it's not returning into any of the signal. Cheers
Click to expand...

I think we can all sleep a little safer tonight.
 
My DTR-1 also picked up noise thru its mic (even if that was not activated!) and gave horrendous feedback when playing at loud living room levels.
So yes: never go through it :)
 
Gearjunkie if you mean can you use it while the main signal is muted then i'm not sure how to setup up the axe to do it but i'm sure you can with a mfc. One sure way of doing that though would be to use something like a mxr a/b switch.
Its a great tuner btw, extremely easy to see, looks great above the Axe and cause the way I now have it set, there is absoloutely no interferance or changing of tone.
Indeed i can sleep better now :encouragement:
 
Yeah that's what I meant. I hadn't even considered the way you hooked it up. But that's a great idea. I didn't buy it because I didn't want to run "through" it because I read a few reviews that said it impacted the tone. My only issue (just personal preference) is I like the output muted when I tune. Sure worth another look though with your suggestion. Thanks
 
I was reading Cooper Carter's thread about his streaming class and came across this question on how to hook a tune up in the same way but using a MFC

How do I run my rack tuner (Stroborack) into the Fractal so that when I hit 'Tuner' on the MFC 101 MK III it mutes the channel and send the signal to the Stroborack?
Put the effects loop block first (so you get spillover) in all your presets' signal chains, plug the tuner input into the effects send but dont connect the return, and reprogram the tuner switch on the MFC to be the IA for FX LOOP.
 
malenko said:
SORTED!

After getting in touch with Korg, they finally decided that yes it probably is a ground loop and gave me the most obvious solution that I had to laugh and was slightly embarrassed I had not thought of it. So I thought I'd let you all know in case you may run into similar problems.
Basically change the running order to, Guitar -> Axe FX -> Axe FX Send -> Pitchblack Pro. So plug the Output 2 L into the input of the Pitchblack (or any other tuner), in the I/O page of the Axe, change Output 2 Echo to Input 1, turn the front panel Output 2 knob all way up and hey presto. The tuner is getting a dry signal of the guitar and the Axe is getting a direct, unchanged signal from the guitar with no noise form the tuner as it's not returning into any of the signal.

Cheers
Click to expand...

As someone with the same tuner and the same issues I really want to thank you for posting that. You just saved me from buying a new tuner :)
 
But isn't the issue here that you lose the ability to use Output 2 in the process? In my case, I use Output 1 into my recording interface, and Output 2 into my CLR's.

My solution is to use a direct box (Radial in my case) to split the outputs - one to the Axe, one to the tuner.
 
Yes you do lose Output 2 in the process but like I already suggested using something like an MXR a/b switch before the Axe, or whatever to split the signal if required. I have no need for Output 2 as yet :)
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom