MXR M-80 OVERLOAD!

[elsharko]

I recently acquired an MXR M-80 and loved it, especially the 'color' setting with gave me a nice rock tone that I wanted. But with my active bass it just distorts at any setting and its really frustrating. I dont want to turn down my bass volume and the distortion is worse with the 'color' setting but I want to use it. I dont use the actual distortion on the pedal at all.

Has anyone got any suggestions or had any experience with this?

[Dood]

Hmmm! Odd! I use a high output bass but havent experienced this. Two things to check. If you are running off battery is it fresh? Or if you are using a power supply is it the correct voltage and current supply? Not enough juice from either can definitely cause undue distortion. Next, does your instrument have a gain control on it's active circuit? For example, the Spector Tone Ump circuits have a preset you can adjust to drop the instrument output a notch.

If i think of anything else, i'll reply. What bass/ electronics/ pickups are you using?

[phil.i.stein]

also .. are you using high input gain on your amp, or other gain pedals in your chain ..? or sticking the mxr into an amp's fx loop ? either may be to blame ..

(but the more likely explanation is dood's reply)

[elsharko]

Its actually as Yamaha Stagepas 500 PA I was using as an amp. Ive done this quite alot in the past and I really quite like it normally. I was running it on phantom power with an XLR from the MXR and I tried it with a jack and 9v battery too with the same distortion. I tried running straight into the desk and it was really clear but lacked the piff I enjoyed from the MXR.
Ive Literally just got the Spector, Im not sure how to adjust the output on the tonepump? That could help possibly.
Its a Euro 5lx with EMGs

[elsharko]

I also tried playing through my Berhinger Ultra-DI and it distorted its balls off again but I turned on the -20db pad and it was fine.

[Bigwan]

[size=3][font=arial, helvetica, sans-serif]Hey Sharkey. Have a nosey in the control cavity. I'm not overly familiar with the tonepump pre but unless you can fiddle with frequency centres (which I highly doubt) there should only be one place you can make adjustments and it'll just act like an extra, internal volume control. A bit of terminal screwdriver action and Bob's yer brother in law's sister...[/font][/size]

[size=3][font=arial, helvetica, sans-serif]EDIT: And I quote "There is an Output Trim Pot on the unit to adjust overall bass output as needed". From spector website.[/font][/size]

Edited July 4, 2012 by Bigwan

[elsharko]

Cheers Ian, Turns out this is the non-adjustable version :-( So its all still a bit buzzy. May have to consider changing the pre? Any suggestions there? 18v would be handy for the extra headroom.

[dincz]

Replacing the preamp seems a bit drastic to me. Five minutes work for a tech to wire in a resistive pad.

[elsharko]

Yea thats true, although Ive read alot of people have taken issue with the TonePunp and have replaced it with much rejoicing. Hmmm...

[Bigwan]

Resistive pad is definitely worth a try. Wouldn't go ripping out the preamp myself.

[Mog]

Never had mine distort on the clean channel. As said it sounds like the preamp on the bass is hot. Easily sorted.
[url="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b9x1TNtUKI0"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b9x1TNtUKI0[/url]

[elsharko]

I took it to my local music shop and played it through one of their amps straight in and it was fine but with the MXR it was still distorting at all volumes. I tried a few other active basses through the MXR in the shop and they wernt distorting and were significantly quieter in volume. Its got to be overloading the input. I havent seen your video yet, will have a look in a bit, cheers.