Noise/electricity problem during live gig last night

Ralph K

Ralph K

Inspired
Hey Folks,

I had a gig yesterday at an open air festival and as I hooked my AX8 to start playing I heard super loud squeals whenever i rolled up my volume knob on the guitar (this problem didn't happen during soundcheck the previous day) we were in a live situation and most guitarists at the scene were waiting to hear the fractal unit in action! we changed the guitar cable, the guitar itself, the two XLR cables, lowered the gain on the PA system, the AX8 was not clipping, i checked the VU meter it was showing a constant noise signal around - 3 db whenever i rolled my guitar volume pot up without playing the guitar. the irony is that a 16 year old kid at the scene lent me his private label Chinese made 200$ multi effect unit and it didn't have the noise issue which saved the gig but I was so disappointed. I took the unit immediately back home after the gig, i tested it and the noise was gone (phew)... Do you have any idea what could have caused this loud noise that made the unit useless and why didn't the cheap Chinese unit present any problem? I even asked the sound engineer if he didn't accidentally turn on the phantom power but it wasn't the case since i also tried hooking a regular jack to the mixer from the output of the AX8. could it have been an electricity issue with a bad electrical power signal feeding the unit? I love my fractal and I was so upset yesterday.

regards,
Ralph
 
If it was when the guitar volume knob was turned up it almost has to be something there that the guitar was picking up. if not it would have made the noise at all times. the AX-8 in put may be more sensitive to input then the Chinese unit.
 
paranoid said:
If it was when the guitar volume knob was turned up it almost has to be something there that the guitar was picking up. if not it would have made the noise at all times. the AX-8 in put may be more sensitive to input then the Chinese unit.
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I tried another guitar, same problem... the noise would gradually increase with the volume pot being turned up reaching -2 or 3db on the VU meter with the pot fully up.
 
that does not mean there was not an external source there that the guitar pickup was picking up. It kinda reinforces it with the fact that turning the guitar volume up made it louder.
 
What were you monitoring your guitar through? When you turned off stage monitors, did this also turn off all of your guitar sound on stage and you were just hearing FOH/mains?
 
Gizmo said:
What were you monitoring your guitar through? When you turned off stage monitors, did this also turn off all of your guitar sound on stage and you were just hearing FOH/mains?
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Yes i was only hearing the outside speakers which were not pointing at me and a bit far.
 
To simplify my issue... would bad electrical supply cause this feedback and squealing? And what would b the solution for it in the future
 
Really sounds like microphonic squeal from pickups - I occasionally get that with high gain patches. Doesn't do it at home (even when really loud), but sometimes on stage due to proximity to my monitor. I know you weren't near speakers, but what kind of patch was this? High gain? Did you try any other patches at the time (such as clean)? I don't think the power supply would sound like this - bad hum or ground loop, but not a squeal when you turn up volume.
 
I'm sure you already know this, but at loud gig volume, you really don't need as much gain as you think you would. Besides soundcheck, have you been using the AX8 at other gigs or rehearsals? If so, did you use same problem patch without squeals?
 
Did you check to see if the noise was present when you had no guitar plugged in?

I'm leaning to agree with the others, thinking that it's too much gain on the preset. You said it didn't happen "the day before" - what was the gig situation the day before (was it just soundcheck? Same volume and everything as the gig day?)? What changed between the two days?
 
The day before we did a soundcheck at high volume, however the sound guy lost all the saved scenes on his mixer during the event day which he claimed to be due to an electrical problem... he tried lowering the gain but to no avail we had all levels on the ax8 and the mixer lowered to very low levels but the noise persisted, i had my channels muted by the sound guy, however on the AX8 Vu meter their was a persistent noise at around -3db. So i don't think it was a feedback issue...
 
Ralph K said:
The day before we did a soundcheck at high volume, however the sound guy lost all the saved scenes on his mixer during the event day which he claimed to be due to an electrical problem... he tried lowering the gain but to no avail we had all levels on the ax8 and the mixer lowered to very low levels but the noise persisted, i had my channels muted by the sound guy, however on the AX8 Vu meter their was a persistent noise at around -3db. So i don't think it was a feedback issue...
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What happens when you disconnect the AX-8's output signal from the main P.A. system and just use your own on-stage monitors?
If there's no squeal then, it means that its the way the soundman has you patched into the P.A. that's the problem.
This may or may not have to do with it but the Axe-FX's XLR outputs are line level, not mic level, and therefore require some sort of a pad on the mixer.
I'm assuming that the AX-8's outs are also line level.
The soundguy won't assume that you're sending him a line level signal.
You need to specifically tell him so.
 
joegold said:
What happens when you disconnect the AX-8's output signal from the main P.A. system and just use your own on-stage monitors?
If there's no squeal then, it means that its the way the soundman has you patched into the P.A. that's the problem.
This may or may not have to do with it but the Axe-FX's XLR outputs are line level, not mic level, and therefore require some sort of a pad on the mixer.
I'm assuming that the AX-8's outs are also line level.
The soundguy won't assume that you're sending him a line level signal.
You need to specifically tell him so.
Click to expand...
As i mentioned above, i also tried hooking via a regular guitar cable to the mixer and the problem remained... i don't know how much it has to do with the sound system, because the already present and appearing noise on the VU meter was there even though my channels were muted.
 
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