Wal distorting.

[steviedee]

Alright folks my rig has started distorting quite badly I thought I'd blown the speakers in my cabs, however, I went for a quick jam with my drummer and the bass sounded tremendous initially but then got progressively more distorted.

Could it be the power amp? It's both channels.

Also I noticed the jack on my bass was a bit noisy could a dodgy connection on the bass result in this farty distortion? I'm going to try another bass asap.

Edited May 6, 2012 by steviedee

[Muzz]

Does your amp have a fan? Is it running? My initial thoughts are if it starts out OK and gets worse, it could be an overheating issue.

[discreet]

Yet another disappointing thread title.

[LawrenceH]

Active bass with dying battery dropping output voltage? Can do exactly this.

[ThomBassmonkey]

If you use an active bass, have you tried changing the batteries? Sometimes a dying battery in a bass pre-amp can get farty. I find sometimes when a battery is left a while, it seems to re-gain a bit of charge somehow (like if your phone battery dies and won't turn on, you can sometimes leave it a bit then turn it on again for a minute or two for example), that could account for it sounding ok at the start of a practice then getting worse quickly.

[ThomBassmonkey]

[quote name='LawrenceH' timestamp='1334408521' post='1615815']
Active bass with dying battery dropping output voltage? Can do exactly this.
[/quote]

Beaten to it by mere seconds!

[Ou7shined]

Fixed a farting cab for a mate the other week.
He had a gig coming up and needed it sorted quick. When I got there (all the way across on the other side of the city) it sounded terrible and he was very upset about the imposing expense and impending gig ramifications. Took 2 minutes to fix...


... a section of wire from his tweeter had come to rest on the back of one of his main driver cones. I tie-wrapped it out of the way.

[ezbass]

[quote name='discreet' timestamp='1334408108' post='1615808']
Yet another disappointing thread title.
[/quote]+1

[steviedee]

Cheers guys the bass was just in to get a broken battery snap fixed and I replaced the battery but I'll change it just to check. On the amp front the drummer in my band heard the fan really whining so over heating is potentially an issue.

Sorry about the sh*t thread title!

[steviedee]

Right just an update, it's not the amp or the preamps, it's the bass. Currently my Wal has a dodgy jack connection which I'm waiting to get a replaced as it is quite an unusual component. Do any of you guys reckon that this might cause the distortion?

It totally feels like the battery needs changed but it's a new battery. The bass sounds great then after about a hour playing it starts to distort could it be the battery is always running?

Edited May 7, 2012 by steviedee

[funkgod]

Hi, iv had this problem a few times on some of my wals and some of my students wals,
this came from pete,
see att, check these two caps with a meter or just replace them as they are only cheap, they dry up over time and the legs rott ( go green !)
sometimes its distorting sometimes its lack of tight bottom end.
anyway worth a look...
(pic is from the net could not be bothered opening mine )
[attachment=107357:wal_electpp.JPG]

[charic]

^ Most distracting Avatar on BC

[steviedee]

[quote name='funkgod' timestamp='1336476206' post='1646054']
check these two caps with a meter or just replace them as they are only cheap, they dry up over time and the legs rott ( go green !)
sometimes its distorting sometimes its lack of tight bottom end.
[/quote]



Cheers that's really helpful I'm waiting to put the bass into get the jack fixed, I'll say to the luthier when I see him next.