Technophobe Needs To Know What Plugs in Where and Help - Loads of Interference?

[BH12neil]

Hi,

I have a couple of problems I need a little help with, hopefully you good BassChatters will be able to come to the rescue.

I have a signal chain of a dozen or so pedals that includes a Aria Flanger and an Akai Headrush. I have a Gallien Krueger 1001 RB II head with GK cabs which is my primary rig, and a second rig which consists of an Ashdown MAG300 EVO II head and Ashdown cabs. I plug my instrument lead into the first effect and so through the chain until being routed back to the input of the GK head.

I use the second rig, in conjunction with the GK rig, for the delay and echo functions on the Headrush, therefore I have a lead from the Akai to the input of the MAG300, however the flanger has a "stereo out" that I would like to use by getting sounds from both sets of cabs together. To achieve this where in the MAG300 do I plug my cable into? The output is already in use (from the Akai) and I've tried the "Effects Send" which doesn't solve the problem. I have a "Tuner/Line Output", though I've not tried plugging in here as I'm worried I might break something in the process. I thought a possible solution might be a splitter adaptor to allow dual access to the MAG300s output? That seems a little messy, there must be a cleaner way to do this, or am I approaching this from completely the wrong direction - can someone put me out of my misery?

The second query is that I am getting a lot of noise and interference both before, to a lesser extent, but more so after I engage pedals. All the pedals are true bypass, if that info helps, and they are powered by four different power sources; two are powered directly into mains with adapters, six are powered from a Gator Bus 8 power block, one is powered by a battery and the remaining four are powered from a daisy chain arrangement powered via an adapter plugged into the mains. The noise is a swirly hum, hiss sort of sound and is very annoying.

I have added all the mA ratings of the pedals together and the totals are well under the max load for each of the power sources and in both cases there is plenty of headroom so I am confident that its not that, I am also confident that its not the cabling as our very own OBBM supplied all of it, so can anyone offer any ideas as to what the problem might be and how I might go about solving it?

Sorry its a bit long-winded but I've tried to give as much information as possible to allow people to offer some comment. For the technophobe who wants to learn, all help is really appreciated.

Cheers,

BH12neil

[xgsjx]

We would need to know your signal chain to properly help with your first question, but my initial thought is a 2 channel mixer or blender is what you need.

Same goes for the second question, it may well be that some pedals don't like sharing power (moog lpf is a prime contender).
Have you got cats? A tooth into one cable & you'll get plenty of noise. Check for damage to your cables from the bass & to the amp.

[xgsjx]

& what the hell are you doing up at 5:30!?!?

[BH12neil]

I can't sleep, too wired from a hectic Saturday night, getting tired now though. Anyway my signal chain is:-


[color=#800000]"ACTIVE" BASS (STINGRAY)[/color] > CARL MARTIN CLASSIC OPTO COMPRESSOR (DAISY CHAIN) > MXR BASS OCTAVE DELUXE (DAISY CHAIN) >

BLACK DRAGON DISTORTION (DAISY CHAIN) > MXR BASS AUTO Q (GATOR BLOCK) > GHOST FACE FUZZ (9Volt BATTERY) >

ELECTRO HARMONIX BASS BIG MUFF PI (DAISEY CHAIN) > ARIA FLANGER (GATOR BLOCK) > ANALOGMAN MINI CHORUS (GATOR BLOCK) >

[color=#008000]LOOP BOX IN (GATOR BLOCK) > ZOOM B2.1u (WALL ADAPTER) > LOOP BOX OUT[/color] >

EARTHQUAKER DEVICES GRAND ORBITER PHASER (GATOR BLOCK) > AKAI HEADRUSH (WALL ADAPTER) >

EL NANO MOLE BASS BOOSTER (GATOR BLOCK) > [color=#800000]GALLIEN KRUEGER 1001 RBII AMP[/color]


So there it is then, what do you think?

[lxxwj]

Before you do anything, change all of your cables, one by one, with a cable that you KNOW doesn't hum. Test the sound each time. If the hum goes away when you use the 'control' cable, that's the one that's causing the problem.

If it's not the cables, it's definitely the daisy chain thing you have going on. How does that work exactly?

[xgsjx]

Like lxxwj says, try the elimination process. Try it in 1/2's to start with. Maybe taking the lead from the Analogman Mini Chorus straight to your amp & see if there's any hum. If there's none continue down the chain adding one at a time (as the looper with the zoom is next, you could add that as one).
If you do get a hum, try taking it back just to the Ghost Face.

Or you could start with plugging your bass straight into the looper [color=#800000]"ACTIVE" BASS (STINGRAY)[/color] >

[color=#008000]LOOP BOX IN (GATOR BLOCK) > ZOOM B2.1u (WALL ADAPTER) > LOOP BOX OUT[/color] >

EARTHQUAKER DEVICES GRAND ORBITER PHASER (GATOR BLOCK) > AKAI HEADRUSH (WALL ADAPTER) >

EL NANO MOLE BASS BOOSTER (GATOR BLOCK) > [color=#800000]GALLIEN KRUEGER 1001 RBII AMP[/color]

[color=#000000]& then work your way backwards.[/color]

[color=#000000]As for the flanger issue, I re read your post & I'm not sure what you mean.[/color]

[lxxwj]

For the flanger, you just need a box with two 'ins' and one 'out', or a merger. Just hook the Akai to one input and the flanger's stereo out to the other, and then hook up the regular input of the amp to the output of the merger. Simple.

[BH12neil]

Thanks, I will use that advice and do some more investigation.

Cheers,