Something's amiss and seems to be devolving

Did you try headphones? Also try input one in the back. I had similar issue and the front input jack ribbon cable was loose inside. Back jack is also input 1.
I did try headphones. Unfortunately I didn't hear a difference. The wireless is connected to the rear input 1. The front was the one I tried the instrument cable with. I'll try the instrument cable in place of the wireless unit and see if I get a change.

Symptoms almost sound like a bad instrument or speaker cable or something.
So far, I've tried reseating all the cables. Trying different XLR out to the FRFR. Different instrument cable. Nothing so far has made a difference that I can tell. I'll try Greg's suggestion. But, I'm not hopeful. It is possible that ribbon cable came loose. Only reason I think that is a possibility, is that this all occurred while I was playing.

If you guitar is active, have you tried a fresh battery ?
None of the guitars I've tried so far have active pickups.
 
I did try headphones. Unfortunately I didn't hear a difference. The wireless is connected to the rear input 1. The front was the one I tried the instrument cable with. I'll try the instrument cable in place of the wireless unit and see if I get a change.


So far, I've tried reseating all the cables. Trying different XLR out to the FRFR. Different instrument cable. Nothing so far has made a difference that I can tell. I'll try Greg's suggestion. But, I'm not hopeful. It is possible that ribbon cable came loose. Only reason I think that is a possibility, is that this all occurred while I was playing.


None of the guitars I've tried so far have active pickups.
Yea when mine happened I started a gig and all was fine for a couple songs then it sounded like I was losing umph and then it just slowly started to get quieter then barely audible. It was only the front jack that had the loose cable. I can’t remember what the back input has. I ended up putting a few dabs of electronic silicone to secure the cable. I believe they are doing this now but I have an early unit and maybe they weren’t doing that then. Mine is out of warranty. Before popping (if it’s still under warranty) it open you may want to put in a support ticket and ask if you can check it.
 
Yea when mine happened I started a gig and all was fine for a couple songs then it sounded like I was losing umph and then it just slowly started to get quieter then barely audible. It was only the front jack that had the loose cable. I can’t remember what the back input has. I ended up putting a few dabs of electronic silicone to secure the cable. I believe they are doing this now but I have an early unit and maybe they weren’t doing that then. Mine is out of warranty. Before popping (if it’s still under warranty) it open you may want to put in a support ticket and ask if you can check it.
Yeah mine should still be under warranty. 6/20 was the purchase date. But, it was a B stock, so it's possible it comes from an older manufacture date.
 
Sounds to me like you're feeding a L & R stereo signal down the 2 legs of a balanced input. The result is everything panned center is cancelled & you're left with ambience & no dry.
 
Sounds to me like you're feeding a L & R stereo signal down the 2 legs of a balanced input. The result is everything panned center is cancelled & you're left with ambience & no dry.
That is exactly what my issue was with my FM3 a while back. I mean the part about the center being cancelled like you say, etc, etc.
It was ME.............................
 
Sounds to me like you're feeding a L & R stereo signal down the 2 legs of a balanced input. The result is everything panned center is cancelled & you're left with ambience & no dry.
Makes sense. Any idea why that would occur mid play or song though?
 
Yeah mine should still be under warranty. 6/20 was the purchase date. But, it was a B stock, so it's possible it comes from an older manufacture date.
Warranties typically start at the date of purchase rather that the date of manufacturing so, you should be under warranty still.
 
I had an issue like yours with my Kemper and it was the jacks being dirty. Switched to XLR issue gone.
 
Makes sense. Any idea why that would occur mid play or song though?
That part is a bit of a mystery. If it were analog gear I’d say the switch contacts on a jack socket (usually fx loop return) are dirty. What the hey, plug a jack in & out of all sockets just to be sure.

BTW, I also had the input 1 front jack pcb connector work it’s way off. It didn’t give the same symptoms as you (just cut out completely) but worth popping the lid & checking.
 
That part is a bit of a mystery. If it were analog gear I’d say the switch contacts on a jack socket (usually fx loop return) are dirty. What the hey, plug a jack in & out of all sockets just to be sure.

BTW, I also had the input 1 front jack pcb connector work it’s way off. It didn’t give the same symptoms as you (just cut out completely) but worth popping the lid & checking.

Any idea if opening it up voids the warranty?
 
So, finally got some time and past the trepidation of opening the unit up. I don't see anything awry inside at all. All the ribbons are seated tight and the aforementioned front input has some glue/epoxy keeping it in place. So, this unit must've been manufactured after the issue was brought up or, seeing as it was a B-stock, the glue was possibly added when it came back? Either way, I put the top panel back on and hooked it up as if it was the first time out of the box. Tried another instrument cable to the front input, back input. Neither attempt made a difference in the sound. Still that weird missing fullness/thickness of the tone. Some presets are super shrill. Some the reverb is absolutely out of control. Even 'Small Room' sounds like more like a large chamber or cathedral. I also did a 'RESET ALL' of the global settings. Tried both FRFR's again. Tried another XLR. To no avail on anything.

So, just to be clear, everything that has been tried so far:

The guitars that have been tried, all 4 are passive pickups. So, it's not a dead battery.
3 different instrument cables. 1 essentially new that had never even been plugged into a device before.
Two different XLR outs to two different FRFR's (same make & model).
Headphones were tried, but I guess I wouldn't consider them an overly high quality pair and sound thin to me regardless of what's being played through them.
Both left and right outs have been tried. Both at the same time and then again individually.
All inputs front/back/1/2 have all been tried.
Unit has been opened and all ribbon cables checked and seated properly.
All input and output cables have been checked to make sure they were plugged in fully and seated properly.
The unit is less than a year old. Has never left the studio. Home is smoke free and clean. Rarely does anything ever get plugged in or unplugged. It has always been plugged into a power conditioner. It essentially sits there until I turn it on or off. So, while it's possible the plugs are dirty, the likelihood is almost nil.
I have tried fresh factory presets (no fiddling to any setting in the preset whatsoever.)
I have tried multiple cab IR's.
I have adjusting tried each: cab input, panning L or R, stereo, L+R Sum
Anything I can reset as far as settings in the unit has been reset to how it came out of the box. I, so far, haven't figured out a way to do a full and total factory reset that wipes it to how it came shipped to me. But it's as close to that as I can make it.

As far as I can tell, I have looked at, checked & attempted everything that has been suggested so far in this thread and nothing seems to have made an improvement.

If anyone has any more suggestions, I'm willing to try whatever. I still have this nagging feeling it's something crapped the bed in the electronics somewhere. But, I'm a phone and internet technician. So, while it's in my nature to troubleshoot devices and I've built my own PC's, troubleshooing inside electronics like this aren't really my gig and I have no idea.
 
Are you in the US? You could contact support, see if they have any ideas, and worst case, ship it back to them for a check-up.

Sounds incredibly frustrating.
I am in the US, yes. Contacting support was my next step, but I wanted to make sure I tried everything I and anyone else here could think of before I go to them. Like I say, I troubleshoot for a living and it bugs me when people miss simple shit before just going the easy route, picking up the phone and calling in a service ticket. Easy jobs are nice and I'm happy to help, but truck rolls (in my case) aren't always necessary. So I wanted to make sure beforehand that I'd covered all my bases. And who knows, it may yet be something stupid I've missed so far. At that point though, I'll at least feel like a did a bit beyond my due diligence.

"Sounds incredibly frustrating."

12 years of service work makes it slightly easier to keep in perspective. :grinning:
 
I am in the US, yes. Contacting support was my next step, but I wanted to make sure I tried everything I and anyone else here could think of before I go to them. Like I say, I troubleshoot for a living and it bugs me when people miss simple shit before just going the easy route, picking up the phone and calling in a service ticket. Easy jobs are nice and I'm happy to help, but truck rolls (in my case) aren't always necessary. So I wanted to make sure beforehand that I'd covered all my bases. And who knows, it may yet be something stupid I've missed so far. At that point though, I'll at least feel like a did a bit beyond my due diligence.

"Sounds incredibly frustrating."

12 years of service work makes it slightly easier to keep in perspective. :grinning:

Not that this will be any help, but a similar issue happened to me with my AFX2 last year - posted about it a bunch here, ended up sending it to the FAS team who found nothing wrong with it. I replaced my entire signal change in total madness, and somewhere along the way the problem was solved. To this day I have no idea what the issue was, but I'm quite sure it either my guitar, pickups, cables, headphones, monitors, my ears - something.
 
Not that this will be any help, but a similar issue happened to me with my AFX2 last year - posted about it a bunch here, ended up sending it to the FAS team who found nothing wrong with it. I replaced my entire signal change in total madness, and somewhere along the way the problem was solved. To this day I have no idea what the issue was, but I'm quite sure it either my guitar, pickups, cables, headphones, monitors, my ears - something.
Eons ago I was working a GoGo’s show and the all-important (according to the show rider, anyway) Lexicon 480L digital reverb took a mega-dump — locked right up HARD, power cycling/reboot went nowhere. Yanked it out of the House rack, popped the lid, slid-out and reseated the internal cards and buttoned it back up. Sucker powered right up and the show went on w/o a hitch. I was happy to be lucky instead of particularly intelligent, and quite the Hero For A Day.

My point? Sometimes a little jiggle is all it takes.
 
Not that this will be any help, but a similar issue happened to me with my AFX2 last year - posted about it a bunch here, ended up sending it to the FAS team who found nothing wrong with it. I replaced my entire signal change in total madness, and somewhere along the way the problem was solved. To this day I have no idea what the issue was, but I'm quite sure it either my guitar, pickups, cables, headphones, monitors, my ears - something.
That is kind of what I did also. Never did find the "exact" culprit, but the issue was gone..............
 
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