A Cautionary Tale

[Basil Henriques]

55 year playing and tonight I got caught out "Big Time".

Just before the soundcheck one of our road crew told me he had to plug in the power supply to my effects unit as it had come unplugged when they set it up. I promptly checked it to find that the 15volt AC supply for my ProFex II had been plugged into my Axon II Midi guitar controller that worked on 12vAC. I switched off the Axon, unplugged the supply from the mains (You should ALWAYS unplug power supplies from the mains first as a no load situation can easily blow them) and reconnected correctly.
Apparently no harm done. I checked my midi on my Tele, checked the guitar sound and checked my steel guitar.
At this point I should mention that midi, electric guitar and pedal steel are all going through a STEREO Morley pedal.
I'm sure you'll appreciate that when you check sound individually it's just with the pedal barely on. anyway I'm waffling.:
At the start of the show I immediately noticed a lack of volume from all three inputs with a leaning towards the Electric guitar being the loudest, the Midi second and the steel very much quieter, with my volume pedal full on. I initially suspected batteries in either the pedal, splitter-box, graphic pedal or guitar LoZ matching unit. Bright led's all 'round ruled this possibility out.

As I am the only band on stage it was not possible to stop playing and check everything, so over the next few tunes I surreptitiously altered the ins and outs trying every possible combination to try and isolate the fault.. 40 minutes of hell later I had about 1 1/2 minutes to check the amp whilst Bob made an announcement, I turned most knobs and returned them to original positions just in case, and maybe dislodge dust on the track or similar foreign bodies.

Upon "Twiddling" the input knob on my Profex I discovered that it had previously fallen off and been put on incorrectly, In fact what was my NORMAL position of 3 O'Clock was now in effect 9 O'Clock so instead having the volume on the input at three quarters it was only a quarter on..totally making the eq, compression and reverb etc. FUBAR.

It wasn't the roadies fault, it was the lighting engineer who spotted it on the ground and refitted it.
No excuses, I should have checked more thoroughly. Had I played a few licks and looked at the green LED on the input of the Profex I would have seen that it WASN'T being driven sufficiently. One can't turn all controls off and then reset them before every performance, that would be unnecessarily complicated, BUT one could be more diligent, AND I WILL.

[JohnDavisStringsHere]

knob on my Profex I discovered that it had previously fallen off and been put on incorrectly, In fact what was my NORMAL position of 3 O'Clock was now in effect 9 O'Clock so instead having the volume on the input at three quarters it was only a quarter on..

Thank you for this valuable input Baz, in future we should all check before the gig to make sure our knobs have not fallen off!!

[IanPearce]

Basil !
You mention midi on your Tele. I'd be very interested to know what your midi setup is. Over the years I've tried a few guitar midi systems and have yet to find one that works. Problems with tracking and latency made them unusable at the time I tried them. I do like the Roland VG-88 but that bypasses the need for midi.
I'm curious,
Ian

[STEDDIE EDDIE]

that sounds a very complicated set up Basil, something which, from time to time im also guilty of, it is very difficult when doubling on instruments like PSG and LEAD GUITAR, not to complicate things, i can just imagine the sweat rolling off you, as your deadline fast approached, trying to find the fault, its happened me loads of times, at present, i run both instruments off a peavey nashville 112, into two sessionmaster pre amps, which boost the signal significanty, as well as giving me independant control of tone and volume, i use a TC ELECTRONICS processor into the amps fx loop, for reverbs and delays, which is footswitchable for pre sets, as i like different settings for each instrument, but it makes life difficult, as i switch back and forth, between instruments several times on certain songs, so as well as switching instruments, i find myself dancing on my TC footswitch, there has to be an easier way, i am considering using a pedal board, with two distinct signal paths, ie graphic eq pedal, reverb pedal and mxr pre amp pedal into my volume pedal for PSG, and for lead guitar, i would need an array of pedals, graphic eq, overdrive pedal, reverb, delay, and mxr pre amp pedal, plus a chromatic tuner on the board, or maybe a BOSS GT10 for lead guitar, between the amp and guitar, but i dont want it to get messy with cables everywhere, cos thats when the problems start, its a difficult one, and all them individual pedals work out expensive, in the next life, im coming back as a harmonica player, in the key of C only,

[Basil Henriques]

STEDDIE EDDIE Can you just imagine it, you on harmonica (In "C" only) and me on the "D" Tin whistle and maybe a chromatic box player in C#..?
Complicated? me ? Nah? Fat, senile, vitriolic and bombastic, YES..that I am, can't change, won't change. (Excluding my strings which I do, most diligently every fortnight or so)

As for effects, see THIS post.