Haven’t been in this thread for a long time, as I didn’t really have anything to add once I stopped with the lessons. But now I need to pick y’all’s brains. I have a Fender Strat that I’m plugging into a small Roland practice amp that someone on this board was generous enough to send to me some years ago.
I just started back up fooling around with my instrument and I’m getting a lot of static racket from the amp. Not low-volume crackle, but loud pops and sputters like there is a loose connection or something. The jacks seem to be making good contact, but I have a new Fender cable arriving today just in case there’s a problem with that (it’s probably five years old or more).
Anything else I should check for? There is a LOT of ambient static in the apartment because of the forced air heating, and the air is really dry in here. Could that cause a problem? I really hesitate to try to dig into the amp’s innards, and it’s probably not worth the cost of taking it to a shop when I can buy a new one for a couple hundred.
Does the static noise happen when you remain perfectly still with your hand muting the strings? Noise caused by a bad cable (which can sound exactly like this) probably doesn’t happen without motion.
Does it happen with the guitar volume turned down?
It doesn’t happen with nothing plugged into the amp. It seems less when the volume is turned down, but perhaps it’s just because it’s at lower volume. Yeah, the noise happens with the strings muted . . .I think. . .might have to check that again. Maybe the amp’s pots are toast?
Okay, the new cord arrived and it appears to have solved the problem. The old cord was probably some generic gear that I picked up at Guitar World or something. This Fender cord seems sturdier. Anyway, I’m glad it was an easy fix and I thank you for your effort to assist.
I was waiting to see it was a static electricity issue with your pickguard, but see it was the cable. During the winter when the air is super dry, I have the static electricity issue. Playing with a pick, I often prop my picking hand with my pinky. If it is on the pickguard, I can get static noises through the amp. I get this on both my tele and my Fender bass. Rubbing the pickguard with a dryer sheet is the solution.
Bad cable is very often the problem. Though it can be dirty connectors on either the guitar or the amp.
I keep an aerosol of switch contact cleaner in my toolbox: first step is to spray both ends of the cable and the connectors on guitar & amp. Then work the cable in & out of the connectors a few times to make sure it is reaching all the conducting surfaces. Doesn’t always fix the problem, but sometimes helps.
By the way, to revive an old topic (MIDI guitar) has anyone tried the newish Jam Origin Midi Guitar 3 software? Basically takes a guitar signal and creates MIDI from it.
I have downloaded the demo version, and done a few tests.
Preliminary results seem to show that the latency isn’t really any better than the previous version 2. And neither measure really better in that respect than other similar things like Migic, though at least the Jam Origin products make a stab at polyphonic analysis.
But I haven’t really tried it on a real project song yet…?
So this is more of a Dub inspired song than a traditional Dub. It has some Dub elements, but if you are a traditionalist that thinks Dub has to follow the rules, please avert your ears!
@scabpicker Thanks. You would be surprised how anal some people are about what is Dub and what isn’t. One guy was even saying you have to have the B3 organ settings exactly right for the bubble and so many get it wrong according to him.
Hehe, I probably would, but I shouldn’t be. People are weird. Glad they weren’t standing over Sly & Robbie’s shoulder telling them what they could and could not do. Of course Sly & Robbie wouldn’t have listened to such fools.
I went to the guitar show today. I resisted buying the $30,000 stereo because I would have been straight up murdered for it, no matter how cool it was.
I also resisted getting the Gibson 6/4 double neck, and the Ibanez Iceman bass.
I could not resist the Maxon SD-5 Double Sound fuzz/wah. Both effects are pretty damn good. The fuzz is a very Shin-ei style fuzz. It looks new, came with the box, bag, manual. It looks like no one has stepped on it much in its 50 years or so of life. Heck, it’s not even dusty. I’ll have to step on it a lot to make it up to it.
Well, after a small purge, moving a couple of less-played guitars on to new homes, I did a thing today.
I’ve been quietly jonesing for a Jazzmaster for a while, and when Fender released the ‘66 AVII in Sherwood Green this past spring, things went on the boil. When I realized that one of my favorite guitar stores had a PDX location, would give me 10% off, free shipping, and no sales tax because Oregon, well, the deal was done.
Early impressions are that it’s exactly what I was hoping for, minus the ridiculously light stock strings. Gabriel Tenorio, down the road in LA, makes great strings which I already had on hand for this eventuality.
The bad news is that I leave town Sunday for a full week of work travel. Gotta get my break-in miles done tomorrow.
