[PROBABLY NOT A BUG] Issue with a sudden volume spike and buzzy wah sound

[BBN]

Looking for some tips to troubleshoot this (and determine if it's a bug or not).

At a gig last night and when I switched presets at one point, all of a sudden my volume was crazy loud, it sounded buzzy (like the cab sims were off) and it sounded like I had a half cocked wah on.

It happened twice. Both times, I was using an expression pedal (for either wah or whammy) and then changed the preset. When I changed the preset....BOOM.
I'm using and MFC...and I have an M-Audio expression pedal plugged into it.
This has never happened before last night.

The ONLY thing I changed recently in just one of the presets is I have the Wah auto engaging (on med speed).
I feel like it has to be related, but I don't know why it would cause the issue I had.

One time it happened was right at the end of a set, so I put my guitar down at that point so I could do a small amount of trouble shooting between sets. (keeping in mind, it's a packed room and I have 15-20 minutes...so I'm in 'get this thing back to normal' mode).

Quick trouble shoot:
I changed presets on my MFC (I use 4 presets), and all of the presets now sounded the same way (loud, buzzy, half cocked wah and clipping the output of the Axe.
I unplugged the expression pedal from the MFC.....no change.
The buzzing sound was no doubt because I was clipping the outputs on the Axe like crazy. I checked my guitar level input...looked fine. So it was something in the patch/Axe that changed.
I checked my global settings for Cab and Power Amp....looked good.
I tried changing presets using the front panel of the Axe....and same result....all patches sound like this (even my clean patch).

I look at a patch to see if any block is on/off that should not be...and everything looks good. The wah and wammy blocks are bypassed (as they should be) and my Cab block is not bypassed.


With little time to figure it out, I did a reboot and everything was fine again.
I changed that one preset to NOT have the Wah auto engage, and I unplugged my Expression pedal as well. (I used an Auto wah block for the rest of the gig). The issue did not occur again after that.

Can anyone give me some hints on what I should be looking at to troubleshoot?

Thanks!
- Jay

 

[chris]

Upload the presets.

 

[BBN]

Upload the presets.

Will do Chris....just need to get my Axe out of my truck.
Thanks in advance if you're able to look at my presets.

 

[BBN]

Here are the three presets I toggle between.
I only use Scene 1 and 2 (Scene 2 is for a lead boost with some delay and verb)

These patches are utilizing User Cab IR slots (Own Hammer Mesas).....so just drop in a Mesa V30 type cab. It may not sound the same...but it will work for these purposes.

The Tucana patch is the one where i had Wah 2 set to auto engage at Medium Speed (but have change that back to 'off').

ANY assistance or troubleshooting steps is appreciated!!

 

[chris]

i played through all 3 presets, set Ext 1 back to Med Speed, but i don't have an MFC so i connected directly to the pedal port.

changing among and playing the 3 presets, i didn't get the issue you mentioned. i also don't see anything in the presets themselves that would cause the issue.

so at this point my best guess is some bad data sent from the MFC possibly, or just a random glitch. sorry i have nothing more concrete. there could be details or settings outside of the Presets that could be a clue, but i don't have that information.

i would guess that the Axe reboot solved the issue, more than unassigning Auto-Engage, but it's really hard to say. if this unfortunately does ever happen again, try to stay in the same preset but replace the Wah and Pitch blocks with Shunts. or try going to a preset that is just shunts or something similar. if the sound changes back to normal, we'll have some more data to work off of.

 

[BBN]

Chris, really appreciate you taking a look.
If it happens again, I'll try the steps you outlined.
- Jay