My Ax8 seems to have gotten noisy...

G

GuitaRasmus

Member
Hi guys. Very happy user of the Ax8 since january ´16. I've never experienced any sort of excessive noise before, but over the weekends gig it seems like it has developed a nasty noise - its there on clean or crunch, any amp, and I don't use much gain at all - I use the brit brown for example at drive= 0.70. (not 7, 0.7) Medium crunch at most.

I use the Out 1 at max (unity gain), and my levels are about -15 dB, matched using the VU meters in the Ax8. I've tried changing all cables, including using xlrs instead of jacks (which I've never had trouble with)

When I hook it up to my DAW, it has a noise floor of about -40 db, when I record at -6. That seems kinda high, doesn't it?

Btw: I use noisecancelling single coils and humbuckers mostly, but I've tried 3 different guitars, and the problem persists - strange thing is, the noise is about the same with single coils OR humbuckers.

Puzzled...
 
Describe this “nasty” noise.

Like is it a low buzz, a very electric mid range buzzing, a crackling, a hissing, and is it on all presets?
 
Very electric mid range buzzing sounds right, and yes, on all presets.

Edit: I just downloaded a frequency analyzer app. It says 753 hZ
 
Last edited:
That buzz sounds like a electrical ground problem. A place I played at would great a crazy buzz like that on an acoustic guitar, the DI box had the ground switched to off, flipped it the other way and it worked.

So check your ground switch on the ax-8 first with the same Guitar.

Then I’d try a different guitar.

I’m assuming you’ve tried different outlets and a variety of places as well.

Possibly a different iec cable

After that I’m not to sure.
 
Edit: sorry didn't mean to quote @Mr.LukeCooper

That sounds really strange. It's the noise still there, if you turn down the guitar volume knob? Can you eliminate the noise with the input noise gate?
 
To eliminate guitar or rf, unplug your guitar and see if the noise persists. Now unplug the cable from the ax8, if the noise is still there it's likely not your guitar or rf.
 
Smittefar said:
Edit: sorry didn't mean to quote @Mr.LukeCooper

That sounds really strange. It's the noise still there, if you turn down the guitar volume knob? Can you eliminate the noise with the input noise gate?
Click to expand...

Nope, it's gone when my volume is down. And yes, I can eliminate it - but is has to be set quite high (around -50 db) to eliminate it, and I can hear it as soon as I start playing. The strange thing is that the noise is about the same, whether it's a guitar with single coils, noiseless single coils, or humbuckers. I can't recall having had noise before.

Tahoebrian5 said:
To eliminate guitar or rf, unplug your guitar and see if the noise persists. Now unplug the cable from the ax8, if the noise is still there it's likely not your guitar or rf.
Click to expand...

The noise is gone when I unplug.
 
Try an FX Loop block at the beginning of your chain and use the IN 2 (FX RTN) Left for the guitar input. Trying eliminate IN 1 (INSTRUMENT) as the source of the problem.

EDIT: Make sure to engage the FXL block : )
 
Update: I've only gotten around to testing the fx loop thing tonight, it's been a busy week. Sadly, the same amount of noise. I played a gig last night, a garden party, and the noise was very noticeable there as well. :( Weirdly enough, it's about the same, perhaps even more on my clean presets. I use a Matchless for cleans as well as the Ac20.

Any help would be much appreciated. Getting really frustrated here. :(
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom