bassgtr problem hopefully to be fixed overnight...

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tony dB

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Joined
Jun 4, 2004
Messages
1,304
Location
Belgium
I ran into this problem where the bassgtr plugged into my BSS DI puts out a very high pitched sinewave type of sound, somewhere in the 3-5 khz or even higher. It is not that loud but well audible, especially on sustaining notes and during mutes.

As i just use the DI to reamp at later stage and to avoid any bassampbleed into the drums i will definitely get rid of the problem, in a worse case scenario i could even roll off most of the high freqs too, but the direct DI signal becomes almost useless for upper range clarity

Just wanted to know if any of you experienced a similar bad basgtr? And if you could cure it of course :sad:
It is a Ibanez (musicmanmoreorlesslookalike) with on the headstock something with two triangular symbols what seems to be the modelname... will have to check with the bassplayer tomorrow.
Couldn't find the model on the ibanez webpages neither. The rearpickup is build in a very large metalplate if this means anything to you.

Any help would be, as always, appreciated mucho!

Tony
 
Is it an active bass? It might be the ATX? model or some name like that if it is an older model. one pickup with 3 coils?

first I would look at the solder jionts of the PCB and controls if it is an active bass

What is the input R of the DI ?

What is the output R of the bass if active.

Does the DI have problems with other active basses or passive basses?

Maybe the sound is due to the output R of the bass being to low for the input or the bass signal is to much for the DI
 
I recently had a band in my studio and the bass player had a passive pick-up Ibanez. Terribly grounded I think. I just hooked a ground/bonding strap to his wrist and it cancelled out MOST of the buzz. Anti static straps work really well and if the bass player really cares about his end sound he'll not mind the leash. Bad Dog, Bad Dog. The rest of the band commented on it being time he dragged this beast behind a truck and bought something newer and quieter. Active pick-ups are usually quiet in comparasin. Even entry level bass guitars. Bad batteries in active pickups can act really strange. Check and see if any mods or homebrew were done. Reversed polarity? damn it i hit the stickey keys everything is getting fuzzy. try the groung lift from another DI box. Hope any of this will be some help. Gotta go and un stickey my keyboard. XP!!!!
 
If it is an active bass I would check all the wire that go off the board and the cable you are useing. I had an active ibanez bass for awhile and either the capatence or resistance of some cable turned it into an oscilator. And evertime you changed the battery you would end up pulling on the various wires that go off the board causeing them to eventualy break. It was a really poor setup on those electronics.

adam
 
thanks for all your replies...

So far no solution :sad:

The BSS is a fine proDI that has served may basses in the last year.
I know all about bad grounding too etc. Even tried connecting the ground of the bas to the players wrist with a bare copper wire.

It is the bass with the 3 coil pickup, btw.

the band just comes into the studio and i'm about to check with the bassplayer about it's active or not... didn't look like this.

Will check what happens whan we change batteries in case it's an active one. In the itroductional conversation i told all the musicians to plug new batteries into all their gear what runs on batteries, one of the guitarplayers told me ALL their stuff was checked at last rehearsal and every single batterie was replaced... you never know of course as they also check the drumheads and they wore dead as in not so useful for studio .

get back later, thanks again! :grin: :guinness: :guinness:

tony dB
 
just found a wire inside the active circuit touching somewhere where it shouldn't... :twisted:
also we're about to check out another alkaline 9V. :roll:

Think we're close to definitive solution now... :razz:

The bass is a (not expensive, but looks like it is) ATK btw, sounded and performed very good overall, not taking the high pitched tone into consideration.
 
it's not the pc nor screen...
The active electronics are mounted VERY well, in fact it's strange to see a bass of this price (he only payed 455 ?!) in such a professional finish.

I know what i talk about having sold instruments for a living for 8 years.

.....

Just discovered that one of the 2 IC isn't pushed in well, could be due to tranport and heavy stageperformance, this in combination with the new batterie seems to solve the problem.

Thanks for pointing me in the right directions... I usually do these checks myself, but as i didn't sleep good/enough in the last 10 days, you know i guess?...

Studios are a bitch sometimes :evil:

Glad to have solved it and made our bassist a happier person :grin:
 
Glad to see things are working out. Here is another battery problem that has cropped up for me. When I was 16 the band I was in had a few gigs in a row and I had left all of my effect peddles connected for a couple of days. Man I sounded like crap trying to play heavy leads through a Super Reverb with no distortion echo or even a chorus. Note to self, always have new batteries. A plugged in guitar or bass will be depleting the battery life. Disconnect all jacks into all active instruments and effects during breaks and overnight.
 
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