Signal loss

Coma

Well-known member
Just had an odd experience hooking up my newly wired up pedal board. Everything in front of amp plays nicely, but when I kick in the FX loop, my signal loses high end. After a while, activating the loop killed the signal altogether. Took everything apart, and as it turns out, no less than three pedals had loose jacks. Sorted that out, went through everything, made sure there were no cable braks, put it all back together aaaaand... signal comes through fine but still loses high end when FX loop is active. It's not a terrible issue per se, tone doesn't get horribly muffled or anything but still, there is a noticable difference.

I think maybe my NS2 (x-pattern) is to blame, but then again, I don't recall ever having these issues before (although I almost always keep the FX loop on and then just activate whatever pedal I need when i need it, so it is possible it's been there and I simply wasn't paying attention). And there are two buffered pedals in the loop.

Signal chain is as follows:

Wireless >> Wah >> Korg tuner >> Boss Noisegate >> Boss Flanger >> EHX OD >> Patchbay >> Amp in >> FX loop send >> Patchbay >> Boss Noisegate >> TC Delay >> Boss Reverb >> Patchbay >> FX loop return
 
Re: Signal loss

What happens if you wire it up:
-With just a small jumper in the FX loop?
-With all pedals but without the noise gate?
 
Re: Signal loss

What happens if you wire it up:
-With just a small jumper in the FX loop?
-With all pedals but without the noise gate?

Didn't try with just a jumper. Can report back once I've had a chance to - amp is in our rehersal studio, not at home.
I did try running it without the gate. I think the effect was there - think because honestly, the change wasn't always immediately noticable - but less pronounced.
 
Re: Signal loss

Also, are you sure you don’t have an intermittent patch cable? I had a similar issue recently, it was one of the solderless ones.
 
Re: Signal loss

Not impossible, ofc. Most of those cables are brand new, but there's always the chance that one is a bit of a dud. They're all premade, flathead cables though (Harley Benton, EBS, Rockboard), I don' really trust solderless stuff.
 
Re: Signal loss

But wouldn't a bad cable kill the signal altogether? Or result in signal drops and crackling? That's been my experience with every dying cable I've ever owned. Just rolling off top frequencies seems odd to me.
 
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